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Model Questions for UPSC PRE CSAT PAPER SET - 38

Passage

There is something people like about rappelling or abseilling. A form of controlled descent used in mountaineering. It follows the more gruelling task of climbing up. Of late, rappelling has found popularity as a staged activity. Participants walk up a cliff rock face, while securely anchored to at least one safety rope that is released in a controlled fashion from above. Some clubs keep a third line free for instructors to come down and assist should anyone get stuck mid-route. Most important, participants are allowed adequate pauses enroute for that photograph of manhood’s dawning, , mama’s precious boy looking great on vertical rock. As many adventure clubs would tell you, very few of these muscle toting, fatigues-clad youngsters return to climbing. The photograph endures; the mountain fades. Those who stick on do so because of a deeper fascination, fully acknowledging their fragility and hardly resembling the branded image of the adventurous. Further, as with the maturity curve in Indian sports, deep purses do not always mean great talent; it is the progressive tapping of the pyramid’s bottom end that reveals a wider canvas of talent. The story is little different with automobiles, where self-image precedes utility in vehicle purchase. Utility vehicles (Uvs), sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and a few crossovers make up the ‘adventure vehicles’ on Indian roads. In 2004–05. total domestic UV sales had increased by 20.46 per cent to 176.339 units from 146.388 units. As at end August 2005, the trend for 2005–06 was a sales rise of 13.67 percent to 72.686 units for the category.
Crossovers sell in very small volumes. So the country’s adventure vehicle story is manly that of UVs. Of these, the obviously brute types, that is, the big, expensive SUVs- lord the relatively tame terrain of cities. Where else can the contrast be sharper? The key thing is to be seen seem adventureous and look capable of crushing all else on the rods. A well known fact is that beyond the odd automobile journalist who test-drives a ‘brute’ in testy terrain, most owners of off-road studs dare not stray from the tramac, as the vehicles are expensive. In a cost-conscious market like India with long periods of careful ownership, you could bunch a wide range of vehicles from the cheapest Scorpio, costing around ` 7.3 lakhs (in Mumbai), to the costliest Porsche Cayenne, selling at ` 92 lakhs, into this segment. Naturally therein, the base of ownership and the tendency to punish the vehicle tapers with higher price points. So if the brutes are largely doing tame duty or, worse, showing off, where are the real adventure vehicles? To pick out that segment, one needs to first outline the contours of Indian adventure. Like everything else, it tends to be and needs to be low cost. Indian civilan mountaineering expeditions, for example and there are several every year travel without radio contact, global positioning system of satellite phone, and cut down on porters and use borroed or hired equipment in short, rough it out wherever possible. The limited budget is entirely skewed towards the final goal with highest priority in expense for critical input segment equipment, clothing, shelter and food), all else enjoying lower priority it is a bottom of the pyramid consumer experience, one in which the final stages of transport are met by ruged, low end UVs. In the hill and moditains it is the Bolero, Sumo, Trax and their earlier brethren which remain trusted and are worked hare on rough tracks every day. Mahindra and Mahindra (M and M). Tata Motors and Force Motors (earlier Tata Tempo) make these vehicles. The companies are based in Maharashtra, which has the highest number of adventure clubs in the country and a strong presence of the autombile industry. While on a trek or rock climb in the sahyadris, it is common to run into somebody from Tata Motors of Tata Power, equally strong being the likelihood of having a batch-mate from one of the Tata companies if you are training at a mountaineering institute in the Himalayas. Sadly, however, the economies of mass manufacturing shy away from responding to niche segments and in India, adventure is a niche activity. The marker’s darling therefore, remains the great Indian family or that faceless bunch of strangers, jammed into a “people’s carrier”. No marks for guessing which is the adventure’s longstanding favorite for personal transport. Although the price of petrol has risen, the one vehicle that consistency captured the fancy of adventure enthusiasts was the Maruti Gypsy, now reduced to largely institutional sales. It has the perfect size to manoeuvre on mountain roads, is the best off-road vehicle around, commands respect in remote areas, allows space for others on roads and, in the true spirit of the adventurer, has a light weight presence.
No fanfare. It is the vehicle people will still give an arm and a leg to load up and head for the crags. Interestingly, this size of the UV has been left unattended by all domestic manufacturers, including Maruti, which has often described the Gypsy’s small size and petrol engine as potential sales dampeners. M and M has an engaging product in the larger Invader while Tata Motors and Force Motors have kept out. But Maruti’s own view was partly based on the Gypsy’s limited ability as a people mover. But the typical adventurer, the sort hailing from the bottom of the pyramid, would have been happy with a manoeuvrable, off-road model that was backed by the country’s largest vehicle support network. Neither Maruti nor other manufactures found it attractive. For the present, therefore, India’s adventure vehicles are gas guzzlers, sold with little appreciation for he budget and requirement of Indian adventures.

