IPMAT Indore 2022 · Verbal Ability · Question 36

IPMAT Indore 2022 previous year question on RC Vocabulary in Context Questions, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

RC Vocabulary in Context QuestionsReading Comprehension - Question TypesMultiple choiceMedium

RC passage 1: Passage 1 – Why some fruits keep ripening after picking — this question belongs to a set. Read the full set with all 6 questions →

Read the following passage and choose the answer that is closest to each of the questions that are based on the passage.

Bananas, apples, and avocados continue to ripen after they are picked. Cherries, blackberries, and grapes do not. The difference between climacteric fruits (the former) and non-climacteric fruits (the latter) matters to fruit growers and greengrocers, who must make sure their wares are in tip-top condition when they arrive at the marketplace. But how those differences originally came about remains unclear.

Two biologists of the University of Tokyo offer a suggestion. Fruits, they observe, exist to solve a problem faced by all plants-how best to spread their progeny around. Wrapping their seeds in a sugary pulp to provide a tasty meal serves as a way to get animals to do this for them. They do, however, need to make sure that their fruits favour the animals most likely to do the distributing. The biologists propose that climacterism, or its absence, is a way to achieve this. If ground-dwelling animals are the main distributors, then the continuing ripening of fallen fruit (i.e., climacterism) is beneficial. If, by contrast, those distributors are arboreal or aerial, and so can feed on unfallen fruit, then non-climacteric fruits will do well.

To test their idea, the two researchers studied 80 varieties of fruits, and noted which animals each depended on for its propagation. 35 of these fruits, eaten by both ground-dwelling animals and arboreal or aerial animals, were non-climacteric. Further, 15 of the 19 varieties eaten principally by ground-dwellers were climacteric, while 21 of the 26 fed on by arboreal or aerial animals were non-climacteric.

That is a suggestively strong correlation. And the authors’ hypothesis is fortified by other evidence. They point out that non-climacteric fruits tend to have vivid colours, especially reds and purples. This may help them to stand out amid the foliage of their parent plants, advertising their presence. Climacteric fruits are generally better camouflaged. That makes them harder to spot until they have fallen to the ground.

The main limitation of their work is that they looked at fruits eaten by people. This has probably contaminated the sample, for thousands of years of selective breeding for traits that human beings find appealing may have blurred any signal optimised by natural selection. The next step, therefore, should be the analysis of wild fruits.

Which one of the following options means “arboreal” and “camouflage”?

A
tree-dwelling and disguised
B
ground-dwelling and hidden
C
protected and fortified
D
covered and variegated

Pick an option, then check.

Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

Both words can be worked out from the passage itself, without a dictionary.

“Arboreal”. Paragraph 2 contrasts two kinds of distributor:

“If ground-dwelling animals are the main distributors… If, by contrast, those distributors are arboreal or aerial, and so can feed on unfallen fruit…”

The contrast with ground-dwelling, plus the ability to reach fruit still on the plant, gives tree-dwelling. (The Latin root arbor = tree.)

“Camouflage”. Paragraph 4:

“non-climacteric fruits tend to have vivid colours… This may help them to stand out amid the foliage… Climacteric fruits are generally better camouflaged. That makes them harder to spot.”

Camouflaged is the opposite of standing out — i.e. disguised.

Why the others fail:

(b) “Ground-dwelling” is precisely what arboreal contrasts with — a reversal.

(c) “Protected and fortified” imports a defensive idea the passage never raises; camouflage here is about visibility, not protection.

(d) “Covered” is close but weaker than disguised, and variegated means multi-coloured — the opposite of blending in.

Answer: Option 1

Shortcut. Vocabulary-in-context questions are answered from the contrast, not from memory. The passage sets arboreal directly against ground-dwelling, so option (b) — which offers “ground-dwelling” as the meaning — is a guaranteed reversal and can go first.

Then camouflaged is explained in the very next sentence: “harder to spot”. Match that to disguised.

Note that (d) contains a self-contradiction: variegated means showing several colours, which is what the passage attributes to the non-camouflaged fruits. An option whose two halves pull in opposite directions is rarely correct.

IPMAT Indore 2022 · Verbal Ability · Question 36

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