IPMAT Indore 2026 · Verbal Ability · RC passage 2: Passage 2

Where the passage says it. Paragraph 3: “If you block the accounts that most inflame you, you deprive them of your attention… Blocking even hurts them with the algorithm. David did defeat Goliath.”

The allusion follows a description of one small act by an individual user against vast platforms. Its point is that the far weaker party can still win.

Why the others fail:

(a) adds a revival the passage never mentions.

(b) misses the contrast. The passage’s point is not that blocking seems unnecessary, but that it seems too small to matter.

(c) states the opposite of the allusion’s purpose; the passage is encouraging resistance, not dismissing it.

Answer: Option 4

Shortcut. Allusion questions are answered by what the allusion is doing in the argument, not by the Bible story. Here it caps a paragraph urging individual action, so the answer must be optimistic — which immediately removes (c).

Where the passage says it. Paragraph 2: “Reading responsible accounts of pollution, a terror attack, an election result etc. would give you food for thought. On social media, you would be targeted with stuff doctored to send you into troll mode.”

“Food for thought” is thoughtfulness; the contrast with social media is explicit.

Why the others fail:

(a) is contradicted by that very contrast — the whole paragraph shows response does vary with the medium.

(b) is the reverse of the passage’s thesis, which is that algorithms shape user reactions deliberately.

(d) inverts the comparison: it is the newspaper, not social media, that is described as responsible.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. The paragraph is built on one contrast — newspaper versus feed. Options (a), (b) and (d) each deny or reverse that contrast, so the one that preserves it must be right.

Where the passage says it. Paragraph 3 gives the remedy in plain terms: “If you block the accounts that most inflame you, you deprive them of your attention, you refuse to buy the hate they are selling. Blocking even hurts them with the algorithm.”

Why the others fail:

(b) is the opposite of depriving them of attention.

(c) borrows the passage’s own coinage — “the algohacking of our brains” — but that describes the disease, not the cure. The passage never proposes algohacking anything.

(d) would worsen the problem the passage describes.

Answer: Option 1

Shortcut. Watch option (c): it reuses a striking word from paragraph 1 (“algohacking”) in the wrong role. Distinctive coinages are often recycled as traps — check whether the passage used the term for the problem or the solution.

Where the passage says it. Paragraph 4: “And make no mistake, this is a civilisational battle. We must fight against the atrophy of our attention, its capture by the most terrible types of things that human nature can be drawn to, and to regain our sense and sensibility.”

Attention, human nature, sense and sensibility — these are foundational human capacities, not surface customs. Calling it civilisational raises the stakes to what a society fundamentally is.

Why the others fail:

(a) reduces it to outward forms, the opposite of foundational.

(c) suggests progress towards something better; the passage fears loss, not transformation.

(d) imports class conflict, a theme entirely absent.

Answer: Option 2

Shortcut. Gauge the register of the surrounding words. “Atrophy”, “human nature”, “sense and sensibility” are all deep-level terms, so the answer must be the deepest-level option. (a) is too shallow and (d) too specific.

Where the passage says it. Paragraph 2: “Once tech platforms figured out how this kind of content spirals user engagement, the algorithms got tweaked to feed us more and more of the same, activating a diabolical incentive structure of hate. Of course, in this swamp, reality is completely distorted.”

Deliberate supply (tweaked algorithms), distortion, and an incentive structure of hate — option (d) matches all three elements.

Why the others fail:

(a) puts the agency on users actively seeking content. The passage describes content being pushed at them: “you would be targeted with stuff doctored to send you into troll mode.”

(b) describes the newspaper experience, which the passage offers as the contrast to rage bait.

(c) claims constructive social change, while the passage calls the result “pure poison”.

Answer: Option 4

Shortcut. Ask who is doing the pushing. The passage is consistently about platforms acting on users, not users choosing — which kills (a) at once. (b) is lifted verbatim from the passage but describes the opposite case, a classic misdirection.

An EXCEPT question — three options are supported, one is not. Check each against paragraph 1.

(b) ✓ “Some companies and individuals draw colossal profits from it.”

(c) ✓ “…but at terrible cost to general well-being.”

(d) ✓ “Anger can be a useful emotion. It can play a key role in building a strong individual psyche, as also a just society.”

(a) ✗ This flatly contradicts the opening line. The passage’s very first sentence grants anger a useful purpose.

Answer: Option 1

Shortcut. The first sentence of the passage — “Anger can be a useful emotion” — settles this on its own, since (a) denies it outright. In EXCEPT questions, look first for the option that reverses something the passage states plainly.