IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 21

Blank 1 — read the preposition and the polarity. “will not ___ on investing in people”. The phrase must take on and must be something a company promises not to do with its investment in people.

compromise on ✔ — the standard business collocation: we will not compromise on quality/safety/people.

debate on (a) — grammatical, but “will not debate on investing in people” says the company refuses to discuss it, which is not reassuring and clashes with the rest.

delay (b) — takes no on; you delay something, not delay on something.

prioritise (d) ✘ — fatal. “will not prioritise on investing in people” says the opposite of the intended message, and prioritise takes no preposition.

Blank 2 — what has the company done with spending? The sentence is positive about employee needs, so spending has been put first:

\text{prioritised}

Assured spending (a, b) is not idiomatic — you assure a person, or assure someone of something.

Blank 3 — the purpose. The clause ends “and provide them with a sense of stability and certainty.” Giving back confidence is:

\text{reassure}

confront (a) ✘ — hostile, and contradicts providing comfort.

empower (b) — positive, but about granting power, not about restoring calm. The pairing with “stability and certainty” calls for reassure.

include (d) ✘ — unrelated.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. Option (d) can be dismissed on logic alone: “will not prioritise… investing in people” reverses the entire message of a sentence about caring for employees. Watch the negation — the blank sits inside a not, so the word must be something the company declines to do.

Then blank 3 settles the rest: the clause spells out its own goal — “a sense of stability and certainty” — and reassure is the verb for producing exactly that. Confront is its opposite, empower is a different idea.

Two collocations worth storing: compromise on something, and reassure someone (not assure them, unless you are assuring them of a fact).