IPMAT Indore 2024 · Verbal Ability · Question 32

Blank 1 — what do conspiracy theorists allege? The adjective “intentional” immediately precedes the blank, and the actors are “our enemies”. The noun must mean secret scheming.

plotting ✔ — planning in secret to do harm. Direct and idiomatic after intentional.

machinations (a) also means scheming, so this blank does not separate (a) and (c).

errors (b) ✘ — an error is unintentional by definition, which contradicts “intentional”.

inaction (d) ✘ — failing to act cannot be the “outcome” producing climate change in this framing, and “intentional inaction” sits oddly as something enemies do to turn the planet into an oven.

Blank 2 — what kind of events must be controllable? The sentence’s logic: if nothing is coincidence, then even ______ events are controlled. The word must name the events a conspiracy theory would most want to explain — large, destructive ones.

catastrophic ✔ — matches the opening image of a planet turned into an oven, and makes the claim meaningful: even disasters are engineered.

outstanding (a) means excellent or unresolved — neither sense works.

indescribable (b) is vague and adds nothing.

advantageous (d) reverses the sense; a conspiracy theory does not need to explain away beneficial events.

Blank 3 — what else is needed besides power? To engineer catastrophes you need power and the capability to use it.

prowess ✔ — skill and expertise. “A matter of power and prowess” is also alliterative, which is clearly the setter’s intent.

determination, information, performance are each plausible in isolation but belong to options already eliminated.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. Blank 1 is a one-word contradiction test. Intentional errors and intentional inaction both clash with the sentence’s claim that enemies deliberately caused this. (b) and (d) go immediately.

Blank 2 then settles (a) against (c): outstanding events is not a meaningful category, while catastrophic events is exactly what a conspiracy theory exists to explain.

Two patterns worth carrying forward:

The word next to the blank constrains it most. Here “intentional” does all the work on blank 1.

Setters like sound. When two options survive, the one that alliterates or has rhythm (“power and prowess”) is often the intended one.