IPMAT Indore 2026 · Verbal Ability · RC passage 1: Passage

The full passage and all 6 questions (Q1–Q6) from IPMAT Indore 2026, with answers and solutions.

Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions :
Who has not often observed two dogs, members of the same household, communicating with each other? Pug and Gyp were two animals that belonged to the family where I spent a summer vacation.

They thought much of each other when romping together in the yard, or in foraging the neighbouring woods and fields for rabbits and groundhogs. Never would they start out on an expedition for game without having previously laid their plans. It was interesting and amusing to watch them. They would bring their heads into close contiguity, remaining in this position for two or three minutes, when, by mutual consent, they would separate, look each other in the eyes, and then start off in different directions for the scene of their projected enterprise. Times out of number I have observed such behaviour and have always discovered that they meant something of the kind. There were no audible utterances, no visible gestures, yet there was an interchange of ideas. Through the medium of the eye were the thoughts conveyed. It was spirit speaking directly to spirit, conveying by a single glance of the eye thoughts which whole volumes would fail to express. Each species of animal has its own dialect. Yet there is another language, a sort of animal lingua franca, which is common to all. A cry of warning, no matter from what bird or animal it emanates, is understood by them all, as is well known to many a sportsman who has lost his only chance of a shot by reason of an impertinent crow, jay or magpie which has espied him, and has given its cry of alarm. There is not a bird of garden or orchard, or a fowl of the barnyard or door-side, that does not understand the peculiar cry of the rooster when a hawk is seen careering overhead or perched upon the summit of a nearby tree. With one accord they flee to their coverts, and there remain until the danger is past.

No more quarrelsome and pugnacious species of bird exists than the English sparrow. It appropriates every available locality for nesting purposes, and our native species are driven to the necessity of fighting for their rights, or of seeking quarters in the rural districts which these birds do not infect. Thus, it is that many a useful robin, bluebird or martin is driven from our midst. Many have witnessed encounters between these birds and the robins. The author once saw a contest between a pair of sparrows and a pair of robins for the possession of a certain tree that grew in his yard. Now the robin, single-handed, is more than a match for a sparrow.

In the engagement referred to, the robins were getting the better of the sparrows, which the latter were not slow in perceiving. Instantly the sparrows set up the wild, ear-piercing harangue for which they are peculiarly noted, when more than a score of friends from the immediate vicinity gathered to their assistance. But the war cry which they sounded not only summoned help to their standard, but it was equally understood by all the other birds of the neighbourhood, who flocked to the defence of their brethren against the alien. The battle waged warm and fiercely for some minutes, when the sparrows were forced to seek safety in retreat.

Question 1 · RC Detail and Fact Based Questions

The narrator observed that the two dogs, Pug and Gyp that belonged to the family

  1. A

    communicated with each other about everything.

  2. B

    romped and foraged together in the yard.

  3. C

    played with each other and hunted together.

  4. D

    thought much about each other throughout the day.

Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option C

Where the passage says it. Paragraph 2: the dogs “thought much of each other when romping together in the yard, or in foraging the neighbouring woods and fields for rabbits and groundhogs.”

Romping is play; foraging for rabbits and groundhogs is hunting. Option (c) captures both halves.

Why the others fail:

(a) “about everything” overstates it — the passage describes planning hunting expeditions, not communication on every subject.

(b) is the trap: it takes romped and foraged but confines both to the yard. The passage puts the foraging in “the neighbouring woods and fields”.

(d) misreads the idiom. “Thought much of each other” means they were fond of each other, not that they thought about each other all day.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. Two options are near-misses built from the passage’s own words — the discriminator is location (yard vs woods and fields) in (b) and the idiom think much of in (d). When options recycle the text’s vocabulary, check scope and idiom, not keywords.

Question 2 · RC Inference Questions

The cry of warning from a bird or animal
  1. A
    could be that of a dog, crow, jay or magpie.
  2. B
    makes the sportsman realise that he has lost his only chance of a shot.
  3. C
    is distinct enough for several species to interpret correctly.
  4. D
    is an expression of fear of humans and predators
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option C

Where the passage says it. The passage describes “a sort of animal lingua franca, which is common to all. A cry of warning, no matter from what bird or animal it emanates, is understood by them all.”

It then gives the rooster’s hawk-warning, which every bird of garden, orchard and barnyard understands. That is precisely “distinct enough for several species to interpret correctly”.

Why the others fail:

(a) lists species but misses the point, which is about comprehension across species, not who makes the sound. The dog is also not given as an alarm-caller.

(b) inverts cause and effect. The sportsman loses his shot because the game understood the warning; the cry does not exist to inform him.

(d) narrows it to fear of humans and predators, while the passage frames it as a general warning system.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. The key phrase is “understood by them all” — look for the option about cross-species comprehension. Option (b) is a detail from the same sentence repurposed into a wrong claim, which is the commonest RC trap.

