Around 56 million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean had not fully opened and animals, perhaps including our primate ancestors, could walk from Asia to North America through Europe and across Greenland. Earth was warmer than it is today, but as the Palaeocene epoch gave way to the Eocene, it was about to get much warmer still — rapidly and radically. The cause was a massive geologically sudden release of carbon. During this period called Palaeocene — Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM, the carbon injected into the atmosphere was roughly the amount that would be injected today if humans burned all the Earth’s reserves of coal, oil and natural gas. The PETM lasted for about 1,50,000 years, until the excess carbon was reabsorbed. It brought on drought, floods, insect plagues and a few extinctions. Life on Earth survived — indeed, it prospered — but it was drastically different.

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

1. Global warming has a bearing on the planet’s biological evolution.
2. Separation of land masses causes the release of huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere.
3. Increased warming of Earth’s atmosphere can change the composition of its flora and fauna.
4. The present man-made global warming will finally lead to conditions similar to those that happened 56 million years ago.

Which of the assumptions given above are valid?

A vast majority of Indians are poor, with barely 10 per cent employed in the organised sector. We are convinced that vigorous economic growth is generating substantial employment. But this is not so. When our economy was growing at 3 per cent per year, employment in the organised sector was growing at 2 per cent per year. As the economy began to grow at 7-8 per cent per year, the rate of growth of employment in the organised sector actually declined to 1 per cent per year."

The above passage seems to imply that:

1. most of modern economic growth is based on technological progress.
2. much of modern Indian economy does not nurture sufficient symbiotic relationship with labour-intensive, natural resource-based livelihoods.
3. service sector in India is not very labour-intensive.
4. literate rural population is not willing to enter organised sector.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

Access to schooling for those coming of school age is close to universal, but access to quality exhibits a sharp gradient with socio-economic status. Quotas for the weaker sections in private schools is a provision introduced by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. The quotas have imposed a debate on issues of social integration and equity in education that private actors had escaped by and large. The idea of an egalitarian education system with equality of opportunity as its primary goal appears to be outside the space that private school principals inhabit. Therefore, the imposition of the quotas has led to resistance, sometimes justified.

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

1. Making equality of opportunity a reality is the fundamental goal of the Indian education system.
2. The present Indian school system is unable to provide egalitarian education.
3. Abolition of private schools and establishment of more government schools is the only way to ensure egalitarian education.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Diarrhoeal deaths among Indian children are mostly due to food and water contamination. Use of contaminated groundwater and unsafe chemicals in agriculture, poor hygiene in storage and handling of food items to food cooked and distributed in unhygienic surroundings; there are myriad factors that need regulation and monitoring. People need to have awareness of adulteration and ways of complaining to the relevant authorities. Surveillance of food-borne diseases involves a number of government agencies and entails good training of inspection staff. Considering the proportion of the urban population that depends on street food for its daily meals, investing in training and education of street vendors is of great significance.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Food safety is a complex issue that calls for a multipronged solution.
2. Great investments need to be made in developing the manpower for surveillance and training.
3. India needs to make sufficient legislation to govern the food processing industry.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

With the digital phenomenon restructuring most social sectors, it is little surprise that global trade negotiations are now eyeing the digital area in an attempt to pre-emptively colonise it. Big Data is freely collected or mined from developing countries, and converted into digital intelligence in developed countries. This intelligence begins to control different sectors and extract monopoly rents. A large foreign company providing cab service, for instance, is not a network of cars and drivers; it is digital intelligence about commuting, public transport, roads, traffic, city events, personal behavioural characteristics of commuters and drivers and so on.

Which one of the following is the most logical and rational corollary to the above passage?

What stands in the way of the widespread and careful adoption of ‘Genetic Modification (GM)’ technology is an ‘Intellectual Property Rights’ regime that seeks to create private monopolies for such technologies. If GM technology is largely corporate-driven, it seeks to maximize profits and that too in the short run. That is why corporations make major investments for herbicide-tolerant and pest-resistant crops. Such properties have only a short window, as soon enough, pests and weeds will evolve to overcome such resistance. This suits the corporations. The National Farmers Commission pointed out that priority must be given in genetic modification to the incorporation of genes that can help impart resistance to drought, salinity, and other stresses."

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. The issue of the effects of natural calamities on agriculture is not given due consideration by GM technology companies.
2. In the long run, GM technology will not be able to solve agricultural problems arising due to global warming.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Temperatures have risen nearly five times as rapidly on the Western Antarctic Peninsula than the global average over the past five decades. Researchers have now found that melting glaciers are causing a loss of species diversity among benthos in the coastal waters off the Antarctic Peninsula, impacting an entire seafloor ecosystem. They believe increased levels of suspended sediment in water to be the cause of the dwindling biodiversity in the coastal region.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Regions of glaciers warm faster than other regions due to global warming.
2. Global warming can lead to seafloor sedimentation in some areas.
3. Melting glaciers can reduce marine biodiversity in some areas.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Low-end IoT (Internet of Things) devices are cheap commodity items; addressing security would add to the cost. This class of items is proliferating with new applications; many home appliances, thermostats, security and monitoring devices, and personal convenience devices are part of the IoT. So are fitness trackers, certain medical implants, and computer-like devices in automobiles. The IoT is expected to expand exponentially — but new security challenges are daunting.

