IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 15

Step 1 — the sentence after the blank is the constraint.

“Villas, hence, provided an ideal substitute.”

Two words do the work. Hence means the blank is the cause. Substitute means the blank must name something the Nawabs wanted but could not have — a substitute replaces a thing desired.

Step 2 — test option (b).

“The Nawabs of Lucknow fancied building palaces that resembled British ancestral homes”

Now the logic runs: they wanted British-style ancestral homes → villas were the ideal substitute for those. It also explains the paragraph’s last line, where the prototype for Dilkusha Kothi is “a country house in Northumberland” — an actual British ancestral home.

Step 3 — eliminate.

(a) “Easier to construct” would make villas a practical choice, not a substitute for something desired — and ease of construction is never mentioned.

(c) Attraction to “foreignness” is close to the paragraph’s theme of “alignment to the new power bloc”, but it gives nothing for the villa to substitute for. The hence would have nothing to attach to.

(d) Describes what the villa became, which is a consequence. Placing it before “Villas, hence, provided an ideal substitute” puts the result before its cause and makes the next sentence redundant.

Answer: Option 2

Shortcut. One word — substitute — decides this. A substitute implies an unmet want, so the blank must state what the Nawabs wanted and could not get. Only option (b) names such a thing.

Then confirm with the last line of the paragraph: the prototype was a country house in Northumberland, which is a British ancestral home. The paragraph closes the loop the blank opens.

Watch for option (d)’s error — the premature consequence. It states what the villa became, but the very next sentence is still explaining why villas were adopted. An option that jumps ahead of the paragraph’s own argument is wrong even when every word of it is true.