IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 31

Step 1 — find the opener. Sentence 4 introduces both the researchers and the finding, with no backward reference:

“A group of researchers were surprised to find that clouds had carried drug resistant bacteria over a long distance.”

Sentences 1 and 3 both begin with or contain “they”/“them” with no antecedent of their own, and 2 refers to “the team” and “the bacteria” — both requiring prior introduction.

Step 2 — the explanation begins. Sentence 2 has “An expert from the team” (the researchers of 4) explaining where the bacteria normally live: on leaves. This sets the starting point of the journey.

Step 3 — the mechanism. Sentence 3: “The wind carries them off the surface and into the atmosphere.” The surface refers directly to “the surface of vegetation” in sentence 2 — a mandatory pair, 2\to 3.

Step 4 — the destination. Sentence 1: “Once they reach a high altitude, they manage to travel all over the world.” High altitude follows being lifted into the atmosphere, completing the chain and returning to the “long distance” of sentence 4.

The sequence:

4\to 2\to 3\to 1

Answer: 4231

Shortcut. The paragraph is a physical journey, so order it by the stages: leaves (2) → lifted by wind into the atmosphere (3) → high altitude, travelling worldwide (1). Sentence 4 states the finding that the journey explains.

The decisive link is the repeated noun. Sentence 2 ends on “the surface of vegetation” and sentence 3 begins “The wind carries them off the surface” — a verbatim echo that locks 2\to 3.

Look for repeated nouns before you look for pronouns. They are less ambiguous and bind two sentences just as tightly.