UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2016 - General Studies Paper II (CSAT) — question paper

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UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2016 - General Studies Paper II (CSAT)

Paper #3253 · 2016 · General Studies Paper II (CSAT) · 80 reviewed questions · Showing 41–80 of 80

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2016 General Studies Paper II (CSAT), Series A: 80 questions with 80 final-key answers and concise KSLC explanations. Reading-comprehension answers are based on the accompanying passages. Original questions and applicable copyright belong to UPSC and the respective rights holders. KSLC explanations are independent educational commentary; KSLC is not affiliated with or endorsed by UPSC. Official source: https://www.upsc.gov.in/examinations/previous-question-papers/archives

Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. By killing transparency and competition, crony capitalism is harmful to free enterprise, opportunity and economic growth. Crony capitalism, where rich and the influential are alleged to have received land and natural resources and various licences in return for payoffs to venal politicians, is now a major issue to be tackled. One of the greatest dangers to growth of developing economies like India is the middle-income trap where crony capitalism creates oligarchies that slow down the growth.

Which among the following is the most logical corollary to the above passage?
1. Launching more welfare schemes and allocating more finances for the current schemes are urgently needed
2. Efforts should be made to push up economic growth by other means and provide licences to the poor
3. Greater transparency in the functioning of the government and promoting the financial inclusion are needed at present
4. We should concentrate more on developing manufacturing sector than service sector
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. Climate adaptation may be rendered ineffective if policies are not designed in the context of other development concerns. For instance, a comprehensive strategy that seeks to improve food security in the context of climate change may include a set of coordinated measures related to agricultural extension, crop diversification, integrated water and pest management and agricultural information services. Some of these measures may have to do with climate changes and others with economic development.

What is the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?
1. It is difficult to pursue climate adaptation in the developing countries
2. Improving food security is a far more complex issue than climate adaptation
3. Every developmental activity is directly or indirectly linked to climate adaptation
4. Climate adaptation should be examined in tandem with other economic development options
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. Understanding of the role of biodiversity in the hydrological cycle enables better policymaking. The term biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals, microorganisms, and the ecosystems in which they occur. Water and biodiversity are interdependent. In reality, the hydrological cycle decides how biodiversity functions. In turn, vegetation and soil drive the movement of water. Every glass of water we drink has, at least in part, passed through fish, trees, bacteria, soil and other organisms. Passing through these ecosystems, it is cleansed and made fit for consumption. The supply of water is a critical service that the environment provides.

Which among the following is the most critical inference that can be made from the above passage?
1. Biodiversity sustains the ability of nature to recycle water
2. We cannot get potable water without the existence of living organisms
3. Plants, animals and microorganisms continuously interact among themselves
4. Living organisms could not have come into existence without hydrological cycle
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. In the last decade, the banking sector has been restructured with a high degree of automation and products that mainly serve middle-class and upper middle-class society. Today there is a need for a new agenda for the banking and non-banking financial services that does not exclude the common man.

Which one of the following is the message that is essentially implied in the above passage?
1. Need for more automation and more products of banks
2. Need for a radical restructuring of our entire public finance system
3. Need to integrate banking and non-banking institutions
4. Need to promote financial inclusion
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. Safe and sustainable sanitation in slums has immeasurable benefits to women and girls in terms of their health, safety, privacy and dignity. However, women do not feature in most of the schemes and policies on urban sanitation. The fact that even now the manual scavenging exists, only goes to show that not enough has been done to promote pour-flush toilets and discontinue the use of dry latrines. A more sustained and rigorous campaign needs to be launched towards the right to sanitation on a very large scale. This should primarily focus on the abolition of manual scavenging.

With reference to the above passage, consider the following statements : 1. Urban sanitation problems can be fully solved by the abolition of manual scavenging only 2. There is a need to promote greater awareness on safe sanitation practices in urban areas Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. To understand the nature and quantity of Government proper for man, it is necessary to attend to his character. As nature created him for social life, she fitted him for the station she intended. In all cases she made his natural wants greater than his individual powers. No one man is capable, without the aid of society, of supplying his own wants; and those wants, acting upon every individual, impel the whole of them into society.

Which among the following is the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?
1. Nature has created a great diversity in human society
2. Any given human society is always short of its wants
3. Social life is a specific characteristic of man
4. Diverse natural wants forced man towards social system
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. The nature of the legal imperatives in any given state corresponds to the effective demands that state encounters, and that these, in their turn, depend, in a general way, upon the manner in which economic power is distributed in the society which the state controls.