Question 3 · RC Inference Questions

The author had observed the dogs’ interchange of ideas several times and felt that they communicated
  1. A
    with their heads in close contiguity for two or three minutes.
  2. B
    the direction each dog would take and what each would do.
  3. C
    with an understanding beyond words and sounds.
  4. D
    via sounds inaudible to humans and gestures that one could not understand.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option C

Where the passage says it. “There were no audible utterances, no visible gestures, yet there was an interchange of ideas. Through the medium of the eye were the thoughts conveyed. It was spirit speaking directly to spirit, conveying by a single glance of the eye thoughts which whole volumes would fail to express.”

“Beyond words and sounds” is exactly that.

Why the others fail:

(a) describes the posture they adopted, not what was communicated or how.

(b) is what the author infers they planned, but the question asks how they communicated.

(d) directly contradicts the text — the passage insists there were no sounds and no gestures at all, not that they were merely imperceptible.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. Option (d) is the near-identical opposite: the passage says there were no sounds or gestures, (d) says there were, only undetectable ones. Whenever an option adds a qualifier the text never uses (“inaudible”, “could not understand”), suspect it.

Question 4 · RC Detail and Fact Based Questions

The war between the robins and the sparrows ended when
  1. A
    the brethren of the sparrow flocked to the defence against the alien.
  2. B
    the robins who were getting the better of the two parties also got help from several other birds.
  3. C
    the sparrows communicated with an ear-piercing harangue for which they are particularly noted.
  4. D
    more than a score of robins in the immediate vicinity chased away the sparrows.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option B

Follow the sequence in the last paragraph. The robins were winning; the sparrows called for help and “more than a score of friends” came; but that same war cry “was equally understood by all the other birds of the neighbourhood, who flocked to the defence of their brethren against the alien” — that is, against the sparrows. The sparrows then “were forced to seek safety in retreat.”

So the battle ended because the robins, already winning, received reinforcements from the other native birds.

Why the others fail:

(a) reverses who the “alien” is. In the passage the English sparrow is the alien; the other birds defended the robins against it.

(c) describes the sparrows’ call for help — an earlier step, not the ending.

(d) invents a number. “More than a score” referred to the sparrows’ friends, not robins.

Answer: Option 2

Shortcut. The whole question turns on one word: alien. Paragraph 3 establishes the English sparrow as the non-native species, so “defence of their brethren against the alien” means the birds sided with the robins. Options (a) and (d) both get that backwards.

Question 5 · RC Vocabulary in Context

The term lingua franca refers to a language which
  1. A
    humans cannot learn or understand.
  2. B
    is widely spoken in France.
  3. C
    is used by all birds and animals to communicate within their species.
  4. D
    is the common one for people with different native languages.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option D

The definition is given in the sentence itself. “Each species of animal has its own dialect. Yet there is another language, a sort of animal lingua franca, which is common to all.”

The contrast is explicit: a dialect belongs to one species, a lingua franca is shared across them. Option (d) states the standard meaning — a common language bridging different native tongues.

Why the others fail:

(b) is a pure vocabulary trap on the word “franca”.

(c) is the opposite of the passage’s contrast: communicating within a species is the dialect, not the lingua franca.

(a) adds a claim about humans that the passage never makes.

Answer: Option 4

Shortcut. The sentence before the term defines it by contrast — dialect (within a species) versus lingua franca (across them). Option (c) is deliberately built from the wrong half of that contrast; the “France” option is the giveaway distractor.

Question 6 · RC Detail and Fact Based Questions

According to the passage, the English sparrow is quarrelsome, pugnacious and it
  1. A
    is as useful as a robin, bluebird or martin.
  2. B
    is a native species driven to fight for its rights.
  3. C
    seeks quarters in the rural districts which other birds do not infect.
  4. D
    occupies whatever space it can find to bring up its young ones.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option D

Where the passage says it. “It appropriates every available locality for nesting purposes, and our native species are driven to the necessity of fighting for their rights, or of seeking quarters in the rural districts which these birds do not infect.”

Appropriating every available nesting locality is exactly “occupies whatever space it can find to bring up its young ones” — nesting being for the young.

Why the others fail — each one swaps the subject:

(a) The passage calls the robin, bluebird and martin “useful” and says they are driven out by the sparrow. The sparrow is not among the useful ones.

(b) It is the native species that must fight for their rights; the sparrow is the intruder.

(c) Again reversed: it is the native birds who seek the rural districts the sparrows do not infest.

Answer: Option 4

Shortcut. Three of the four options describe the native birds, not the sparrow. One sentence in the passage contains all these phrases, so read it carefully and ask of each option: whose behaviour is this? That single check eliminates (a), (b) and (c).

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