2022 CSAT, all questions

UPSC Prelims 2022 · CSAT

Question 2: Reading Comprehension

Passage—1 · as printed by UPSC
Passage beginning “The main threat to maintaining progress…”

Consider the following statements : Developed countries can support developing countries’ transition to sustainable human development by

  1. 1.making clean energy sources available at low cost
  2. 2.providing loans for improving their public transport at nominal interest rates
  3. 3.encouraging them to change their production and consumption patterns

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a1 only
b1 and 2 only
c2 and 3 only
d1, 2 and 3

AnswerUPSC’s answer is (b).

The passage asks developed countries to support the transition of developing ones, whose main handicap is that clean energy is costly and hard for them to get. So making clean energy available cheaply (1) is direct support. Loans for public transport at nominal interest (2) are financial help of the same kind, and public transport is a step the passage itself names. Statement 3 is advice, not support: the passage asks for help, not for pressing others to change their habits. Support questions reward concrete help over exhortation.

  • 1. High cost of clean energy is the barrier named, so cheap access is direct support.
  • 2. Cheap loans for public transport are financial support for the transition.
  • 3. Encouraging a change of patterns is advice, not support.

How you could have got this

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

    What you needed to know: Cheap loans for public transport are financial support for the transition.

  2. Then, if you were sure statement 3 is not correct, (c) and (d) go: each of them includes 3.

    What you needed to know: Encouraging a change of patterns is advice, not support.

Only (b) is left. You didn’t need statement 1.

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) Incomplete: omits cheap loans for public transport, which is the same kind of support as statement 1.
  • (b) Correct: cheap clean energy and low-interest transport loans are both concrete support.
  • (c) Wrong: statement 3 is not support, and statement 1 is left out.
  • (d) Wrong: statement 3 urges others to change habits, which the passage does not call support.

Worth knowing: Statement 2 rests on a loose reading of the passage; UPSC's key accepts it.

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

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Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2022, General Studies Paper II (CSAT), Series A. The paper on upsc.gov.in.