Comprehension

In our country, handlooms are equated with a culture that ensures a continuity of tradition. This idea has become part of the public policy-framing and provides a legitimate basis for the State to support the sector. But the notion of tradition as a single, linear entity is being strongly contested today. The narratives dominant in defining culture/tradition in a particular way are seen to have emerged as the identities and histories of large sections. The discounted and, at times, forcibly stifled identities are fighting for their rightful place in history. Against this backdrop, when we promote handloom as a traditional industry, it is not surprising that large sections of our population choose to ignore it.

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Passage - If there is inequality in the pattern of population growth, there is greater inequality in food production and utilization. As societies become wealthier, their consumption of animal products increases. This means that a greater proportion of such basic foodstuff as grains and legumes that could feed humans directly is instead being converted into feed for poultry and large farm animals. Yet this conversion of plant-based food into animal food for humans is far from efficient. Only 16% of the calories fed to chickens are recovered by us when we eat them. This conversion rate goes down to five to seven per cent in large animals that are fed grain to add fat and some protein before slaughter.
Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the passage?

Passage - If the social inequality is the most acutely felt social problem in India, insecurity, more than poverty, is the most acutely felt economic problem. Besides those below the official poverty line, even those just over the poverty line are subject to multiple economic insecurities of various kinds (due to wealth and/or health risks, market fluctuations, job-related uncertainties). Many Government policies are actually intended towards mitigating these insecurities.

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Passage - In our country, regrettably, teaching and learning for the examination have been our forte but the new demands of society and the future of work require critical and independent thinking, learning through doing, asking questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives on the same issue, using evidence for building arguments, and reflecting and articulation. Higher education should not ‘either be a mere servant of the government policy or a passive respondent to public mood.’ Higher learning is all about how to think rather than what to think. Teaching has to be re-invented.
Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage?

Passage - Each State in India faces a distinctive set of challenges regarding the impact of warming but also offers its own set of opportunities for reducing emissions depending on its natural resources. For example, coastal States need to take action to protect their shores from sea level rise, districts that are drier need to prepare for variable monsoon precipitation. Himalayan regions have their own unique challenges, and selected parts of peninsular India and offshore areas offer great opportunities for harnessing wind power. These various aspects need to be considered for developing clear and sustainable goals for the future.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and pragmatic message conveyed by the author of the passage?

Passage - ‘A network of voluntary associations stands as a buffer between the relatively powerless individual and the potentially powerful State.’

Which one of the following statements reflects the best explanation of the above passage?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the item that follow the passage. Your answer should be based on the passage only.

Passage - Maintaining an ecosystem just to conserve biodiversity will affect its commercial potential as well as the livelihoods dependent on the ecosystem. There is also a conflict between using an ecosystem only for livelihoods, for commercial exploitation, or strictly for conservation. Deforestation caused due to commercial exploitation will lead to indirect harm like floods, siltation problems and microclimatic instability, apart from adversely affecting livelihoods dependent on forests. These conflicts are particularly acute in developing countries where the dependence of people on the ecosystem is significant, and commercial exploitation has the potential to boost national income.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message conveyed by the author of the passage?

Passage - It is hard to predict how changes in the climate and the atmosphere's chemistry will affect the prevalence and virulence agricultural diseases. But there is a risk that such changes will make some plant infections more common in all climatic zones, perhaps catastrophically so. Part of the problem is that centuries of selective breeding have refined the genomes of most high-value crops. They are spectacular at growing in today's conditions but genetic variations that are not immediately useful to them have been bred out. This is good for yields but bad for coping with changes. A minor disease or even an unknown one could suddenly rampage through a genetically honed crop.

Passage - It is hard to predict how changes in the climate and the atmosphere's chemistry will affect the prevalence and virulence agricultural diseases. But there is a risk that such changes will make some plant infections more common in all climatic zones, perhaps catastrophically so. Part of the problem is that centuries of selective breeding have refined the genomes of most high-value crops. They are spectacular at growing in today's conditions but genetic variations that are not immediately useful to them have been bred out. This is good for yields but bad for coping with changes. A minor disease or even an unknown one could suddenly rampage through a genetically honed crop.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the item that follow the passage. Your answer should be based on the passage only.