The statement refers to :
1. the antithesis of Politics and Economics
2. the interrelationship of Politics and Economics
3. the predominance of Economics over Politics
4. the predominance of Politics over Economics
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. About 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agricultural practices. This includes nitrous oxide from fertilizers; methane from livestock, rice production, and manure storage; and carbon dioxide (CO₂) from burning biomass, but this excludes CO₂ emissions from soil management practices, savannah burning and deforestation. Forestry, land use, and land-use change account for another 17 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions each year, three quarters of which come from tropical deforestation. The remainder is largely from draining and burning tropical peatland. About the same amount of carbon is stored in the world’s peatlands as is stored in the Amazon rainforest.

Which among the following is the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?
1. Organic farming should immediately replace mechanised and chemical dependant agricultural practices all over the world
2. It is imperative for us to modify our land use practices in order to mitigate climate change
3. There are no technological solutions to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions
4. Tropical areas are the chief sites of carbon sequestration
A person climbs a hill in a straight path from point ‘O’ on the ground in the direction of north-east and reaches a point ‘A’ after travelling a distance of 5 km. Then, from the point ‘A’ he moves to point ‘B’ in the direction of north-west. Let the distance AB be 12 km. Now, how far is the person away from the starting point ‘O’?
1. 7 km
2. 13 km
3. 17 km
4. 11 km
An agricultural field is in the form of a rectangle having length X₁ meters and breadth X₂ meters (X₁ and X₂ are variable). If X₁ + X₂ = 40 meters, then the area of the agricultural field will not exceed which one of the following values?
1. 400 sq m
2. 300 sq m
3. 200 sq m
4. 80 sq m
The sum of the ages of 5 members comprising a family, 3 years ago was 80 years. The average age of the family today is the same as it was 3 years ago, because of an addition of a baby during the intervening period. How old is the baby?
1. 6 months
2. 1 year
3. 2 years
4. 2 years and 6 months
The total emoluments of two persons are the same, but one gets allowances to the extent of 65% of his basic pay and the other gets allowances to the extent of 80% of his basic pay. The ratio of the basic pay of the former to the basic pay of the latter is :
1. 16 : 13
2. 5 : 4
3. 7 : 5
4. 12 : 11
A person is standing on the first step from the bottom of a ladder. If he has to climb 4 more steps to reach exactly the middle step, how many steps does the ladder have?
1. 8
2. 9
3. 10
4. 11
Reading passage

Read the information and answer the question(s). When three friends A, B and C met, it was found that each of them wore an outer garment of a different colour. In random order, the garments are: jacket, sweater and tie; and the colours are: blue, white and black. Their surnames in random order are: Ribeiro, Kumar and Singh. Further, we know that : 1. neither B nor Ribeiro wore a white sweater 2. C wore a tie 3. Singh’s garment was not white 4. Kumar does not wear a jacket 5. Ribeiro does not like to wear the black colour 6. Each of the friends wore only one outer garment of only one colour

What is C’s surname?
1. Ribeiro
2. Kumar
3. Singh
4. Cannot be determined
Reading passage

What is the colour of the tie?
1. Black
2. Blue
3. White
4. Cannot be determined
Reading passage

Who wore the sweater?
1. A
2. B
3. C
4. Cannot be determined
AB is a vertical trunk of a huge tree with A being the point where the base of the trunk touches the ground. Due to a cyclone, the trunk has been broken at C which is at a height of 12 meters, broken part is partially attached to the vertical portion of the trunk at C. If the end of the broken part B touches the ground at D which is at a distance of 5 meters from A, then the original height of the trunk is :
1. 20 m
2. 25 m
3. 30 m
4. 35 m
A person walks 12 km due north, then 15 km due east, after that 19 km due west and then 15 km due south. How far is he from the starting point?
1. 5 km
2. 9 km
3. 37 km
4. 61 km
A cube has all its faces painted with different colours. It is cut into smaller cubes of equal sizes such that the side of the small cube is one-fourth the big cube. The number of small cubes with only one of the sides painted is :
1. 32
2. 24
3. 16
4. 8
Ram and Shyam work on a job together for four days and complete 60% of it. Ram takes leave then and Shyam works for eight more days to complete the job. How long would Ram take to complete the entire job alone?
1. 6 days
2. 8 days
3. 10 days
4. 11 days
A military code writes SYSTEM as SYSMET and NEARER as AENRER. Using the same code, FRACTION can be written as :
1. CARFTION
2. FRACNOIT
3. NOITCARF
4. CARFNOIT
If R and S are different integers both divisible by 5, then which of the following is not necessarily true?
1. R − S is divisible by 5
2. R + S is divisible by 10
3. R × S is divisible by 25
4. R² + S² is divisible by 5
How many numbers are there between 100 and 300 which either begin with or end with 2?
1. 110
2. 111
3. 112
4. None of the above
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. As we look to 2050, when we will need to feed two billion more people, the question of which diet is best has taken on new urgency. The foods we choose to eat in the coming decades will have dramatic ramifications for the planet. Simply put, a diet that revolves around meat and dairy, a way of eating that is on the rise throughout the developing world, will take a greater toll on the world’s resources than one that revolves around unrefined grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables.