1. According to the author which type of items take priority due to the budget constraints for adventure trips?

(a) Porters
(b) Global Positioning System
(c) Specialized Equipment
(d) Satellite Phone

2. “It is the vehicle people will still give an arm and a leg to load up and head for the crags.” Which one of the following is not a feature of the vehicle referred to in the above sentence?

(a) This vehicle can be maneuvered smoothly on hillyroads
(b) The sales of this vehicle are mostly institutional
(c) It is well accepted in remote areas
(d) It is the best vehicle for all terrains

3. Which of the following statements is incorrect as per the passage?

(a) Abseilling has lately become popular as a staged activity
(b) India’s adventure vehicles are manufactured and sold constricting requirement of Indian adventures
(c) Indian market is cost conscious with longer periods of careful ownership’s
(d) Force Motors is the successor of Bajaj Tempo

Passage

Unemployment is an important index of economics lack and lost output, but it is much more than that. For the unemployed person it is often a damaging affront to human dignity and sometimes a catastrophic blow to family life. Nor is this cost distributed in proportion to ability to bear it. It falls most heavily on the young, the semiskilled and unskilled, the black person, the older worker, and the underemployed person in a low-income rural area who is denied the option of securing more rewarding urban employment. The concentrated increase of unemployment among specific groups in the population means far greater costs to society than can be measured simply in hours of involuntary idleness or dollars of income lost. The extra costs include disruption of the careers of young people, increased juvenile delinquency, and perpetuation of conditions which breed racial discrimination in employment and otherwise deny equality of opportunity. There is another and more subtle cost. The social and economic strains of prolonged under utilization create strong pressures for cost increasing solutions. On the side of labour, prolonged high unemployment leads to “share-the-work” pressures for shorter hours, intensifies resistance to technological change and to rationalization of work rules, and in genera, increases incentives for restrictive and inefficient measures to protect existing jobs. On the side of business, the weakness of markets leads to attempts to raise prices to cover high average overhead costs and to pressure for protection against foreign and domestic competition. On the side of agriculture, higher prices are necessary to active income objectives, when urban and industrial demand for food and fibres is depressed and lack of opportunities for jobs and higher incomes in industry keep people on the farm. In all these cases, the problems are real and the claims understandable. But the solutions suggested raise costs and promote inefficiency. By no means the least of the advantages of full utilization will be a diminution of these pressures. They will be weaker, and they can be more firmly resisted in good conscience, when markets are generally strong and job opportunities are plentiful. The demand for labour is derived from the demand for the goods and services which labour participates in producing. Thus, unemployment will be reduced to 4 per cent of the labour is derived from the demand for the myriad of goods and services automobiles, clothing, food, electric generators, highways, and so on is sufficiently great in total to required the productive efforts of 96 per cent of the civilian labour force. Although many goods are initially produced as materials or components to meet demands related to the further production of other goods, all goods (and services) are ultimately destined to satisfy demands that can, for convenience, be classified into four categories: consumer demand, business demand for new plants and machinery and for additions to inventories, net export demand of foreign buyers, and demand of government units, federal, state, and local. Thus Gross National Product (GNP), our total output, is the sum of four major components of expenditure: personal consumption expenditure, gross private domestic investment, net exports, and government purchases of goods and services. The primary line of attack on the problem of unemployment must be through measures which will expand one or more of these components of demand. Once a satisfactory level of employment has been achieved in growing economy, economic stability requires the maintenance of continuing balance between growing productive capacity and growing demand. Action to expand demand is called for not only when demand actually, declines and recession appears but even when the rate of growth of demand falls short of the rate of growth of capacity.

4. In this passage, the word involuntary means

(a) Not free
(b) Without exercise of the will
(c) Done gratuitously
(d) Not desirable

5. According to the passage, a typical business reaction to a recession is to press for

(a) Protection against imports
(b) Higher unemployment insurance
(c) Restrictive business practices
(d) Restraint on union activity

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6. Gross National Product (GNP) is a measure of

(a) Our total output
(b) Our personal consumption
(c) Out net exports
(d) Our domestic investment

7. According to the passage, a satisfactory level of unemployment is

(a) 90 per cent of the civilian workforce
(b) 85 per cent of the civilian workforce
(c) 4 per cent unemployment
(d) 2 per cent unemployment

