IPMAT Indore 2024 · Verbal Ability · Question 18

The phrasal verb. To bring about means to cause something to happen.

Why it fits. The regulations are the cause and the positive changes are the effect. Bring about is the neutral, standard verb for causing change.

Why the others fail:

(a) brought up — to raise a topic for discussion, or to rear a child. Regulations do not raise changes as a subject of conversation.

(b) brought on — also means to cause, but it collocates almost exclusively with unwelcome things: brought on a headache, a crisis, an attack. Pairing it with “positive changes” is jarring.

(c) brought along — to bring someone or something with you to a place. Purely physical.

Answer: Option 4

Shortcut. The discriminator is connotation, not meaning. Both bring about and bring on mean “cause”, so you cannot separate them by definition alone.

Rule: bring on takes negative objects (illness, disaster, trouble); bring about is neutral and takes change, reform, improvement. The adjective “positive” in the sentence is the deciding word.

This is worth generalising: when two options share a dictionary meaning, the answer turns on which one the surrounding adjective permits.