IPMAT Indore 2024 · Verbal Ability · Question 44

Step 1 — find the opener. Sentence 4 is the only one that establishes the setting: “In space with less gravitational force than on Earth…”. Every other sentence presupposes that we already know we are in space:

1 says “In this microgravity environment” — this needs an antecedent.

3 says “The heart interprets this” — another backward reference.

2 says “Both effects” — requires two effects already named.

So 4 must be first, and it introduces effect one: the spine lengthens.

Step 2 — the second effect begins. Sentence 1 picks up with “In this microgravity environment, your blood also tends to move towards the heart and head.” Both this and also confirm it follows 4.

Step 3 — the consequence of the blood shift. Sentence 3 explains what the heart makes of it: it “interprets this” — the blood movement from sentence 1 — “and… so it shrinks.” This gives effect two.

Step 4 — the closer. Sentence 2 refers to “Both effects” — the lengthened spine (4) and the shrunken heart (3) — and resolves them: both are temporary. A sentence that resolves everything named before it can only be last.

The sequence:

\$4\to 1\to 3\to 2$

Answer: 4132

Shortcut. Count the pronouns — three sentences are disqualified from opening. this (1), this (3) and Both (2) all point backwards, leaving 4 as the only possible first sentence. That is half the question answered by scanning first words.

Then “Both effects” fixes the closer. It can only appear once two effects exist, and the second effect (the shrinking heart) arrives in 3. So 2 is last.

With first and last pinned, only 1 and 3 remain, and 3’s “interprets this” refers to the blood movement in 1, so $1 $.

Generalise: in a four-sentence jumble, identifying which sentences cannot be first is usually faster than deciding which one is.