What is the critical message conveyed by the above passage?
1. Our increasing demand for foods sourced from animals puts a greater burden on our natural resources
2. Diets based on grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables are best suited for health in developing countries
3. Human beings change their food habits from time to time irrespective of the health concerns
4. From a global perspective, we still do not know which type of diet is best for us
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. All humans digest mother’s milk as infants, but until cattle began being domesticated 10,000 years ago, children once weaned no longer needed to digest milk. As a result, they stopped making the enzyme lactase, which breaks down the sugar lactose into simple sugars. After humans began herding cattle, it became tremendously advantageous to digest milk, and lactose tolerance evolved independently among cattle herders in Europe, the middle East and Africa. Groups not dependant on cattle, such as the Chinese and Thai, remain lactose intolerant.

Which among the following is the most logical assumption that can be made from the above passage?
1. About 10,000 years ago, the domestication of animals took place in some parts of the world
2. A permanent change in the food habits of a community can bring about a genetic change in its members
3. Lactose tolerant people only are capable of getting simple sugars in their bodies
4. People who are not lactose tolerant cannot digest any dairy product
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. “The conceptual difficulties in National Income comparisons between underdeveloped and industrialised countries are particularly serious because a part of the national output in various underdeveloped countries is produced without passing through the commercial channels.”

In the above statement, the author implies that :
1. the entire national output produced and consumed in industrialized countries passes through commercial channels
2. the existence of a non-commercialized sector in different underdeveloped countries renders the national income comparisons over countries difficult
3. no part of national output should be produced and consumed without passing through commercial channels
4. a part of the national output being produced and consumed without passing through commercial channels is a sign of underdevelopment
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. An increase in human-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could initiate a chain reaction between plants and microorganisms that would unsettle one of the largest carbon reservoirs on the planet — soil. In a study, it was found that the soil, which contains twice the amount of carbon present in all plants and Earth’s atmosphere combined, could become increasingly volatile as people add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This is largely because of increased plant growth. Although a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, carbon dioxide also supports plant growth. As trees and other vegetation flourish in a carbon dioxide-rich future, their roots could stimulate microbial activity in soil that may in turn accelerate the decomposition of soil carbon and its release into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Which among the following is the most logical corollary to the above passage?
1. Carbon dioxide is essential for the survival of microorganisms and plants
2. Humans are solely responsible for the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
3. Microorganisms and soil carbon are mainly responsible for the increased plant growth
4. Increasing green cover could trigger the release of carbon trapped in soil
Reading passage

Read the passage and answer the question(s) based only on the passage. Historically, the biggest challenge to world agriculture has been to achieve a balance between demand for and supply of food. At the level of individual countries, the demand-supply balance can be a critical policy issue for a closed economy, especially if it is a populous economy and its domestic agriculture is not growing sufficiently enough to ensure food supplies, on an enduring basis; it is not so much and not always, of a constraint for an open, and growing economy, which has adequate exchange surpluses to buy food abroad. For the world as a whole, supply-demand balance is always an inescapable prerequisite for warding off hunger and starvation. However, global availability of adequate supply does not necessarily mean that food would automatically move from countries of surplus to countries of deficit if the latter lack in purchasing power. The uneven distribution of hunger, starvation, under- or malnourishment, etc., at the world-level, thus owes itself to the presence of empty-pocket hungry mouths, overwhelmingly confined to the underdeveloped economies. Inasmuch as ‘a two-square meal’ is of elemental significance to basic human existence, the issue of worldwide supply of food has been gaining significance, in recent times, both because the quantum and the composition of demand has been undergoing big changes, and because, in recent years, the capabilities of individual countries to generate uninterrupted chain of food supplies have come under strain. Food production, marketing and prices, especially price-affordability by the poor in the developing world, have become global issues that need global thinking and global solutions.

