Indian Civil
Services Preliminary Exam 2012- CSAT paper-Part 1
Direction for the
following 6 (six) items:
Read the following
two passages and answer the items that follow each passage. Your answers to
these items should be based on the passages only.
Passage – 1
The poor especially in market economies need
the strength that collectivities offer for creating more economic, social and
political space for themselves, for enhancing their socioeconomic well-being
and voice, and as a protection against free market individualism. It has been
argued that a group approach to farming, especially in the form of bottom up
agricultural production collectivities, offers substantial scope for poverty
alleviation and empowering the poor as well as enhancing agricultural
proclivity. To realize this potential, however, the groups would need to be
voluntary in nature, small in size, participative in decision making at and
equitable in work sharing and benefit distribution. There are many notable
examples of such collectivities to be found in varied contexts, such as in the
transition economies. All of them bear witness to the possibility of successful
cooperation under given conditions. And although the gender impact of the
family cooperatives in the transition economies are uncertain, the Indian
examples of women-only groups farming offer considerable potential for
benefiting women.
1. Agricultural
collectivities such as group based farming can provide the rural poor
1. Empowerment
2. Increased
agricultural productivity
3. Safeguard
against exploitative markets
4. Surplus
production of agricultural commodities
Select the correct
answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1,2,3 and
4
(b) 1,2 and 3
only
(c) 2 and 4
only
(d) 1, 3 and 4
only
Answer: b
2. What does the
author imply by “gender impact”?
(a) Women are
doubtful participants in cooperatives.
(b) Family
cooperatives may not include women.
(c) Women
benefiting from group farming
(d) Women’s role in
transition economies is highly restrictive.
Answer: c
3. Consider the
following assumptions:
1. It is imperative
for transition economies to have agricultural collectivities.
2. Agricultural
productivity can be increased by group approach to farming.
With reference to
the above passage, which of these assumptions is/are valid?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: b
Passage – 2
In a typical Western liberal context,
deepening of democracy invariably leads to consolidation of ‘liberal values’.
In the Indian context, democratization is translated into greater involvement
of people not as ‘individuals’ which is a staple to liberal discourse, but as
communities or groups. Individuals are getting involved in the public sphere
not as ‘atomized’ individuals but as members of primordial communities drawn on
religious or caste identity. Communityidentity seems to be the governing force.
It is not therefore surprising that the so-called peripheral groups continue to
maintain their identities with reference to the social groups (caste, religion
or sect) to which they belong while getting involved in the political processes
despite the fact that their political goals remain more or less identical. By
helping to articulate the political voice of the marginalized, democracy in
India has led to ‘a loosening of social strictures’ and empowered the
peripherals to be confident of their ability to improve the socio-economic
conditions in which they are placed. This is a significant political process
that had led to a silent revolution through a meaningful transfer of power from
the upper caste elites to various subaltern groups within the democratic
framework of public governance.
4. According to the
passage, what does “deepening of democracy” mean in the Western context?
(a) Consolidation
of group and class identities.
(b) Democratization
translated as greater involvement of people.
(c) Democratization
as greater involvement of ‘atomized’ individuals in the public sphere.
(d) None of the
statements (a), (b) and
(c) Given above is
correct in this context.
Answer: c
5. Greater
democratization in India
(a) The dilution of caste and communal
identities in the public sphere.
(b) Irrelevance of
community identity as a governing force in Indian politics.
(c) Marginalization
of elite groups in society.
(d) Relative
unimportance of hereditary identities over class identities.
Answer: b
6. What is the
“silent revolution” that has occurred in the Indian democratic process?
(a) Irrelevance of
caste and class hierarchies in political processes.
(b) Loosening of social strictures in voting
behaviour and patterns
(c) Social change
through transfer of power from upper caste elites to subaltern groups
(d) All the
statements (a), (b) and (c) given above are correct in this context.
Answer: c
Directions for the
following 5 (five) items:
Examine the
information given in the following paragraph and answer the items that
follow:
Guest lectures on five subjects viz.,
Economics, History, Statistics, English and Mathematics have to be arranged in
a week from Monday to Friday. Only one lecture can be arranged on each day.
Economics cannot be scheduled on Tuesday. Guest faculty for History is
available only on Tuesday. Mathematics lecture has to be scheduled immediately
after the day of Economics lecture. English lecture has to be scheduled
immediately before the day of Economics lecture.
