Daily Questions Challenge for IAS PRE (CSAT) Exam (24 April 2015)

Daily Questions Challenge for IAS PRE (CSAT) Exam (24 April 2015)

Write and Discuss Your Answer with Q.No in Comment Box at the Bottom of Post.

1. What is the difference between a CFL and an LED lamp?

1. To produce light, a CFL uses mercury vapour and phosphor while and LED lamp uses semi-conductor material.
2. The average life span of a CFL is much longer than that of an LED lamp. 3. A CFL is less energy-efficient as compared to an LED lamp.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

2. Recently, “oilzapper” was in the news. What is it?

(a) It is an eco-friendly technology for the remediation of oily sludge and oil spills.
(b) It is the latest technology developed for under-sea oil exploration.
(c) It is a genetically engineered high biofuel-yielding maize variety.
(d) It is the latest technology to control the accidentally caused flames from oil wells.

3. A married couple adopted a male child. A few years later, twin boys were born to them. The blood group of the couple is AB positive and 0 negative. The blood group of the three sons is A positive, B positive, and 0 positive. The blood group of the adopted son is

(a) 0 positive
(b) A positive
(c) B positive
(d) Cannot be determined on the basis of the given data

4. Mahatma Gandhi said the some of his deepest convictions were reflected in a book titled, “Unto this Last’ and the book transformed his life. What was the message from the book that transformed Mahatma Gandhi?

(a) Uplifting the oppressed and poor is the moral repsonsibility of an educated man
(b) The good of individual is contained in the good of all.
(c) The life of celibacy and spiritual pursuit are essential for a noble life.
(d) All the statements (a) (b) and (c) are correct in this context.

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:: CSAT (Paper -2) ::

Chemical pesticides lose their role in sustainable agriculture if the pests evolve resistance. The evolution of pesticide resistance is simply natural selection in action. It is almost certain to occur when vast numbers of a genetically variable population are killed. One or a few individuals may be unusually resistant (perhaps because they possess an enzyme that can detoxify the pesticide). If the pesticide is applied repeatedly, each successive generation of the pest will contain a larger proportion of resistant individuals. Pests typically have a high intrinsic rate of reproduction, and so a few individuals in one generation may give rise to hundreds or thousands in the next, and resistance spreads very rapidly in a population.This problem was often ignored in the past, even though the first case of DDT (dichlorodipheny-ltrichloroethane) resistance was reported as early as 1946. There is exponential increase in the numbers of invertebrates that have evolved resistance and in the number of pesticides against which resistance has evolved. Resistance has been recorded in every family of arthropod pests (including dipterans such as mosquitoes and house flies, as well as beetles, moths, wasps, fleas, lice and mites) as well as in weeds and plant pathogens. Take the Alabama leafworm, a moth pest of cotton, as an example. It has developed resistance in one or more regions of the world to aldrin, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, lindane and toxaphene. If chemical pesticides brought nothing but problems, — if their use was intrinsically and acutely unsustainable — then they would already have fallen out of widespread use. This has not happened.

Instead, their rate of production has increased rapidly. The ratio of cost to benefit for the individual agricultural producer has remained in favour of pesticide use. In the USA, insecticides have been estimated to benefit the agricultural products to the tune of around $5 for every $1 spent. Moreover, in many poorer countries, the prospect of imminent mass starvation, or of an epidemic disease, are so frightening that the social and health costs of using pesticides have to be ignored. In general the use of pesticides is justified by objective measures such as ‘lives saved’, ‘economic efficiency of food production’ and ‘total food produced’. In these very fundamental senses, their use may be described as sustainable. In practice, sustainability depends on continually developing new pesticides that keep at least one step ahead of the pests — pesticides that are less persistent, biodegradable and more accurately targeted at the pests.

1. Though the problems associated with the use of chemical pesticides is known for a long time, their widespread use has not waned. Why?

(a) Alternatives to chemical pesticides do not exist at all.
(b) New pesticides are not invented at all.
(c) Pesticides are biodegradable.
(d) None of the statements (a), (b) and (c) given above is correct.

2. How do pesticides act as agents for the selection of resistant individuals in any pest population?

1. It is possible that in a pest population the individuals will behave differently due to their genetic makeup.
2. Pests do possess the ability to detoxify the pesticides.
3. Evolution of pesticide resistance is equally distributed in pest population.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

3. Why is the use of chemical pesticides generally justified by giving the examples of poor and developing countries?

1. Developed countries can afford to do away with use of pesticides by adapting to organic farming, but it is imperative for poor and developing countries to use chemical pesticides.
2. In poor and developing countries, the pesticide addresses the problem of epidemic diseases of crops and eases the food problem.
3. The social and health costs of pesticide use are generally ignored in poor and developing countries.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2
(c) 2 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

4. What does the passage imply?

(a) Alternative options to chemical pesticides should be promoted.
(b) Too much use of chemicals is not good for the ecosystem.
(c) There is no scope for the improvement of pesticides and making their use sustainable.
(d) Both the statements (a) and (b) above are correct.

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