UPSC Prelims Mock Test 5 – CSAT

Directions for the following 3 (three) items : In each of these questions, various terms of a series are given with one term missing as shown by (?). Choose the missing term :

1. 4, 9, 16, 25, ?
(a)32
(b)42
(c)55
(d)36

2. 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, 42, 56, ?
(a)60
(b)64
(c)70
(d)72

3. 79, 87, ? , 89, 83
(a)80
(b)81
(c)82
(d)88

Directions for the following 7 (seven) items : Read the following three passages and answer the items that follow the passages. 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 education?’. 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.

4.What do you understand by the ‘instrumentalist’ view of education?
(a)Education is functional and utilitarian in its purposes.
(b)Education is meant to fulfil human needs.
(c)The purpose of education is to train the human intellect.
(d)Education is meant to achieve moral development.

5.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.

6.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.

Passage 2

Now India’s children have a right to receive at least eight years of education, the gnawing question is whether it will remain on paper or become a reality. One hardly needs a reminder that this right is different from the others enshrined in the Constitution, that the beneficiary – a six year old child cannot demand it, nor can she or he fight a legal battle when the right is denied or violated. In all cases, it is the adult society which must act on behalf of the child. In another peculiarity, where a child’s right to education is denied, no compensation offered later can be adequate or relevant. This is so because childhood does not last. If a legal battle fought on behalf of a child is eventually won, it may be of little use to the boy or girl because the opportunity missed at school during childhood cannot serve the same purpose later in life. This may be painfully true for girls because our society permits them only a short childhood, if at all. The Right to Education (RTE) has become law at a point in India’s history when the ghastly practice of female infanticide has resurfaced in the form of foeticide. This is “symptomatic of a deeper turmoil” in society which is compounding the traditional obstacles to the education of girls. Tenacious prejudice against the intellectual potential of girls runs across our cultural diversity and the system of

education has not been able to address it.

7.With reference to the passage, consider the following statements :
1.When children are denied education, adult society does not act on behalf of them.
2.Right to Education as a law cannot be enforced in the country.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Passage 3

Modern economic theory does not differentiate between renewable and non-renewable materials, as its approach is to measure everything by means of a money price. Thus, taking various alternative fuels like coal, oil, wood and water-power; the only difference between them recognised by modern economics is relative cost per equivalent unit. The cheapest is automatically the one to be preferred, as to do otherwise would be irrational and uneconomic. From a Buddhist point of view, of course, this will not do since the essential difference between non- renewable fuels like coal and oil on the one hand and renewable sources like wind power and water-power on the other cannot be simply overlooked. Non- renewable goods must be used only if their use is indispensable, and then only with the greatest care and highest concern for conservation. To use them carelessly or extravagantly is an act of violence, and while complete non- violence may not be possible on this earth, it is nonetheless a duty of man to aim at the ideal of non-violence in all he does.

8.Which of the following statements is/are correct on the basis of information in the above passage?
1.Buddhist economists totally prohibit the use of nonrenewable source
2.The attitude of modern economists towards natural resources is uneconomic.
3.Complete non-violence is not possible.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)3 only
(d)1 and 3

9.The Buddhist viewpoint implies:
(a)conservation should be given the highest consideration
(b)hydel projects are highly capital intensive
(c)oil is to be preferred since it does not produce ash
(d)money economics should govern the choice of energy sources

10.Buddhist economists are not in favour of:
(a)economic development
(b)world economy being governed by oil prices
(c)using non-renewable sources indiscriminately
(d)harnessing wind energy

Directions for the following 2 (two) items :In each of the two following questions, four alternatives are given, out of which three are alike in a certain way while one is different. Choose the odd one.

11.Find the odd one out:
(a)Tree
(b)Root
(c)Flower
(d)Leaf

12.Find the odd one out:
(a)English
(b)Encyclopedia
(c)Russian
(d)German