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

India’s economic footprint, given its population, still remains small compared to the US, the European Union or China. It has much to learn from other economies, yet must implement solutions that fit its unique circumstances. India especially needs an effective long-term regulatory system based on collaboration rather than the current top-down approach. Regulations seek desirable outcomes yet are repeatedly used as political tools to push one agenda or another. Often, regulations fail to consider impacts on jobs and economic growth — or less restrictive alternatives. Regulations may be used to protect local markets at the expense of more widely shared prosperity in the future. Additionally, regulations inevitably result in numerous unintended consequences. In today’s hyper-competitive global economy, regulations need to be viewed as ‘weapons’ that seek cost-justified social and environmental benefits while improving the economic well-being of most citizens.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

In today’s global economy,

1. regulations are not effectively used to protect local markets.
2. Social and environmental concerns are generally ignored by the governments across the world while implementing the regulations.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

In a study, scientists compared the microbiomes of poorly nourished and well nourished infants and young children. Gut microbes were isolated from faecal samples of malnourished and healthy children. The microbiome was ‘immature” and less diverse in malnourished children compared to the better developed “mature” microbiome found in healthy children of the same age. According to some studies, the chemical composition of mother’s milk has shown the presence of a modified sugar (sialylated oligosaccharides). This is not utilized by the baby for its own nutrition. However, the bacteria constituting the infant’s microbiome thrive on this sugar which serves as their food. Malnourished mothers have low levels of this sugar in their milk. Consequently, the microbiomes of their infants fail to mature. That in turn, leads to malnourished babies.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Processed probiotic foods are a solution to treat the children suffering from malnutrition due to immature gut bacteria composition.
2. The babies of malnourished mothers generally tend to be malnourished.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

The rural poor across the world, including India, have contributed little to human-induced climate change, yet they are on the frontline in coping with its effects. Farmers can no longer rely on historical averages for rainfall and temperature, and the more frequent and extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, can spell disaster. And there are new threats, such as sea level rise and the impact of melting glaciers on water supply. How significant are small farms? As many as two billion people worldwide depend on them for their food and livelihood. Small-holder farmers in India produce 41 percent of the country’s food grains, and other food items that contribute to local and national food security.

What is the most logical and rational corollary to the above passage?

The interests of working and poor people have historically been neglected in the planning of our cities. Our cities are increasingly intolerant, unsafe and unlivable places for large numbers of citizens and yet we continue to plan via the old ways — the static Development Plan — that draws exclusively from technical expertise, distanced from people’s live experiences and needs, and actively excluding large number of people, places, activities and practices that are an integral part of the city.

The passage seems to argue

In a study, scientists compared the microbiomes of poorly nourished and well nourished infants and young children. Gut microbes were isolated from faecal samples of malnourished and healthy children. The microbiome was ‘immature” and less diverse in malnourished children compared to the better developed “mature” microbiome found in healthy children of the same age. According to some studies, the chemical composition of mother’s milk has shown the presence of a modified sugar (sialylated oligosaccharides). This is not utilized by the baby for its own nutrition. However, the bacteria constituting the infant’s microbiome thrive on this sugar which serves as their food. Malnourished mothers have low levels of this sugar in their milk. Consequently, the microbiomes of their infants fail to mature. That in turn, leads to malnourished babies.

Which one of the following is the most logical, rational and crucial inference that can be derived from the above passage?

Political theorists, no doubt have to take the history of injustice, for example, untouchability, seriously. The concept of historical injustice takes note of a variety of historical wrongs that continue into the present in some form or the other and tend to resist repair. Two reasons might account for resistance to repair. One, not only are the roots of injustice buried deep in history, injustice itself constitutes economic structures of exploitation, ideologies of discrimination and modes of representation. Two, the category of historical injustice generally extends across a number of wrongs such as economic deprivation, social discrimination and lack of recognition. This category is complex, not only because of the overlap between a number of wrongs, but because one or the other wrong, generally discrimination, tends to acquire partial autonomy from others. This is borne out by the history of repair in India.

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

1. Removal of economic discrimination leads to removal of social discrimination.
2. Democratic polity is the best way to repair historical wrongs.

Which of the above assumptions is/ are valid?

