IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 26

IPMAT Indore 2023 previous year question on Word Usage in Context, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Word Usage in ContextVocabularyMultiple choiceMedium

One of the statements below contains a word used incorrectly or inappropriately. Choose the option which has the incorrect or inappropriate usage of the word.

A
To catch the terrorist the security forces formed a ring around the house where he was hiding.
B
She had left home for the first time, so her parents made her promise that she would ring them up every day.
C
They were all soaking wet and their mother told them to ring their clothes first and then put them out to dry.
D
The witch waved her wand, recited a magical verse, pressed the blue stone on her ring and vanished into thin air.

Pick an option, then check.

Answer & solution

Answer: Option C

The word pair being tested: ring vs wring.

ring — a circular band or shape; to telephone; to make a bell sound.

wring — to twist something forcibly, especially to squeeze liquid out of wet cloth.

Checking each option:

(a) “formed a ring around the house” ✔ — a circular formation.

(b) “ring them up every day” ✔ — to telephone.

(d) “the blue stone on her ring” ✔ — jewellery.

(c) “told them to ring their clothes first and then put them out to dry” ✘ — squeezing water out of wet clothes is wringing them. The silent w is what the question is testing.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. “Soaking wet… and then put them out to dry” frames the action unmistakably: water is being squeezed out, which is wring.

Three of the four options use a different, perfectly ordinary sense of ring — circle, telephone, jewellery. When a word has several common senses, the wrong option is usually the one needing a homophone rather than another sense.

The silent-letter homophones worth revising together: wring/ring, wrack/rack, wrest/rest, write/right/rite, whole/hole.

IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 26

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