According to the above passage, which of the following are the fundamental solutions for the world food security problem? 1. Setting up more agro-based industries 2. Improving the price affordability by the poor 3. Regulating the conditions of marketing 4. Providing food subsidy to one and all Select the correct answer using the code given below :
1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1, 3 and 4 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4
Reading passage

According to the above passage, the biggest challenge to world agriculture is :
1. to find sufficient land for agriculture and to expand food processing industries
2. to eradicate hunger in underdeveloped countries
3. to achieve a balance between the production of food and non-food items
4. to achieve a balance between demand for and supply of food
Reading passage

According to the above passage, which of the following helps/help in reducing hunger and starvation in the developing economies? 1. Balancing demand and supply of food 2. Increasing imports of food 3. Increasing purchasing power of the poor 4. Changing the food consumption patterns and practices Select the correct answer using the code given below :
1. 1 only
2. 2, 3 and 4 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4
Reading passage

The issue of worldwide supply of food has gained importance mainly because of : 1. overgrowth of the population worldwide 2. sharp decline in the area of food production 3. limitation in the capabilities for sustained supply of food Select the correct answer using the code given below :
1. 1 and 2 only
2. 3 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3
Four-digit numbers are to be formed using the digits 1, 2, 3 and 4; and none of these four digits are repeated in any manner. Further, 1. 2 and 3 are not to immediately follow each other 2. 1 is not to be immediately followed by 3 3. 4 is not to appear at the last place 4. 1 is not to appear at the first place How many different numbers can be formed?
1. 6
2. 8
3. 9
4. None of the above
A cylindrical overhead tank of radius 2 m and height 7 m is to be filled from an underground tank of size 5.5 m × 4 m × 6 m. How much portion of the underground tank is still filled with water after filling the overhead tank completely?
1. 1/3
2. 1/2
3. 1/4
4. 1/6
In a class of 60 students, where the number of girls is twice that of boys, Kamal, a boy, ranked seventeenth from the top. If there are 9 girls ahead of Kamal, the number of boys in rank after him is :
1. 13
2. 12
3. 7
4. 3
A and B walk around a circular park. They start at 8 a.m. from the same point in the opposite directions. A and B walk at a speed of 2 rounds per hour and 3 rounds per hour respectively. How many times shall they cross each other after 8.00 a.m. and before 9.30 a.m.?
1. 7
2. 6
3. 5
4. 8
W can do 25% of a work in 30 days, X can do 1/4 of the work in 10 days, Y can do 40% of the work in 40 days and Z can do 1/3 of the work in 13 days. Who will complete the work first?
1. W
2. X
3. Y
4. Z
The average monthly income of a person in a certain family of 5 is Rs. 10,000. What will be the average monthly income of a person in the same family if the income of one person increased by Rs. 1,20,000 per year?
1. Rs. 12,000
2. Rs. 16,000
3. Rs. 20,000
4. Rs. 34,000
In a race, a competitor has to collect 6 apples which are kept in a straight line on a track and a bucket is placed at the beginning of the track which is a starting point. The condition is that the competitor can pick only one apple at a time, run back with it and drop it in the bucket. If he has to drop all the apples in the bucket, how much total distance he has to run if the bucket is 5 meters from the first apple and all other apples are placed 3 meters apart?
1. 40 m
2. 50 m
3. 75 m
4. 150 m
A round archery target of diameter 1 m is marked with four scoring regions from the centre outwards as red, blue, yellow and white. The radius of the red band is 0.20 m. The width of all the remaining bands is equal. If archers throw arrows towards the target, what is the probability that the arrows fall in the red region of the archery target?
1. 0.40
2. 0.20
3. 0.16
4. 0.04
A person allows a 10% discount for cash payment from the marked price of a toy and still he makes a 10% gain. What is the cost price of the toy which is marked Rs. 770?
1. Rs. 610
2. Rs. 620
3. Rs. 630
4. Rs. 640

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