Passage - Maintaining an ecosystem just to conserve biodiversity will affect its commercial potential as well as the livelihoods dependent on the ecosystem. There is also a conflict between using an ecosystem only for livelihoods, for commercial exploitation, or strictly for conservation. Deforestation caused due to commercial exploitation will lead to indirect harm like floods, siltation problems and microclimatic instability, apart from adversely affecting livelihoods dependent on forests. These conflicts are particularly acute in developing countries where the dependence of people on the ecosystem is significant, and commercial exploitation has the potential to boost national income. With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Passage - Each State in India faces a distinctive set of challenges regarding the impact of warming but also offers its own set of opportunities for reducing emissions depending on its natural resources. For example, coastal States need to take action to protect their shores from sea level rise, districts that are drier need to prepare for variable monsoon precipitation. Himalayan regions have their own unique challenges, and selected parts of peninsular India and offshore areas offer great opportunities for harnessing wind power. These various aspects need to be considered for developing clear and sustainable goals for the future.

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Passage - In only 50 years, the world's consumption of raw materials has nearly quadrupled, to more than 100 billion tons. Less than 9% of this is reused. Batteries of old vehicles contain materials such as lithium, cobalt, manganese and nickel that are pricey and can be hard to obtain. Supply chains are long and complicated. Buyers' risks are being aggravated by their suppliers' poor environmental and labour standards. Reusing materials makes sense. Once batteries reach the ends of their lives, they should go back to a factory where their ingredients can be recovered and put into new batteries.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and pragmatic message conveyed by the passage?

Passage - If there is inequality in the pattern of population growth, there is greater inequality in food production and utilization. As societies become wealthier, their consumption of animal products increases. This means that a greater proportion of such basic foodstuff as grains and legumes that could feed humans directly is instead being converted into feed for poultry and large farm animals. Yet this conversion of plant-based food into animal food for humans is far from efficient. Only 16% of the calories fed to chickens are recovered by us when we eat them. This conversion rate goes down to five to seven per cent in large animals that are fed grain to add fat and some protein before slaughter.

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

1. The food manufacturing and processing industries in every country should align their objectives and processes in accordance with the changing needs of the societies.
2. Wealthier societies tend to incur great loss of calories of food materials due to indirect utilization of their agricultural produce.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the item that follow the passage. Your answer should be based on the passage only.

Passage - If the social inequality is the most acutely felt social problem in India, insecurity, more than poverty, is the most acutely felt economic problem. Besides those below the official poverty line, even those just over the poverty line are subject to multiple economic insecurities of various kinds (due to wealth and/or health risks, market fluctuations, job-related uncertainties). Many Government policies are actually intended towards mitigating these insecurities.
Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message conveyed by the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the item that follow the passage. Your answer should be based on the passage only.

Passage
The history of renewable energy suggests there is a steep learning curve, meaning that, as more is produced, costs fall rapidly because of economies of scale and learning by doing. The firms’ green innovation is path-dependent: the more a firm does, the more it is likely to do in the future. The strongest evidence for this is the collapse in the price of solar energy, which became about 90% cheaper during the 2010s, repeatedly beating forecasts. Moving early and gradually gives economies more time to adjust, allowing them to reap the benefits of path-dependent green investment without much disruption. A late, more chaotic transition is costlier.
With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Passage - Over the next 30 years, many countries are promising to move to net-zero carbon, implying that household emissions will have to be cut to close to nothing. A leading climate scientist reckons that, at best, half the reduction might be achieved through demand-side measures, such as behavioural changes by individuals and households. And even that would require companies and governments to provide more incentives to change through supply-side investments to make low-carbon options cheaper and more widely available.

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Passage - There has been no democracy that has grown economically without corporate capitalism. It helps in modernizing the economy and enabling the transition from rural to urban, and agriculture to industry and services, which are inevitable with growth. It generates jobs — and there is no other way to fix a country’s unemployment challenge without a further impetus to private business. Big companies can operate on a large scale and become competitive both domestically and externally. A vibrant corporate capitalist base also leads to additional revenues for the State — which in turn, can be used for greater welfare for the marginalized and creating a more level playing field in terms of opportunities.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message conveyed by the author of the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the item that follow the passage. Your answer should be based on the passage only.

Passage - Trust stands commonly defined as being vulnerable to others. Entrepreneurship implies trust in others and willingness to expose oneself to betrayal. Trust in expert systems is the essence of globalizing behaviours; trust itself emerges as a super-commodity in the social market and defines the characteristics of goods and services in a global market. Trusting conduct also means holding others in good esteem, and an optimism that they are, or will be, competent in certain respects.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the passage?

