IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 25

The word being tested: grave, across its senses.

grave (noun) — a burial place.

grave (adjective) — serious, weighty.

Checking each option:

(a) “flowers placed on their mother’s grave” ✔ — the noun, a burial place.

(b) “a grave matter” ✔ — the adjective, meaning serious.

(d) “made grave allegations” ✔ — the adjective again.

(c) “went to grave for him” ✘ — this is neither sense. The intended meaning is clearly mourned, and the word required is grieve: “the pet dog… grieved for him.”

Note also that even read as the noun, “went to grave” is ungrammatical — it would need an article, went to the grave, and that would mean died, which contradicts the dog refusing to eat for several days afterwards.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. Two faults in the same phrase, either of which settles it: the missing article (“went to grave”) and the wrong word (grieve, not grave).

The sentence also contradicts itself on the noun reading — go to the grave means to die, yet the dog goes on refusing food. An internal contradiction is as good a signal as a wrong definition.

The pair to store: grave (serious / burial place) vs grieve (to mourn). One letter apart, and this is the second question in this paper built that way — see also Q84’s tide/tied.