A changing climate, and the eventual efforts of governments (however reluctant) to deal with it, could have a big impact on investors’ returns. Companies that produce or use large amounts of fossil fuels will face higher taxes and regulatory burdens. Some energy producers may find it impossible to exploit their known reserves, and be left with “stranded assets” — deposits of oil and coal that have to be left in the ground. Other industries could be affected by the economic damage caused by more extreme weather — storms, floods, heat waves and droughts.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Governments and companies need to be adequately prepared to face climate change.
2. Extreme weather events will reduce the economic growth of governments and companies in future.
3. Ignoring climate change is a huge risk for investors.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

A majority of the TB infected in India are poor and lack sufficient nutrition, suitable housing, and have little understanding of prevention. TB then devastates families, makes the poor poorer, particularly affects women and children, and leads to ostracisation and loss of employment. The truth is that even if TB does not kill them, hunger and poverty will. Another truth is that deep-seated stigma, lack of counselling, expensive treatment, and lack of adequate support from providers and family, coupled with torturous side effects, demotivate patients to continue treatment — with disastrous health consequences.

Which one of the following is the most logical, rational, and crucial message conveyed by the above passage?

Most invasive species are neither terribly successful nor very harmful. Britain’s invasive plants are not widespread, not spreading especially quickly, and often less of a nuisance than vigorous natives such as bracken. The arrival of new species almost always increases biological diversity in a region; in many cases, a flood of newcomers drives no native species to extinction. One reason is that invaders tend to colonise disturbed habitats like polluted lakes and post-industrial wasteland, where little else lives. They are nature’s opportunists.

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

Soil, in which nearly all our food grows, is a living resource that takes years to form. Yet it can vanish in minutes. Each year 75 billion tonnes of fertile soil is lost to erosion. That is alarming — and not just for food producers. Soil can trap huge quantities of carbon dioxide in the form of organic carbon and prevent it from escaping into the atmosphere.

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

1. Large-scale soil erosion is a major reason for widespread food insecurity in the world.
2. Soil erosion is mainly anthropogenic.
3. Sustainable management of soils helps in combating climate change.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

With the digital phenomenon restructuring most social sectors, it is little surprise that global trade negotiations are now eyeing the digital area in an attempt to pre-emptively colonise it. Big Data is freely collected or mined from developing countries, and converted into digital intelligence in developed countries. This intelligence begins to control different sectors and extract monopoly rents. A large foreign company providing cab service, for instance, is not a network of cars and drivers; it is digital intelligence about commuting, public transport, roads, traffic, city events, personal behavioural characteristics of commuters and drivers and so on.

Which of the following is most definitively implied by the above passage?

.

The rural poor across the world, including India, have contributed little to human-induced climate change, yet they are on the frontline in coping with its effects. Farmers can no longer rely on historical averages for rainfall and temperature, and the more frequent and extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, can spell disaster. And there are new threats, such as sea level rise and the impact of melting glaciers on water supply. How significant are small farms? As many as two billion people worldwide depend on them for their food and livelihood. Small-holder farmers in India produce 41 percent of the country’s food grains, and other food items that contribute to local and national food security.

The above passage implies that

1. There is a potential problem of food insecurity in India.
2. India will have to strengthen its disaster management capabilities.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

A research team examined a long-term owl roost. Owls prey on small mammals and the excreted remains of those meals that accumulated over time provide us an insight into the composition and structure of small mammals over the past millennia. The research suggested that when the Earth went through a period of rapid warming about 13,000 years ago, the small mammal community was stable and resilient. But, from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, human-made changes to the environment had caused an enormous drop in biomass and energy flow. This dramatic decline in energy flow means modern ecosystems are not adapting as easily as they did in the past.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Global warming is a frequently occurring natural phenomenon.
2. The impending global warming will not adversely affect small mammals.
3. Humans are responsible for the loss of the Earth’s natural resilience.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Inequality is visible, even statistically measurable in many instances, but the economic power that drives it is invisible and not measurable. Like the force of gravity, power is the organising principle of inequality, be it of income, or wealth, gender, race, religion and region. Its effects are seen in a pervasive manner in all spheres, but the ways in which economic power pulls and tilts visible economic variables remain invisibly obscure.

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

1. Economic power is the only reason for the existence of inequality in a society.
2. Inequality of different kinds, of income, wealth, etc. reinforces power.
3. Economic power can be analysed more through its effects than by direct empirical methods.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

India has banking correspondents, who help bring people in the hinterland into the banking fold. For them to succeed, banks cannot crimp on costs. They also cannot afford to ignore investing in financial education and literacy. Banking correspondents are way too small to be viewed as a systemic risk. Yet India’s banking regulator has restricted them to serving only one bank, perhaps to prevent arbitrage. Efforts at banking outreach may succeed only if there are better incentives at work for such last-mile workers and also those providers who ensure not just basic bank accounts but also products such as accident and life insurance and micro pension schemes.