Passage - ‘A good statesman, like any other sensible. human being, learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But, though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense. The national unity of free people depends upon a sufficiently even balance of political power to make it impracticable for the administration to be arbitrary and for opposition to be revolutionary and irreconcilable.’

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message conveyed by the author of the passage?

Passage - In our country, handlooms are equated with a culture that ensures a continuity of tradition. This idea has become part of the public policy-framing and provides a legitimate basis for the State to support the sector. But the notion of tradition as a single, linear entity is being strongly contested today. The narratives dominant in defining culture/tradition in a particular way are seen to have emerged as the identities and histories of large sections. The discounted and, at times, forcibly stifled identities are fighting for their rightful place in history. Against this backdrop, when we promote handloom as a traditional industry, it is not surprising that large sections of our population choose to ignore it.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational message conveyed by the author of the passage?

Passage - A single number for inflation is an aggregate across different commodities and services- the price rise differs for different services - the price rise differs for different items of consumption. So, the single number is arrived at by assigning weights to different commodities and services. For WPI, the weights in production are used; for CPI, the consumption basket is used. But people are not homogeneous. The consumption basket is vastly different for the poor, the middle classes, and the rich. Hence, the CPI is different for each of these classes and a composite index requires averaging the baskets.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and crucial message conveyed by the passage?

Passage
The history of renewable energy suggests there is a steep learning curve, meaning that, as more is produced, costs fall rapidly because of economies of scale and learning by doing. The firms’ green innovation is path-dependent: the more a firm does, the more it is likely to do in the future. The strongest evidence for this is the collapse in the price of solar energy, which became about 90% cheaper during the 2010s, repeatedly beating forecasts. Moving early and gradually gives economies more time to adjust, allowing them to reap the benefits of path-dependent green investment without much disruption. A late, more chaotic transition is costlier.
Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea of the passage?

Passage - Over the next 30 years, many countries are promising to move to net-zero carbon, implying that household emissions will have to be cut to close to nothing. A leading climate scientist reckons that, at best, half the reduction might be achieved through demand-side measures, such as behavioural changes by individuals and households. And even that would require companies and governments to provide more incentives to change through supply-side investments to make low-carbon options cheaper and more widely available.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage?

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Evolution has endowed caterpillars that feed on corn with a unique ability, they can induce the plant to turn off its defence against insect predators. This helps caterpillars to eat more and grow faster. The agent that causes this effect is the caterpillar’s faeces or frass. The find could throw new light on compounds associated with plant response to pathogens like fungi or bacteria.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and practical message conveyed by the passage?

The history of science is the real history of mankind. In this striking epigram, a nineteenth-century writer links science with its background. Like most epigrams, its power lies in emphasizing by contrast an aspect of truth which may be easily overlooked. In this case, it is easy to overlook the relations between science and mankind, and to treat the former as some abstract third party, which can sometimes be praised for its beneficial influences, but frequently and conveniently blamed for the horrors of war. Science and mankind cannot be divorced from time to time at men’s convenience. Yet we have seen that, in spite of countless opportunities of improvement, the opening years of the present period of civilization have been dominated by international conflict. Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?

Which of the following is/are emphatically conveyed by the author of the passage?

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Now-a-days there is a growing trend to use interconnected home devices. As consumers. their homes, the increasingly network connected home device manufacturers and service providers will seek to overcome “thin profit margins by gathering more of our personal data-with or without our agreement- turning the home into a corporate storefront”. have powerful Corporate marketers will incentives to observe consumer behaviour to understand the buying needs and preferences of the device owners.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and practical message implied by the passage?

Not every voice on the internet commands the same kind of audience. When anonymous private entities with high capital can pay for more space for their opinions, they are effectively buying a louder voice. If political discourse in the digital sphere is a matter of outshining one’s opponent till the election is won, then the quality of politics suffers. The focus of social media is restricted to the promotion of content that generates more user engagement, regardless of how inflammatory the content maybe.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

In a robust democracy, reality, howsoever inconvenient it may be, finds its expression both in the speech of political leaders and the other social forms of assertion. The existence of the real has to be transparent, both through its circulation in and by the media as well as its argumentative articulation in deliberative democracy. A normatively responsible media through its communication effect has the responsibility to circulate the content of reality without distortion.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the above passage?

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production to final household consumption. The increasing wastage also results in land degradation by about 45%, mainly due to deforestation, in sustainable agricultural practices, and excessive groundwater extraction. The energy spent over wasted food results in about 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide production every year. Decay also leads to harmful missions of other gases in the atmosphere. Addressing the loss and wastage of food in forms is critical to complete the cycle of food deficiency and food sustainability.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are correct?

