UPSC Prelims Past Year Paper 2018: Paper 2 (CSAT) - UPSC MCQ

How many diagonals can be drawn by joining the vertices of an octagon?

The figure drawn below gives the velocity graphs of two vehicles A and B. The straight line OKP represents the velocity of vehicle A at any instant, whereas the horizontal straight line CKD represents the velocity of vehicle B at any instant. In the figure, D is the point where perpendicular from P meets the horizontal line CKD such that PD =1/2LD:

Q. ​What is the ratio between the distances covered by vehicles A and B in the time interval OL?

A train 200 metres long is moving at the rate of 40 kmph. In how many seconds will it cross a man standing near the railway line?

Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.
Passage-1
Global population was around 1.6 billion in 1990—today it is around 7.2 billion and growing. Recent estimates on population growth predict a global population of 9.6 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion in 2100. Unlike Europe and North America, where only three to four per cent of population is engaged in agriculture, around 47 per cent of India’s population is dependent upon agriculture. Even if India continues to do well in the service sector and the manufacturing sector picks up, it is expected that around 2030 when India overtakes China as the world’s most populous country, nearly 42 per cent of India’s population will still be predominantly dependent on agriculture.

Q. Which of the following is the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?

Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.
Passage-2
Many pathogens that cause foodborne illnesses are unknown. Food contamination can occur at any stage from farm to plate. Since most cases of food poisoning go unreported, the true extent of global foodborne illnesses is unknown. Improvements in international monitoring have led to greater public awareness, yet the rapid globalization of food production increases consumers’ vulnerability by making food harder to regulate and trace. “We have the world on our plates”, says an official of WHO.
Q. Which of the following is the most logical corollary to the above passage?

Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.
Passage-3
I am a scientist, privileged to be somebody who tries to understand nature using the tools of science. But it is also clear that there are some really important questions that science cannot really answer, such as: Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are we here? In those domains, I have found that faith provides a better path to answers. I find it oddly anachronistic that in today’s culture there seems to be a widespread presumption that scientific and spiritual views are incompatible.
​Q. Which of the following is the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?

​Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.
Passage-4
Though I have discarded much of past tradition and custom, and am anxious that India should rid herself of all shackles that bind and contain her and divide her people, and suppress vast numbers of them, and prevent the free development of the body and the spirit; though I seek all this, yet I do not wish to cut myself off from that past completely. I am proud of that great inheritance that has been and is, ours and I am conscious that I too, like all of us, am a link in that unbroken chain which goes back to the dawn of history in the immemorial past of India.
Q. The author wants India to rid herself of certain past bonds because

Graph given below which shows imports of three different types of steel over a period of six months of a year. Study the graph and answer the three items that follow.

The figures in the brackets indicate the average cost per ton over six months period.
Q. By how much (measured in thousands of tons) did the import of sheet steel exceed the import of coil steel in the first three months of the year?

Graph given below which shows imports of three different types of steel over a period of six months of a year. Study the graph and answer the three items that follow.

The figures in the brackets indicate the average cost per ton over six months period.
​Q. What was the approximate total value (in $) of sheet steel imported over the six months period?

Graph given below which shows imports of three different types of steel over a period of six months of a year. Study the graph and answer the three items that follow.

The figures in the brackets indicate the average cost per ton over six months period.
​Q. What was the approximate ratio of sheet steel and scrap steel imports in the first three months of the year?

Rotated positions of a single solid are shown below. The various faces of the solid are marked with different symbols like dots, cross and line. Answer the three items that follow the given figures.

​Q. What is the symbol on the face opposite to that containing a single dot?

Rotated positions of a single solid are shown below. The various faces of the solid are marked with different symbols like dots, cross and line. Answer the three items that follow the given figures.

​Q. What is the symbol on the face opposite to that containing two dots?

Rotated positions of a single solid are shown below. The various faces of the solid are marked with different symbols like dots, cross and line. Answer the three items that follow the given figures.

​Q. What is the symbol on the face opposite to that containing the cross?

​Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only.
It is no longer enough for us to talk about providing for universal access to education. Making available schooling facilities is an essential prerequisite, but is insufficient to ensure that all children attend school and participate in the learning process. The school may be there, but children may not attend or they may drop out after a few months. Through school and social mapping, we must address the entire gamut of social, economic, cultural and indeed linguistic and pedagogic issues, factors that prevent children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, as also girls, from regularly attending and complementing elementary education. The focus must be on the poorest and most vulnerable since these groups are the most disempowered and at the greatest risk of violation or denial of their right to education. The right to education goes beyond free and compulsory education to include quality education for all. Quality is an integral part of the right to education. If the education process lacks quality, children are being denied their right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act lays down that the curriculum should provide for learning through activities, exploration and discovery. This places an obligation on us to change our perception of children as passive receivers of knowledge, and to move beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis of examinations. The teaching learning process must become stress-free, and a massive programme for curricular reform should be initiated to provide for a child-friendly learning system, that is more relevant and empowering. Teacher accountability systems and processes must en sure that children are learning, and that their right to learn in a child-friendly environment is not violated. Testing and assessment systems must be reexamined and redesigned to ensure that these do not force children to struggle between school and tuition centres, and bypass childhood.
=> According to the passage, which of the following is/are of paramount importance under the Right to Education?
​1. Sending of children to school by all parents
2. Provision of adequate physical infrastructure in schools
3. Curricular reforms for developing childfriendly learning system
Q. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

​Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only.
It is no longer enough for us to talk about providing for universal access to education. Making available schooling facilities is an essential prerequisite, but is insufficient to ensure that all children attend school and participate in the learning process. The school may be there, but children may not attend or they may drop out after a few months. Through school and social mapping, we must address the entire gamut of social, economic, cultural and indeed linguistic and pedagogic issues, factors that prevent children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, as also girls, from regularly attending and complementing elementary education. The focus must be on the poorest and most vulnerable since these groups are the most disempowered and at the greatest risk of violation or denial of their right to education. The right to education goes beyond free and compulsory education to include quality education for all. Quality is an integral part of the right to education. If the education process lacks quality, children are being denied their right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act lays down that the curriculum should provide for learning through activities, exploration and discovery. This places an obligation on us to change our perception of children as passive receivers of knowledge, and to move beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis of examinations. The teaching learning process must become stress-free, and a massive programme for curricular reform should be initiated to provide for a child-friendly learning system, that is more relevant and empowering. Teacher accountability systems and processes must en sure that children are learning, and that their right to learn in a child-friendly environment is not violated. Testing and assessment systems must be reexamined and redesigned to ensure that these do not force children to struggle between school and tuition centres, and bypass childhood.
Q. With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. The Right to Education guarantees teachers’ accountability for the learning process of children.
2. The Right to Education guarantees 100% enrolment of children in the schools.
3. The Right to Education intends to take full advantage of demographic dividend.
Q. ​Which of the above assumptions is/ are valid?

​Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only.
It is no longer enough for us to talk about providing for universal access to education. Making available schooling facilities is an essential prerequisite, but is insufficient to ensure that all children attend school and participate in the learning process. The school may be there, but children may not attend or they may drop out after a few months. Through school and social mapping, we must address the entire gamut of social, economic, cultural and indeed linguistic and pedagogic issues, factors that prevent children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, as also girls, from regularly attending and complementing elementary education. The focus must be on the poorest and most vulnerable since these groups are the most disempowered and at the greatest risk of violation or denial of their right to education. The right to education goes beyond free and compulsory education to include quality education for all. Quality is an integral part of the right to education. If the education process lacks quality, children are being denied their right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act lays down that the curriculum should provide for learning through activities, exploration and discovery. This places an obligation on us to change our perception of children as passive receivers of knowledge, and to move beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis of examinations. The teaching learning process must become stress-free, and a massive programme for curricular reform should be initiated to provide for a child-friendly learning system, that is more relevant and empowering. Teacher accountability systems and processes must en sure that children are learning, and that their right to learn in a child-friendly environment is not violated. Testing and assessment systems must be reexamined and redesigned to ensure that these do not force children to struggle between school and tuition centres, and bypass childhood.
Q. According to the passage, which one of the following is critical in bringing quality in education?

​Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only.
It is no longer enough for us to talk about providing for universal access to education. Making available schooling facilities is an essential prerequisite, but is insufficient to ensure that all children attend school and participate in the learning process. The school may be there, but children may not attend or they may drop out after a few months. Through school and social mapping, we must address the entire gamut of social, economic, cultural and indeed linguistic and pedagogic issues, factors that prevent children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, as also girls, from regularly attending and complementing elementary education. The focus must be on the poorest and most vulnerable since these groups are the most disempowered and at the greatest risk of violation or denial of their right to education. The right to education goes beyond free and compulsory education to include quality education for all. Quality is an integral part of the right to education. If the education process lacks quality, children are being denied their right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act lays down that the curriculum should provide for learning through activities, exploration and discovery. This places an obligation on us to change our perception of children as passive receivers of knowledge, and to move beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis of examinations. The teaching learning process must become stress-free, and a massive programme for curricular reform should be initiated to provide for a child-friendly learning system, that is more relevant and empowering. Teacher accountability systems and processes must en sure that children are learning, and that their right to learn in a child-friendly environment is not violated. Testing and assessment systems must be reexamined and redesigned to ensure that these do not force children to struggle between school and tuition centres, and by pass childhood.
​Q. What is the essential message in this passage?

If LSJXVC is the code for MUMBAI, the code for DELHI is

If RAMON is written as 12345 and DINESH as 675849, then HAMAM will be written as

If X is between -3 and -1, and Y is between - 1 and 1, then X2 - Y2 is in between which of the following?

X and Y are natural numbers other than 1, and Y is greater than X. Which of the following represents the largest number?

Read the following information and answer the two items that follow.

The plan of an office block for six officers A, B, C, D, E and F is as follows : Both B and C occupy offices to the right of the corridor (as one enters the office block) and A occupies on the left of the corridor. E and F occupy offices on opposite sides of the corridor but - their offices do not face each other. The offices of C and D face each other. E does not have a corner office. Fs office is further down the corridor than A’s, but on the same side.

Q. If E sits in his office and faces the corridor, whose office is to his left?

Read the following information and answer the two items that follow.
The plan of an office block for six officers A, B, C, D, E and F is as follows : Both B and C occupy offices to the right of the corridor (as one enters the office block) and A occupies on the left of the corridor. E and F occupy offices on opposite sides of the corridor but - their offices do not face each other. The offices of C and D face each other. E does not have a corner office. Ps office is further down the corridor than A’s, but on the same side.
​Q. Who is/are F’s immediate neighbour/ neighbours?

Passage-1 ‘Desertification’ is a term used to explain a process of decline in the biological productivity of an ecosystem, leading to total loss of productivity. While this phenomenon is often linked to the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid ecosystems, even in the humid tropics, the impact could be most dramatic. Impoverishment of human-impacted terrestrial ecosystems may exhibit itself in a variety of ways : accelerated erosion as in the mountain regions of the country, salinization of land as in the semi-arid and arid ‘green revolution’ areas of the country, e.g., Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and site quality decline—a common phenomenon due to general decline in tree cover and monotonous monoculture of rice/wheat across the Indian plains. A major consequence of deforestation is that it relates to adverse alterations in the hydrology and related soil and nutrient losses. The consequences of deforestation invariably arise out of site degradation through erosive losses. Tropical Asia, Africa and South America have the highest levels of erosion. The already high rates for the tropics are increasing at an alarming rate (e.g., through the major river systems— Ganga and Brahmaputra, in the context), due to deforestation and land management practices subsequent to forest clearing. In the mountain context, the declining moisture retention of the mountain soils, drying up of the ‘underground springs and smaller rivers in the Himalayan could be attributed to drastic changes the forest cover. An indirect consequence is drastic alteration in the uplandlowland interaction, mediated through water. The current concern the tea planter of Assam has is about the damage to tea plantations due to frequent inundation along the flood-plains of Brahmaputra, and the damage to tea plantation and the consequent loss in tea productivity is due to rising level of the river bottom because of siltation and the changing course of the river system. The ultimate consequences of site desertification are soil degradation, alteration in available water’ and its quality, and the consequent decline in food, fodder and fuelwood yields essential for the economic wellbeing of rural communities.
=> According to the passage, which of the following are the consequences of decline in forest cover?
1. Loss of topsoil
2. Loss of smaller rivers
3. Adverse effect on production
4. Declining of groundwater.
Q. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
 