Which one of the following is the most logical, rational, and crucial inference that can be derived from the above passage?

Education plays a great transformative role in life, particularly so in this rapidly changing and globalizing world. Universities are the custodians of the intellectual capital and promoters of culture and specialized knowledge. Culture is an activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty and human feelings. A merely well-informed man is only a bore on God’s earth. What we should aim at is producing men who possess both culture and expert knowledge. Their expert knowledge will give them a firm ground to start from and their culture will lead them as deep as philosophy and as high as art. Together it will impart meaning to human existence.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. A society without well-educated people cannot be transformed into a modern society.
2. Without acquiring culture, a person’s education is not complete.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Climate change may actually benefit some plants by lengthening growing seasons and increasing carbon dioxide. Yet other effects of a warmer world, such as more pests, droughts, and flooding, will be less benign. How will the world adapt? Researchers project that by 2050, suitable croplands for four commodities — maize, potatoes, rice, and wheat — will shift, in some cases pushing farmers to plant new crops. Some farmlands may benefit from warming, but others won’t. Climate alone does not dictate yields; political shifts, global demand, and agricultural practices will influence how farms fare in the future.

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

Political theorists, no doubt have to take the history of injustice, for example, untouchability, seriously. The concept of historical injustice takes note of a variety of historical wrongs that continue into the present in some form or the other and tend to resist repair. Two reasons might account for resistance to repair. One, not only are the roots of injustice buried deep in history, injustice itself constitutes economic structures of exploitation, ideologies of discrimination and modes of representation. Two, the category of historical injustice generally extends across a number of wrongs such as economic deprivation, social discrimination and lack of recognition. This category is complex, not only because of the overlap between a number of wrongs, but because one or the other wrong, generally discrimination, tends to acquire partial autonomy from others. This is borne out by the history of repair in India.

What is the main idea that we can infer from the passage?

1. Untouchability in India has not been taken seriously by political theorists.
2. Historical injustice is inevitable in any society and is always beyond repair.
3. Social discrimination and deprivation have their roots in bad economies.
4. It is difficult, if not impossible, to repair every manifestation of historical injustice.

India’s economic footprint, given its population, still remains small compared to the US, the European Union or China. It has much to learn from other economies, yet must implement solutions that fit its unique circumstances. India especially needs an effective long-term regulatory system based on collaboration rather than the current top-down approach. Regulations seek desirable outcomes yet are repeatedly used as political tools to push one agenda or another. Often, regulations fail to consider impacts on jobs and economic growth — or less restrictive alternatives. Regulations may be used to protect local markets at the expense of more widely shared prosperity in the future. Additionally, regulations inevitably result in numerous unintended consequences. In today’s hyper-competitive global economy, regulations need to be viewed as ‘weapons’ that seek cost-justified social and environmental benefits while improving the economic well-being of most citizens.

Which one of the following is the most logical, rational and crucial inference that can be derived from the above passage?

A bat’s wings may look like sheets of skin. But underneath, a bat has the same five fingers as an orangutan or a human, as well as a wrist connected to the same cluster of wrist bones connected to the same long bones of the arm. What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern?

Which one of the following is the most logical, scientific and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?

What stands in the way of the widespread and careful adoption of ‘Genetic Modification (GM)’ technology is an ‘Intellectual Property Rights’ regime that seeks to create private monopolies for such technologies. If GM technology is largely corporate-driven, it seeks to maximize profits and that too in the short run. That is why corporations make major investments for herbicide-tolerant and pest-resistant crops. Such properties have only a short window, as soon enough, pests and weeds will evolve to overcome such resistance. This suits the corporations. The National Farmers Commission pointed out that priority must be given in genetic modification to the incorporation of genes that can help impart resistance to drought, salinity, and other stresses."

Which one of the following is the most logical, rational and crucial message conveyed by the above passage?

Food varieties extinction is happening all over the world — and it is happening fast. For example, of the 7,000 apple varieties that were grown during the nineteenth century, fewer than a hundred remain. In the Philippines, thousands of varieties of rice once thrived; now only up to a hundred are grown there. In China, 90 percent of the wheat varieties cultivated just a century ago have disappeared. Farmers in the past painstakingly bred and developed crops well suited to the peculiarities of their local climate and environment. In the recent past, our heavy dependence on a few high yielding varieties and technology-driven production and distribution of food is causing the dwindling of diversity in food crops. If some mutating crop disease or future climate change decimates the few crop plants we have come to depend on to feed our growing population, we might desperately need some of those varieties we have let go extinct.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Humans have been the main reason for the large scale extinction of plant species.
2. Consumption of food mainly from locally cultivated crops ensures crop diversity.
3. The present style of production and distribution of food will finally lead to the problem of food scarcity in the near future.
4. Our food security may depend on our ability to preserve the locally cultivated varieties of crops.

Which of the above assumptions are valid?