Conventional classrooms, by emphasizing fixed duration over learning effectiveness, resign themselves to variable outcomes. The tyranny of the classroom is that every learner is subjected to the same set of lectures in the same way for the same duration. In the end, a few learners shine, some survive, and the rest are left behind. After the fixed duration, the classroom model moves on, with not a thought spared for those left behind. This is how we end up with 10 percent employability in our graduates after a decade and half of formal education. Repeating the same ineffectual script in the realm of skill education will not produce different results.
Which of the following statements best reflects/reflect the most logical and rational inference/inferences that can be made from the passage?

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

By the time children reach class 8, the bulk of them tend to be in the age range of 13 years to 15 years. But in our country, about a quarter of all children in class 8 struggle with reading simple texts and more than half are still unable to do basic arithmetic operations like division. Every year about 25 million young boys and girls from elementary school move into the life that lies for them beyond compulsory schooling. They cannot enter the workforce at least in the organized sector till they are 18. For many families, these children are the first from their families ever to get this far in school. Parents and children expect that such ‘graduates’ from school will go on to high school and college. Hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture. On the other hand, abilities in terms of academic competencies are far lower than they should be even based on curricular expectations of class 8.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage?

As inflation rises, even governments previously committed to budget discipline are spending freely to help households. Higher interest rates announced by central banks are supposed to help produce modest fiscal austerity, because to maintain stable debts while paying more to borrow, governments must cut spending or raise taxes. Without the fiscal backup, monetary policy eventually loses traction. Higher interest rates become inflationary, not disinflationary, because they simply lead governments to borrow more to pay rising debt-service costs. The risk of monetary unmooring is greater when public debt rises, because interest rates become more important to budget deficits.

Which of the following statements best reflects/reflect the most logical and rational inference/inferences that can be made from the passage?

Only with long experience and opening of his wares on many a beach where his language is not spoken, will the merchant come to know the worth of what he carries, and what is parochial and what is universal in his choice. Such delicate goods as justice, love and honour, courtesy, and indeed all the things we care for, are valid everywhere but they are variously moulded and often differently handled, and sometimes nearly unrecognizable if you meet them in a foreign land, and the art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows. When we meet other people while we travel, we learn to differentiate between:

When a child reaches adolescence, there is apt to be a conflict between the parents and the child, since the latter considers himself to be by now quite capable of managing his own affairs, while the former are filled with parental solicitude, which is often a disguise for love of power. Parents consider, usually, that the various moral problems which arise in adolescence are peculiarly their province. The options they express, however, are so dogmatic that the young seldom confide in them, and usually go their own way in secret.
Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

The flower was not invented to please us. It flaunted its petals and spread its perfume to attract an insect. The insect carries the pollen from flower to flower so that pollen is not carried away by wind and thus not wasted. What we call a flower’s beauty is merely a by-product and a human invention. The perfume is not there to please us, it pleases us because it is there, and we have been conditioned to it.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

Not every voice on the internet commands the same kind of audience. When anonymous private entities with high capital can pay for more space for their opinions, they are effectively buying a louder voice. If political discourse in the digital sphere is a matter of outshining one’s opponent till the election is won, then the quality of politics suffers. The focus of social media is restricted to the promotion of content that generates more user engagement, regardless of how inflammatory the content maybe.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea of the above passage?

When a child reaches adolescence, there is apt to be a conflict between the parents and the child, since the latter considers himself to be by now quite capable of managing his own affairs, while the former are filled with parental solicitude, which is often a disguise for love of power. Parents consider, usually, that the various moral problems which arise in adolescence are peculiarly their province. The options they express, however, are so dogmatic that the young seldom confide in them and usually go their own way in secret.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea of the above passage?

Green growth involves rethinking growth strategies with regard to the impacts on environmental sustainability and the environmental resources available to poor and vulnerable groups. In rethinking growth, we need to focus on the current reality of world. Resource resource-constrained intensive and, in particular energy intensive processes will need to make way for more efficient and resource frugal development strategies if we are to avoid an economic dead end or a world in which only a small elite is able to enjoy affluence in the midst of a sea of poverty.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the above passage?

