2018 CSAT, all questions

UPSC Prelims 2018 · CSAT

Question 31: Reading Comprehension

Passage—2 · as printed by UPSC
Passage beginning “A diversity of natural assets will…”

With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made :

  1. 1.Diversification of livelihoods acts as a coping strategy for climate change.
  2. 2.Adoption of monocropping practice leads to the extinction of plant varieties and their wild relatives.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

a1 only
b2 only
cBoth 1 and 2
dNeither 1 nor 2

AnswerUPSC’s answer is (c).

Assumption 1: the passage says a diversity of natural assets is needed to cope with climate change and keep farming, forestry and fisheries productive; spreading across these sources is what diversifying livelihoods amounts to. Assumption 2: it says the present choice of crops favours uniform varieties and calls for conserving a wider pool of crop genetic resources and wild relatives, implying that uniform cropping narrows that pool. UPSC accepts both.

  • 1. Diversity of natural assets is needed to cope with climate change.
  • 2. Favouring uniform crops narrows the pool of varieties and wild relatives.

How you could have got this

  1. If you were sure statement 1 is correct, (b) and (d) go: each of them leaves 1 out.

    What you needed to know: Diversity of natural assets is needed to cope with climate change.

  2. Then, if you were sure statement 2 is correct, (a) goes: it leaves 2 out.

    What you needed to know: Favouring uniform crops narrows the pool of varieties and wild relatives.

Only (c) is left. This one needs every statement.

Which options go is worked out from UPSC’s key and the options, not by a model.

Why each option is right or wrong
  • (a) Statement 2 is accepted too, since uniform cropping narrows the genetic pool.
  • (b) Statement 1 is accepted too, as diversity of assets is the coping idea.
  • (c) Correct: both assumptions are read as following from the passage.
  • (d) UPSC treats both assumptions as following from the passage.

Worth knowing: The passage does not say in so many words that livelihoods should be diversified or that monocropping causes extinction; both are inferred, so (d) is arguable.

Answer: UPSC’s key. Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.

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Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2018, General Studies Paper II (CSAT), Series A. The paper on upsc.gov.in.