IPMAT Indore 2025 · Verbal Ability · RC passage 1: Passage

Line in the passage

Para 3, sentence 2 — unfiltered content can push users away from social media towards legacy forms, which have better moderation systems in place.

How to reach it, step by step

Step 1. Spot the question type. The word 'implies' tells you the answer is not stated in so many words; it is one short inference away from a stated line.

Step 2. Locate the only sentence in the passage that talks about users moving between platforms. It is in the final paragraph, where dropping moderation is said to be able to drive users towards legacy media.

Step 3. Unpack that sentence into its two halves: (i) social media loosens moderation, (ii) users may shift to older media which moderate better. Half (ii) is exactly 'older media gains users because of its controls'.

Step 4. Match it to the options. Option (b) is that sentence restated with no addition of your own. Lock it.

Why the other three fall

(a) 'Can never be discarded' is an absolute. The passage says the opposite — users can move away towards legacy media.

(c) The writer's point is that informed choice is social media's weak spot (its Achilles' Heel), not its strength. This option flips the passage.

(d) 'Always' again overstates. The passage suggests uncensored content can actually repel users, so uncensored content is not shown to have more appeal.

Teaching point: In 'implies' questions, the winner is the option that is one small step from a line in the text. Options with never / always / only are almost always planted as traps, because a 450-word editorial rarely earns an absolute.

Line in the passage

Para 2 — social media is the connective tissue for mass consumption of entertainment, and alternative platforms are reworking their engagement with it.

How to reach it, step by step

Step 1. Scan the four options and mark the topic of each: entertainment, adaptability, lawmakers, publishing freedom. Then hunt for each topic in the passage.

Step 2. Entertainment appears once, in paragraph 2, where social media is called the connective tissue through which entertainment reaches the masses, and other platforms are said to be adjusting themselves to it.

Step 3. 'Connective tissue for mass consumption' = the route most people now take to entertainment = the preferred way. The supporting clause, that rival platforms are reshaping themselves around it, confirms the dominance.

Step 4. Verify the other three topics are either absent or contradicted (see below), then confirm (a).

Why the other three fall

(b) The closing argument is that media must adapt and that moderation is the adaptation mechanism — the passage does not say social media cannot adapt.

(c) Directly contradicted: lawmakers worldwide are said to be unlikely to give social media a free run, and protections already exist across jurisdictions.

(d) The passage never credits its success to being able to publish anything; in fact unfiltered content is shown as a risk to it.

Line in the passage

Para 2 — technologies are shaping up to drive 'this advantage' further through synthetic content targeted precisely at its intended audience.

How to reach it, step by step

Step 1. Find the sentence that actually contains the word 'Technologies'. It is the second-last sentence of paragraph 2.

Step 2. Notice the pronoun phrase 'this advantage'. A pronoun question is really a backward-reading question — you must go up one sentence to see what the advantage is.

Step 3. The preceding lines say social media controls other media and uses that control to broaden its reach. So 'this advantage' = reach.

Step 4. Now add what technology contributes: synthetic content precisely targeted at its audience. Reach + precise targeting = a wider sphere of influence and greater power to persuade. That is option (d).

Why the other three fall

(a) Algorithms playing up politics is a separate point about Meta, and it describes what the platform does, not what technology enables it to achieve.

(b) It is the alternative platforms that are reworking their engagement with social media, not social media reworking its interaction with competitors. The direction is reversed.

(c) Nothing suggests algorithms cannot control content — the passage says algorithms will amplify politics, i.e. they do shape content.

Teaching point: Train students to treat 'this', 'that', 'such' as a red flag to read the previous sentence. Roughly one RC question per passage is built on a pronoun reference.

Line in the passage

Para 2, opening — social media now has enough control over all other forms of media to broaden its reach; alternative platforms are reworking their engagement with it.

How to reach it, step by step

Step 1. Read the stem as 'what has it actually achieved?' — so look for a line of achievement, not of risk or prediction.

Step 2. Paragraph 2 opens with exactly that: it now holds enough control over every other form of media to widen its own reach.

Step 3. The next line adds that other platforms are redesigning their engagement with it — that is the dependence half of option (a).

Step 4. Control + dependence of other media = option (a), word for word in sense.

Why the other three fall

(b) The passage says community review is not a significant improvement over fact-checking, i.e. no real alternative has been found.

(c) The opposite of (a). If other media depend on social media, the two are interlocked, not independent. Also the passage says social media is the connective tissue — tissue connects, it does not stand apart.

(d) Technology and synthetic content are presented as tools social media is embracing, not ignoring.

Line in the passage

Para 1 opening read with para 3 — Meta recalibrates content as the political tide turns in Washington; lawmakers across jurisdictions have already put misinformation protections in place.

How to reach it, step by step

Step 1. The stem says 'conclusion', so you need the thread that runs through the whole piece, not one stray line.

Step 2. Trace the thread. Opening: Meta changes its content policy because the political tide in Washington has turned. Middle: Meta's algorithm will now foreground politics because politics is the flavour of the season. Close: lawmakers across the world will not give social media a free run, and existing legal protections will be hard to dismantle.

Step 3. All three points are the same claim at different stages — what appears on social media rises and falls with who is in power and what they legislate.

Step 4. That is option (a). The link is to government policy, not to any principle.

Why the other three fall

(b) Deregulation is what Meta wants, not what the writer concludes is needed. The writer ends by backing content moderation.

(c) The passage shows legal systems constraining platforms over misinformation, not supporting unfettered free speech.

(d) The writer explicitly separates the two in the last two lines: the adaptation mechanism is content moderation, not free speech.

Teaching point: Conclusion questions reward the first and last paragraphs. Make students read the opening sentence and the closing two sentences together before touching the options.

Line in the passage

Para 1, last sentence — that is the nature of the social media beast, designed to amplify bias.

How to reach it, step by step

Step 1. The key word is 'inherent' — built into the thing itself. Look for a line about what social media is by design, not about what it is currently doing.

Step 2. Paragraph 1 closes with precisely that: by design, the medium amplifies bias.

Step 3. Translate 'bias' into the option language. Bias = prejudice. 'Innate and acquired' covers both the prejudice a user already holds and the prejudice the feed builds in them. 'Amplify' covers both creating and spreading.

Step 4. Option (a) is that sentence in other words. Select it.

Why the other three fall

(b) The digital divide is never raised anywhere in the passage. Out of scope.

(c) The passage shows freedom of expression being fought over and curbed by lawmakers, not expanding without a break.

(d) A one-word trap. The passage says bias is amplified; this option says objectivity is reinforced — the exact opposite.

Teaching point: Flag option (d) in class. It is a classic single-word reversal: swap 'bias' for 'objectivity' and students who are matching by sentence shape rather than meaning will fall for it.