IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 19

Blank 1 — count the locations. The sentence lists “alleyways… cafes, warehouses and barbershops” — four kinds of place, deliberately ordinary and varied. A list like that exists to establish that the portraits are everywhere:

\text{ubiquitous}

rare (a) ✘ — contradicts the list outright.

fashionable (b) ✘ — says nothing about distribution, and “fading walls” suggests the opposite of fashionable.

substantial (c) ✘ — means large or considerable; wrong dimension entirely.

Blank 2 — read the purpose clause. “held up as symbols of a glorious past.” The figures are being preserved in memory and honoured:

\text{immortalised}

abundant (a) ✘ — describes quantity, but the slot needs a participle meaning what was done to the figures (“are all ___ on fading walls”).

confounded (b) ✘ — means confused or defeated; nonsensical here.

dispersed (c) ✘ — scattered, which is about location again and clashes with “held up as symbols”.

Answer: Option 4

Shortcut. A long list of ordinary places is always setting up “everywhere”. Alleyways, cafes, warehouses, barbershops — the variety is the point, so blank 1 wants ubiquitous.

Blank 2 then confirms rather than decides, because only one option survives. But note the structural check: the slot follows “are all ___“, so it needs a past participle, not an adjective of quantity. That alone removes abundant in (a).

Build the vocabulary pair: ubiquitous (found everywhere) and immortalised (preserved in lasting memory) are both high-frequency entrance-exam words. Learn them with the image from this question and they stay.