Today, if we consider cities such as New York, London and Paris as some of the most iconic cities in the world, it is because plans carrying a heavy systems approach were imposed on their precincts. The backbone of the systems theory is the process of translating social, spatial and cultural desirables into mathematical models using computing, statistics, optimization and an algorithmic way of formulating and solving problems. The early universities of the West which began to train professionals in planning, spawned some of the most ingenious planners, who are experts in these domains. This was because these very subjects were absorbed into the planning curriculum that had its roots in the social sciences, geography and architecture. Planning in India, and its education differ from the West.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?

When an international team of scientists pumped a carbon dioxide and water mix into underground basalt rocks, basic chemistry took over. The acidic mixture dissolved rocks’ calcium and magnesium and formed limestone. Basically, carbon dioxide is converted into stone, exclaimed the scientists.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and practical suggestion implied by the passage?

As inflation rises, even governments previously committed to budget discipline are spending freely to help households. Higher interest rates announced by central banks are supposed to help produce modest fiscal austerity, because to maintain stable debts while paying more to borrow, governments must cut spending or raise taxes. Without the fiscal backup, monetary policy eventually loses traction. Higher interest rates become inflationary, not disinflationary, because they simply lead governments to borrow more to pay rising debt-service costs. The risk of monetary unmooring is greater when public debt rises, because interest rates become more important to budget deficits.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

Conventional classrooms, by emphasizing fixed duration over learning effectiveness, resign themselves to variable outcomes. The tyranny of the classroom is that every learner is subjected to the same set of lectures in the same way for the same duration. In the end, a few learners shine, some survive, and the rest are left behind. After the fixed duration, the classroom model moves on, with not a thought spared for those left behind. This is how we end up with 10 percent employability in our graduates after a decade and half of formal education. Repeating the same ineffectual script in the realm of skill education will not produce different results.
Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production to final household consumption. The increasing wastage also results in land degradation by about 45%, mainly due to deforestation, in sustainable agricultural practices, and excessive groundwater extraction. The energy spent over wasted food results in about 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide production every year. Decay also leads to harmful missions of other gases in the atmosphere. Addressing the loss and wastage of food in forms is critical to complete the cycle of food deficiency and food sustainability.

Which of the following statements best reflect the most logical and rational inferences that can be made from the passage?

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Geographers analyzed 175 satellite images of ocean colour, which is an indicator of phytoplankton productivity at the ocean’s surface, and found that giant icebergs are responsible for storing up to 20 percent of carbon in the Southern Ocean. The researchers discovered that melting water from giant icebergs which contains iron and other nutrients, supports hitherto unexpectedly high levels of phytoplankton growth.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

By the time children reach class 8, the bulk of them tend to be in the age range of 13 years to 15 years. But in our country, about a quarter of all children in class 8 struggle with reading simple texts and more than half are still unable to do basic arithmetic operations like division. Every year about 25 million young boys and girls from elementary school move into the life that lies for them beyond compulsory schooling. They cannot enter the workforce at least in the organized sector till they are 18. For many families, these children are the first from their families ever to get this far in school. Parents and children expect that such ‘graduates’ from school will go on to high school and college. Hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture. On the other hand, abilities in terms of academic competencies are far lower than they should be even based on curricular expectations of class 8.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production to final household consumption. The increasing wastage also results in land degradation by about 45%, mainly due to deforestation, in sustainable agricultural practices, and excessive groundwater extraction. The energy spent over wasted food results in about 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide production every year. Decay also leads to harmful missions of other gases in the atmosphere. Addressing the loss and wastage of food in forms is critical to complete the cycle of food deficiency and food sustainability.

Based on the above passage, the following assumption have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?

By the time children reach class 8, the bulk of them tend to be in the age range of 13 years to 15 years. But in our country, about a quarter of all children in class 8 struggle with reading simple texts and more than half are still unable to do basic arithmetic operations like division. Every year about 25 million young boys and girls from elementary school move into the life that lies for them beyond compulsory schooling. They cannot enter the workforce at least in the organized sector till they are 18. For many families, these children are the first from their families ever to get this far in school. Parents and children expect that such ‘graduates’ from school will go on to high school and college. Hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture. On the other hand, abilities in terms of academic competencies are far lower than they should be even based on curricular expectations of class 8.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the thinking of the author about the science?

Unlike religion and science, poetry does not posit or expect any belief in absolute truths. Those forces or individuals who claim to have absolute truths in their grasp tend to turn dictatorial and tyrannical. Truth usually does not admit any contradictions or imperfections. It is unitarian. It is, therefore, not of much use for poetry. Poetry abides by the plurality of life and existence. Perhaps poetry follows reality which is plural, anachronistic, full of Contradictions. Against the tyranny of truth, poetry remains a partisan of democratic reality. Against the arrogance of power, wealth and hierarchy, poetry proposes both humility and defiance.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational message conveyed by the above passage?

