UPSC CSE 2017 (Prelims) CSAT Previous Year Paper (18-Jun-2017)

Question 1

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answers to this item should be based on the passage only .What climate change will undeniably do is cause or amplify events that hasten the reduction of resources. Competition over these diminishing resources would ensue in the form of political or even violent conflict. Resources based conflicts have rarely been overt and are thus difficult to isolate. Instead they take on veneers that appear more politically palatable. Conflicts over resources like water are often cloaked in the guise of identity or ideology.What does the above passage imply?

Accepted Answer

Environmental issues contribute to resource stresses and political conflict.

Answer

Resource-based conflicts are always politically motivated.

Answer

There are no political solutions to resolve environmental and resource-based conflicts.

Answer

Political conflict based on identity or ideology cannot be resolved.

Question 2

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.The man who is perpetually hesitating which of the two things he will do first, will do neither. The man who resolves, but suffers his resolution to be changed by the first counter-suggestion of a friend-who fluctuates from opinion to opinion and veers from plan to plan-can never accomplish anything. He will at best be stationary and probably retrograde in all. It is only the man who first consults wisely, then resolves firmly and then executes his purpose with inflexible perseverance, undismayed by those petty difficulties which daunt a weaker spirit-that can advance to eminence in any line.The keynote that seems to be emerging from the passage is that

Accepted Answer

we should first consult wisely and then resolve firmly

Answer

we should reject suggestions of friends and remain unchanged

Answer

we should always remain broad-minded

Answer

we should be resolute and achievement-oriented

Question 3

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answers to this item should be based on the passage only .During the summer in the Arctic Ocean, sea ice has been melting earlier and faster, and the winter freeze has been coming later. In the last three decades, the extent of summer ice has declined by about 30 percent. The lengthening period of summer melt threatens to undermine the whole Arctic food web, atop which stand polar bears.Which among the following is the most crucial message conveyed by the above passage?

Accepted Answer

Climate change poses a threat to the survival of polar bears.

Answer

Climate change has caused Arctic summer to be short but temperature to be high.

Answer

Polar bears can be shifted to South Pole to ensure their survival.

Answer

Without the presence of polar bears, the food chains in Artic region will disappear.

Question 4

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answers to this item should be based on the passage only .Why do people prefer open defection and not want toilets or, if they have them, only use them sometimes? Recent research has shown two critical elements : ideas of purity and pollution, and not wanting pits or septic tanks to fill because they have to be emptied. These are the issues that nobody wants to talk about, but if we want to eradicate the practice of open defecation, they have to be confronted and dealt properly.Which among the following is the most crucial message conveyed by the above passage?

Accepted Answer

People have to perceive toilet use and pit-emptying as clean and not polluting.

Answer

The ideas of purity and pollution are so deep-rooted that they cannot be removed from the minds of the people.

Answer

People cannot change their old habits.

Answer

People have neither civic sense nor sense of privacy.

Question 5

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answers to this item should be based on the passage only .In the last two decades, the world's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by 50 percent, whereas inclusive wealth has increased by a mere 3 percent. In recent decades, GDP-driven economic performance has only harmed inclusive wealth like human capital; and natural capital like forests, land and water. While the world's human capital which stands at 57 percent of total inclusive wealth grew by only 8 percent, the natural capital which is 23 percent of total inclusive wealth declined by 30 percent worldwide in the last two decades.Which of the following is the most crucial inference from the above passage?

Accepted Answer

The growth driven by GDP only is neither desirable nor sustainable.

Answer

More emphasis should be laid or the development of natural capital.

Answer

The economic performance of the countries of the world is not satisfactory.

Answer

The world needs more human capital under the present circumstances.

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