Passage-1 ‘Desertification’ is a term used to explain a process of decline in the biological productivity of an ecosystem, leading to total loss of productivity. While this phenomenon is often linked to the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid ecosystems, even in the humid tropics, the impact could be most dramatic. Impoverishment of human-impacted terrestrial ecosystems may exhibit itself in a variety of ways : accelerated erosion as in the mountain regions of the country, salinization of land as in the semi-arid and arid ‘green revolution’ areas of the country, e.g., Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and site quality decline—a common phenomenon due to general decline in tree cover and monotonous monoculture of rice/wheat across the Indian plains. A major consequence of deforestation is that it relates to adverse alterations in the hydrology and related soil and nutrient losses. The consequences of deforestation invariably arise out of site degradation through erosive losses. Tropical Asia, Africa and South America have the highest levels of erosion. The already high rates for the tropics are increasing at an alarming rate (e.g., through the major river systems— Ganga and Brahmaputra, in the context), due to deforestation and land management practices subsequent to forest clearing. In the mountain context, the declining moisture retention of the mountain soils, drying up of the ‘underground springs and smaller rivers in the Himalayan could be attributed to drastic changes the forest cover. An indirect consequence is drastic alteration in the uplandlowland interaction, mediated through water. The current concern the tea planter of Assam has is about the damage to tea plantations due to frequent inundation along the flood-plains of Brahmaputra, and the damage to tea plantation and the consequent loss in tea productivity is due to rising level of the river bottom because of siltation and the changing course of the river system. The ultimate consequences of site desertification are soil degradation, alteration in available water’ and its quality, and the consequent decline in food, fodder and fuelwood yields essential for the economic wellbeing of rural communities.
=> Which of the following is/are the nor inference/ inferences that can be made from the passage?
1. Deforestation can cause changes in the course of rivers.
2. Salinization of land takes place to human activities only.
3. Intense monoculture practice in plains is a major reason for desertification in Tropical Asia, Africa and South America.
​Q. Select the correct answer using the cc given below.

Passage-1 ‘Desertification’ is a term used to explain a process of decline in the biological productivity of an ecosystem, leading to total loss of productivity. While this phenomenon is often linked to the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid ecosystems, even in the humid tropics, the impact could be most dramatic. Impoverishment of human-impacted terrestrial ecosystems may exhibit itself in a variety of ways : accelerated erosion as in the mountain regions of the country, salinization of land as in the semi-arid and arid ‘green revolution’ areas of the country, e.g., Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and site quality decline—a common phenomenon due to general decline in tree cover and monotonous monoculture of rice/wheat across the Indian plains. A major consequence of deforestation is that it relates to adverse alterations in the hydrology and related soil and nutrient losses. The consequences of deforestation invariably arise out of site degradation through erosive losses. Tropical Asia, Africa and South America have the highest levels of erosion. The already high rates for the tropics are increasing at an alarming rate (e.g., through the major river systems— Ganga and Brahmaputra, in the context), due to deforestation and land management practices subsequent to forest clearing. In the mountain context, the declining moisture retention of the mountain soils, drying up of the ‘underground springs and smaller rivers in the Himalayan could be attributed to drastic changes the forest cover. An indirect consequence is drastic alteration in the uplandlowland interaction, mediated through water. The current concern the tea planter of Assam has is about the damage to tea plantations due to frequent inundation along the flood-plains of Brahmaputra, and the damage to tea plantation and the consequent loss in tea productivity is due to rising level of the river bottom because of siltation and the changing course of the river system. The ultimate consequences of site desertification are soil degradation, alteration in available water’ and its quality, and the consequent decline in food, fodder and fuelwood yields essential for the economic wellbeing of rural communities.
=> With reference to ‘desertification’, as described in the passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. Desertification is a phenomenon in tropical areas only.
2. Deforestation invariably leads to floods and desertification.
Q. Which of the above assumptions is are valid?

Passage-2
A diversity of natural assets will be needed to cope with climate change and ensure productive agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. For example, crop varieties are needed that perform well under drought, heat, and enhanced CO2. But the private sector and farmer-led process of choosing crops favours homogeneity adapted to past or current conditions, not varieties capable of producing consistently high yields in warmer, wetter, or drier conditions. Accelerated breeding programmes are needed to conserve a wider pool of genetic resources of existing crops, breeds, and their wild relatives. Relatively intact ecosystems, such as forested catchments, mangroves, wetlands, can buffer the impacts of climate change. Under a changing climate, these ecosystems are themselves at risk, and management approaches will need to be more proactive and adaptive. Connections between natural areas, such as migration corridors, may be needed to facilitate species movements to keep up with the change in climate.
=> With reference to the above passage, which of the following would assist us in coping with the climate change?
1. Conservation of natural water sources
2. Conservation of wider gene pool
3. Existing crop management practices
4. Migration corridors
​Q. Select the correct answer using the code given below.