Only with long experience and opening of his wares on many a beach where his language is not spoken, will the merchant come to know the worth of what he carries, and what is parochial and what is universal in his choice. Such delicate goods as justice, love and honour, courtesy, and indeed all the things we care for, are valid everywhere but they are variously moulded and often differently handled, and sometimes nearly unrecognizable if you meet them in a foreign land, and the art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows.

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

Which of the assumptions given above are valid?

The history of science is the real history of mankind. In this striking epigram, a nineteenth-century writer links science with its background. Like most epigrams, its power lies in emphasizing by contrast an aspect of truth which may be easily overlooked. In this case, it is easy to overlook the relations between science and mankind, and to treat the former as some abstract third party, which can sometimes be praised for its beneficial influences, but frequently and conveniently blamed for the horrors of war. Science and mankind cannot be divorced from time to time at men’s convenience. Yet we have seen that, in spite of countless opportunities of improvement, the opening years of the present period of civilization have been dominated by international conflict. Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are correct?

There is a claim that organic farming is inherently safer and healthier. The reality is that because the organic farming industry is still young and not well-regulated in India, farmers and consumers, alike, are not only confused about what products are best for them, but sometimes use products in ways that could harm them as well. For example, since organic fertilizers are difficult to obtain on a large scale in India, farmers often use farmyard manure, which may contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Certain plant sprays, such as Datum flower and leaf spray, have an element called atropine. If it is not applied in the right dose, it can act on the nervous system of the consumer. Unfortunately, how much and when to use it are not well-researched or regulated issues.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Sourcing food from non-agricultural lands (uncultivated systems such as forests, wetlands, pastures, etc.) in addition to agricultural lands enables a systemic approach to food consumption. It allows rural and tribal communities to sustain themselves for the whole year and steer clear of natural disasters and season-induced shortfalls of agricultural food. Since the productivity of trees is often more resilient to adverse weather conditions than annual crops, forest foods often provide a safety net during periods of food shortages caused by crop failure; forest foods also make important contributions during seasonal crop production gaps.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational message conveyed by the author of the passage?

We often hear about conflicts among different States in India over river waters. Of the 20 major river systems, 14 are already water stressed; 75% of the population lives in water-stressed regions, a third of whom live in water-scarce areas. Climate change, the demands of rising population and the need for agriculture to keep pace, and increases-rate of urbanization and industrialization will exacerbate water stress. According to the Constitution of India, water is a State subject and not that of the Union, except for regulation of inter-State rivers. Key to ensuring balance between competing demands of various stakeholders is a basin-based approach to allocate water amongst constituent regions and States. Allocating fair share of water to them requires assessments based on objective criteria, such as specificities of the river basin, size of dependent population, existing water use and demand efficiency of use, projected future use etc. while ensuring the environmental needs of the river and aquifers.
Which one of the following statements best reflects the most national, practical and immediate action required to ensure fair and equitable allocation of water to different stakeholders?

While awareness on use/misuse and abuse of antibiotics is common knowledge, as is the impact of dosing poultry with antibiotics, the environmental impact of antibiotics-manufacturing companies not treating their waste has scarcely been discussed at any length or seriousness thus far. Pollution from antibiotics factories is fuelling the rise of drug-resistant infections. The occurrence of drug-resistant bacteria surrounding the pharma manufacturing plants is well known.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and practical message conveyed by the passage?

The paradox of choice is illustrated by the story of Buridan's ass. Jean Buridan, the 14th country philosopher, wrote about free will and the inability to choose due to numerous choices and uncertainties. In the story, a donkey stands between two equally appealing stacks of hay. Unable to decide which to eat, it starves to death. Changes in technology and innovations such as smart phones and tablets only exacerbate our glut of choices. Constant connectivity and overconsumption of real-time -data and social media can leave little room for self-reflection and rest, making decisions more difficult. Life is about choices. Many people are overwhelmed with attractive life choices, yet find themselves unhappy and anxious.

Which one of the following Statements best reflects the most logical message implied by the above passage?

"The last end of the state is not to dominate men, nor to restrain them by fear; rather it is so to free each man from fear that he may live and act with full security and without injury to himself or his neighbour. The end of the state, I repeat, is not to make rational beings into brute beasts and machines. It is to enable their bodies and their minds to function safely. It is to lead men to live by, and to exercise, a free reason; that they may not waste their strength in hatred, anger and guile, nor act unfairly toward one another."

