UPSC Prelims CSAT PYQs Practice with Detailed Solutions

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.

Question

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

1. Central banks cannot bring down inflation without budgetary backing.
2. The effects of monetary policy depend on the fiscal policies pursued by the government. Select the correct answer using the code given below :

Passage

A global analysis of nitrogen use efficiency-measure of the amount of nitrogen a plant takes in to grow versus what is left behind as pollution-says that using too much fertilizers will lead to increased pollution of waterways and the air. Currently, the global average for nitrogen use efficiency is approximately 0.4, meaning 40 per cent of the total nitrogen added to cropland goes into the harvested crop while 60 per cent is lost to the environment, says a study. More than half of the world's population is nourished by food grown with fertilizers containing synthetic nitrogen, which is needed to produce high crop yields. Plants take the nitrogen they need to grow, and the excess is left in the ground, water and air. This results in significant emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse and ozone depleting gas, and other forms of nitrogen pollution, including eutrophication of lakes and rivers and contamination of river water.

Question

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

Passage

The main threat to maintaining progress in human development comes from the increasingly evident unsustainability of production and consumption patterns. Current production models rely heavily on fossil fuels. We now know that this is unsustainable because the resources are finite. The close link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions needs to be served for human development to become truly sustainable. Some developed countries have begun to alleviate the worst effects by expanding recycling and investing in public transport and infrastructure. But most developing countries are hampered by the high costs and low availability of clean energy sources. Developed countries need to support developing countries' transition to sustainable human development.

Question

Unsustainability in production pattern is due to which of the following?

1. Heavy dependence on fossil fuels
2. Limited availability of resources
3. Expansion of recycling Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Passage

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.

Question

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

Global warming has a bearing on the planet’s biological evolution. Separation of land masses causes the release of huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. Increased warming of Earth’s atmosphere can change the composition of its flora and fauna. 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?

Passage

Computers increasingly deal not just with abstract data like credit card details and databases, but also with the real world of physical objects and vulnerable human bodies. A modern car is a computer on wheels; an aeroplane is a computer on wings. The arrival of the “Internet of Things” will see computers baked into everything from road signs and MRI scanners to prosthetics and insulin pumps. There is little evidence that these gadgets will be any more trustworthy than their desktop counterparts. Hackers have already proved that they can take remote control of internet connected cars and pacemakers.

Question

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most critical inference that can be made from the passage given above?

If 'ZERO' is written as 'CHUR', then how is 'PLAYER' written?

Six Persons A, B, C, D, E and F are sitting equidistant form each other around a circular table (facing the centre of the table). Consider the Question and two statements given below: Question: Who is sitting on the immediate left of A?

Statement-1: B is sitting opposite to C and D is sitting opposite to E. Statement -2: F is sitting on the immediate left of B.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the Question and the Statements?

Five cities P, Q, R, S, and T are connected by different modes of transport as follows: P and Q are connected by boat as well as rail. S and R are connected by bus and boat. Q and T are connected by air only. P and R are connected by boat only. T and R are connected by rail and bus.

If a person visits each of the places starting from P and gets back to P, which of the following places must he visit twice?

There are 5 tasks and 5 persons. Task-1 cannot be assigned to person-1 or person-2. Task-2 must be assigned to person-3 or person-4. Each person is to be assigned one task. In how many ways can the assignment be done?

Consider the following:

1. A + B means A is the son of B.
2. A – B means A is the wife of B. What does the expression P+R-Q mean?

A Statement is given followed by two Conclusions numbered I and II. Consider the Statement and the Conclusions. Statement: India is the world's largest producer of milk.

Conclusion-I: India is the world's largest exporter of milk. Conclusion-II: India does not import milk.

Which one of the following is correct?

Examine the following statements:

1. George attends Music classes on Monday.
2. He attends Mathematics classes on Wednesdays.
3. His Literature classes are not on Friday.
4. He attends History classes on the day following the day of his Mathematics classes.
5. On Tuesday, he attends his Sports classes. If he attends just one subject in a day and his Sunday is free, then he is also free on

How many five-digit prime numbers can be obtained by using all the digits 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 without repetition of digits?

How many times the hour hand and the minute hand coincide in a clock between 10:00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. (same day)?

Consider the following statements:

1. The minimum number of points of intersection of a square and a circle is 2.
2. The maximum number of points of intersection of a square and circle is 8. Which of the above statements is/are correct?