IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 5

The idiom. Small fry means people of little importance or influence — the minor figures, as opposed to the powerful.

Why it fits. The sentence is built on a contrast with “big shots”, so the blank needs the established opposite. Small fry is that opposite, and like fry in its original sense (young fish), it is used collectively, which matches the plural verb “are”.

Why the others fail:

(b) tiny shots — a made-up mirror of “big shots”. The genuine opposite is not formed this way.

(c) small fish — close, and a small fish in a big pond is a real expression, but as a standalone noun phrase meaning “unimportant people” the idiom is small fry.

(d) tiny fish — not an idiom at all.

Answer: Option 1

Shortcut. The sentence hands you the structure: big shots ↔ ______. Idioms come in established pairs, and the counterpart of big shot is small fry.

Beware options built by direct antonym substitution — tiny shots is exactly what you would invent if you did not know the real phrase, which is why it is there. English idioms are rarely symmetrical: the opposite of big shot is not small shot, just as the opposite of break a leg is not mend a leg.