Based on the above passage, which one of the following terms best expresses the ultimate goal of the state?

In India, a majority of farmers are marginal and small, less educated and possess low adaptive capabilities to climate change, perhaps because of credit and other constraints. So, one cannot expect autonomous adaptation to climate change. Even if it was possible, it would not be sufficient to offset losses from climate change. To deal with this, adaptation to climate change is paramount, alongside a fast mitigation response. Another solution is to have a planned or policy-driven adaptation, which would require the government to come up with policy recommendations. Perception is a necessary pre-requisite for adaptation. Whether farmers are adapting agricultural practices to climate change depends on whether they perceive it or not. However, this is not always enough for adaptation. It is important how a farmer perceives the risks associated with climate change.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational message conveyed by the author of the passage?

India should ensure the growth of the digital economy while keeping personal data of citizens secure and protected. No one will innovate in a surveillance-oriented environment or in a place where an individual's personal information is compromised. The ultimate control of data must reside with the individuals who generate it; they should be enabled to use, restrict or monetise it as they wish. Therefore, data protection laws should enable the right kind of innovation - one that is user-centric and privacy protecting.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

There is a claim that organic farming is inherently safer and healthier. The reality is that because the organic farming industry is still young and not well-regulated in India, farmers and consumers, alike, are not only confused about what products are best for them, but sometimes use products in ways that could harm them as well. For example, since organic fertilizers are difficult to obtain on a large scale in India, farmers often use farmyard manure, which may contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Certain plant sprays, such as Datum flower and leaf spray, have an element called atropine. If it is not applied in the right dose, it can act on the nervous system of the consumer. Unfortunately, how much and when to use it are not well-researched or regulated issues.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical, rational and practical message conveyed by the author of the passage?

In India, the segregation of municipal waste at source is rare. Recycling is mostly with the informal sector. More than three-fourths of the municipal budget goes into collection and transportation, which leaves very little for processing/resource recovery and disposal. Where does waste-to-energy fit into all this? Ideally it fits in the chain after segregation (between wet waste and the rest), collection, recycling, and before getting to the landfill, technology is most appropriate in converting waste to energy depends on what is in the waste (that is biodegradable versus non-biodegradable component) and its calorific value. The biodegradable component of India municipal solid waste is a little over 50 per cent, and biomethanation offers a major solution for processing this.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Which of the assumptions given above is/are correct?

Environmental problems cause health problems. Substantial changes in lifestyle can reduce environmental or health problems, but this idea appears almost impossible to adopt. With environmental problems, individual efforts can be perceived as having a negligible effect and therefore lead to inertia. With health, on the other hand, individual choices can make the difference between life and death, literally. And yet. barring a few, there seems to be the same collective lethargy towards making their choices.

Which one of the following statements best implies the most rational assumption that can be made from the passage?

Pharmaceutical patents grant protection to the patentee forth education of the patent term. The patentees enjoy the liberty to determine the prices of medicines, which is time limited to the period of monopoly, but could be unaffordable to the public. Such patent protection offered to the patentees is believed to benefit the public, over 'the longer term through innovations and research and development (R&D), although it comes at a cost, in the nature of higher prices for the patented medicine. The patent regime and price protection - through a legally validated high price for the medicine during the currency of the patent - provide the patentee with a legitimate mechanism to get returns on the costs incurred in innovation and research.
Based on the above passage, the' following assumptions have been made:

Which of the above assumptions are valid?

Science by itself is not enough, there must be a force and discipline outside the sciences to coordinate them and point to a goal. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed. What science needs is philosophy the analysis of scientific method and the coordination of scientific purposes and results; without this, any science must be superficial. Government suffers, precisely like science, for lack of philosophy. Philosophy bears to science the same relationship which statesmanship bears to politics movement guided by total knowledge and perspective, as against. aimless and individual seeking. Just as the pursuit of knowledge becomes scholasticism when divorced from the actual needs of men and life, so the pursuit of politics becomes a destructive bedlam when divorced from science and philosophy."
Which one of the following statements best reflects the most rational, logical and practical message conveyed by the passage?

Food consumption patterns have changed substantially in India over the past few decades. This has resulted in the disappearance of many nutritious foods such as millets; While food grain production has increased over five times since independence, it has not sufficiently addressed agriculture sector focussed on increasing food production particularly staples, which led to lower production and consumption of indigenous traditional crops/grains, fruits and other vegetables, impacting food and nutrition security in the process. Further, intensive, monoculture agriculture practices can perpetuate the food and nutrition security problem by ' degrading the quality of land water and food derived through them.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made.