7. Which lecture is
scheduled on Monday?
(a) History
(b) Economics
(c)
Mathematics
(d) Statistics
Answer: d
8. Which lecture is
scheduled between Statistics and English?
(a) Economics
(b) History
(c)
Mathematics
(d) No lecture
Answer: b
9. Which lecture is
the last one in the week?
(a) History
(b) English
(c)
Mathematics
(d) Economics
Answer: c
10. Which lecture
is scheduled on Wednesday?
(a) Statistics
(b) Economics
(c) English
(d) History
Answer: c
11. Which lecture
is scheduled before the Mathematics lecture?
(a) Economics
(b) History
(c) Statistics
(d) English
Answer: a
12. Two glasses of
equal volume are respectively half and three-fourths filled with milk. They are
then filled to the brim by adding water. Their contents are the poured into
another vessel. What will be the ratio of milk to water in this vessel?
(a) 1:3
(b) 2:3
(c) 3:2
(d) 5:3
Answer: d
13. Consider the
following statements:
1. All machines
consumes energy
2. Electricity
provides energy.
3. Electrically
operated machines are cheap to maintain.
4. Electrically
operated machines do not cause pollution
Which one of the
following inferences can be drawn from the above statements?
(a) All machines
are run by electric energy
(b) There is no
form of energy other than electricity
(c) Most machines
are operated on electric energy.
(d) Electrically
operated machines are preferable to use.
Answer: d
14. Examine the
following statements:
1. None but the
rich can afford air travel.
2. Some of those
who travel by air become sick.
3. Some of those
who become sick require treatment.
Which one of the
following conclusions can be drawn from the above statements?
(a) All the rich
persons travel by air
(b) Those who
travel by air become sick.
(c) All the rich
person become sick
(d) All those who
travel by air are rich
Answer: d
15. In five flats,
one above the other, live five professionals. The professor has to go up to
meet his IAS officer friend. The doctor is equally friendly to all, and has to
go up as frequently as go down. The engineer has to go up to meet his MLA
friend above whose flat lives the professor’s friend. From the ground floor to the top floor, in
what order do the five professionals live?
(a) Engineer,
Professor, Doctor, IAS officer, MLA
(b) Professor,
Engineer, Doctor, IAS officer, MLA
(c) IAS officer,
Engineer, Doctor, Professor, MLA
(d) Professor,
Engineer, Doctor, MLA, IAS officer.
Answer: d
Directions for the
following 15 (fifteen) items:
Read the following
three passages and answer the items that follow each passage. Your answers to
these items should be based on the passages only.
Passage – 1
Education, without a doubt, has an important
functional, instrumental and utilitarian dimension. This is revealed when one
asks questions such as ‘what is the purpose of educations?”. The answers, too
often, are ‘to acquire qualifications for employment/ upward mobility’. ‘wider/higher (in terms of income)
opportunities’, and ‘to meet the needs for trained human power in diverse
fields for national development’. But in its deepest sense education is not
instrumentalist. That is to say, it is not to be justified outside of itself because
it leads to the acquisition of formal skills or of certain desired psychological
– social attributes. It must be respected in itself. Education is thus not a
commodity to be acquired or possessed and then used, but a process of
inestimable importance to individuals and society, although it can and does
have enormous use value. Education then, is a process of expansion and
conversion, not in the sense of converting or turning students into doctors or
engineers, but the widening and turning out of the mind the creation,
sustenance and development of self-critical awareness and independence of
thought. It is an inner process of moral intellectual development
16. What do you
understand by the “instrumentalist” view of education?
(a) Education is
functional and utilitarian in its purposes.
(b) Education is
meant to fulfill human needs
(c) The purpose of
education is to train the human intellect.
(d) Education is
meant to achieve moral development
Answer: a
17. According to
the passage, education must be respected in itself because
(a) it helps to
acquire qualifications for employment
(b) it helps in
upward mobility and acquiring social status
(c) it is an inner
process of moral and intellectual development
(d) All the (a),
(b) and (c) given above are correct in this context.
Answer: c
18. Education is a
process in which
(a) Students are
converted into trained professionals.
(b) Opportunities
for higher income are generated.
(c) Individuals
develop self-critical awareness and independence of thought
(d) Qualifications
for upward mobility are acquired.
Answer: c
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