Which of the above assumptions are valid?

Good corporate governance structures encourage companies to provide accountability and control. A fundamental reason why corporate governance has moved onto the economic and political agenda worldwide has been the rapid growth in international capital markets. Effective corporate governance enhances access to external financing by firms, leading to greater investment, higher growth and embayment. Investors look to place their funds where the standards of disclosure, of timely and accurate financial reporting, and of equal treatment to all stakeholders are met.

Which of the following statements best reflect the logical inference from the passage given above?

The emissions humans put into the atmosphere now will affect the climate in the middle of the century and onwards. Technological change, meanwhile, could make a future transition away from fossil fuels cheap or it might not, leaving the world with a terrible choice between sharply reducing emissions at huge cost or suffering through the effects of unabated warming. Businesses that do not hedge against the threat of uncertain outcomes fail. The world cannot afford such recklessness on climate change.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crucial message conveyed by the author of the passage?

To tackle the problem of pollution in cities, policy makers think that drastic actions like temporary use of odd-even number scheme for vehicles, closing schools, factories, construction activities, and banning the use of certain type of vehicles are a way forward. Even then the air is not clean. Vehicles more than 15 years old comprise one percent of the total; and taking them off the road will not make any difference. Banning certain fuels and car types arbitrarily is not proper. Diesel engines produce more PM 2.5 and less CO2 than petrol or CNG engines. On the other hand, both diesel and CNG engines produce more NO than petrol engines. No one has measured the amount of NO that CNG engines are emitting. Arbitrary bans on vehicles that have passed mandated fitness tests and periodic pollution tests are unfair. What is needed is the scientific and reliable information about the source of pollutants on a continuing basis and the technologies that will work to reduce - pollution from them.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical & rational implication conveyed by the passage?

Elephants are landscape architects, creating clearings in the forest, preventing overgrowth of certain plant species and allowing space for the regeneration of others, which in turn provide sustenance to other herbivorous animals. Elephants eat plants, fruits and seeds, propagating the seeds when they defecate in other places as they travel. Elephant dung provides nourishment to plants and animals and acts as a breeding ground for insects. In times of drought, they access water by digging holes which benefits other wildlife.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational inference that can be drawn from the passage?

In India, while the unemployment rate is a frequency used measure of poor performance of the economy, under conditions of rising school and college enrollment, it paints an inaccurate picture. The reported unemployment rate is dominated by the experience of younger Indians who face higher employment challenges and exhibit greater willingness to wait for the right job than their older peers. The unemployment challenge is greater for people with secondary or higher education, and rising education levels inflate unemployment challenges.

Which one of the following statements most likely reflects as to what the author of the passage intends to say?

Scientists studied the vernal window—transition period from winter to the growing season. They found that Warmer winters with less snow resulted in a longer lag tune between spring events and a more protracted vernal window. This change in the spring timetable has ecological, social and economic consequences — for agriculture, fisheries and tourism. As the ice melts earlier, the birds don't return, causing a delay, or lengthening in springtime ecological events.

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

Which of the above assumptions is/are correct?

More than half of Indian women and almost a quarter of Indian men of working age. suffer from anaemia. According to studies, they are anywhere from 5-15% less productive than they could be, as a result thereof. Indian also has the largest tuberculosis burden in the world, costing 170 million workdays to the country annually. But what is just as important as lost productivity now is lost potential in the future. It is becoming increasingly clear that on many measures of cognitive ability, malnourished Indian children perform two or three times worse than their adequately nourished peers. For an economy that will be more dependent on highly skilled workers,' this poses a significant challenge. And it is one that really should be addressed given India's demographic outlook.

Which one of the following statements best reflects. What is implied by the passage?

Many people are not eating the right food. For some, it is simply a decision to stick with food they enjoy but which is not too healthy. This is leading to an increase in non-communicable diseases. This in turn leads to major burden on our health-care systems that have the potential to derail the economic progress which is essential for the poor to improve their lives. For others, it is about limited access to nutritious food or a lack affordability, leading to monotonous diets that do not provide the daily nutrients for them to develop fully. Part of the reason nutrition is under threat worldwide is that our food systems are not properly responding to nutritional needs. Somewhere along that long road from farm to fork, there are serious detours taking place.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the passage?