Passage

For ages, the Indian psyche has been geared to devoting one’s life to the welfare of ‘all’, sarvabhuta hite ratha. It has also focussed not on the individual self but on the entire globe; vasudhaiva kutumbakam was always the objective. The Western world remains unaware of the strength of Indian culture, traditions and beliefs. It has good reason to do so. An accurate perception would have harmed its colonial interests and exploitation of nations for which it was not entitled under any rationale, logic or tradition. This legacy, however, continues in another form. Those influenced by Western philosophy, attitude and approach to life refuse to understand indigenous thought and culture even at this stage. To them, any mention of Indian tradition and culture is a conservative statement. If you think of highlighting Indian contributions to global civilisation, they immediately apprehend that India is going backward in the history. To them, self respect, patriotism and the sense of pride in being an Indian are outdated concepts. The mere mention that spirituality is an important part of educationist anathema to them. After World War II, the victorious Americans realised the futility of war, bombs, destruction and killings. A group of American school teachers planned a book on spirituality in 1945. This was published by the Elementary School Teachers Association of America in 1947. The title is ‘Spirituality in Elementary Schools’. In India, the mere mention of the world ‘Spirituality’ is attributed to political pressure. Recently the Director-General of UNESCO’s International School of Educational Planning, Paris, visited India and was apprised of the proposed curricular changes in school education, which were under discussion. The Director General, a former education minister of Norway, gave details of curriculum renewal in Norway and indicated that in their curriculum for school education prepared in 1997, they have proposed to prepare a ‘spiritual man’ through school education. Even a unitary society like Norway is gearing up for the times when multi-ethnic people would be living there. There would be different religions, and consequently, linguistic and ethnic diversities would emerge. In the Indian context, the focus on spirituality has always been there. The swift pace of educational change is emerging as a prime contributor to the pace of progress of developmental initiatives. The relevance of education will have to be ensured professionally in the context of social, cultural and economic changes. The global acceptance of education for social cohesion and for learning to live together deserves in-depth attention and consideration in the national context. The perpetration of a model of education transplanted by alien rulers, even after five decades of independence, does not reflect positively on indigenous initiatives. Indian education must be rooted in Indian culture. At this juncture, everyone, whether educated, literate or illiterate, realises the significance of education for future generations. Even the weakest are willing to contribute literally everything to educate their children. Such universal acceptance never existed before. Simultaneously, it is necessary that a national consensus emerges on the need for desirable educational changes. This, of course, is in conformity with the stipulations of experts and policy statements as well. The regular revision of the school curriculum is a globally accepted phenomenon and any question of revising the curriculum framework after more than a decade need not give rise to any apprehension in any quarter. Developing nations need peace, harmony and the willingness to work together among its citizens and communities. India sorely needs this as it still has to win the battles against poverty, illiteracy and socio-economic inequalities. Only a total national effort can contribute effectively to these. India’s 50 lakh school teachers can transform future society once they internalise the importance of their role and the tasks assigned to them. The commitment and performance of teachers, which is often projected as a matter of serious concern, can be changed only if public opinion is also transformed by political and religious leaders on the one hand, and social workers, intellectuals, thinkers and educationists, on the other. The role of the media has somewhat been discouraging. Even the national channels find no time to telecast suitable programmes for children and teachers. Commercialisation appears to have overtaken national requirements, which should get top priority, like transforming society through imparting the appropriate type of education, that inculcates values like respect, tolerance and creativity among the youth of this country. The Indian education system need not be bogged down by its of-trumpeted failures. The achievements of the past are considerable. In the last five decades, we have achieved a literacy rate of over 60 per cent. And this has been through indigenous efforts. Undoubtedly, we have much more to achieve but that needs to be done in an environment of optimism and motivation. The entire focus of school education both in and out of the classroom needs to prepare the individual to understand his duties and responsibilities on the one hand and the need to develop the necessary, competence, skills and attitudes to execute them on the other. Future education needs to be geared towards the culture of peace in which India’s diversities, pluralities and multiplicities will be treated as positive assets that contribute to national unity. School programmes, functions, and celebrations can reinforce these initiatives. Every school should have a mission statement. It should attempt to develop capacities and design activities to rediscover the local socio-cultural ethos that would contribute to developing a sense of belonging among children. It is the school education that needs to acknowledge and appropriately internalise among the learners the responsibility for the future and need to respect all life and living beings.

8. The essence of the Indian psyche has been

(a) To feel a universal emotionality
(b) To find the real self in the one divine
(c) Centered not on the individual self but on the whole world
(d) Dedication of oneself to the service of all humankind

9. The anathema to those influenced by the Western philosophy is the fact that

(a) Spirituality has a major part to play in education
(b) India has its own tradition and culture
(c) India has contributed to the world civilisation
(d) there are past historical truths of India

10. The Western countries have realised the need for spirituality in education because

(a) The Americans realised the worthlessness and wastes of war and bombs
(b) The Director-General of UNESCO visited India and brought in curricular changes
(c) A proposal to prepare a ‘spiritual man’ through school education has been made
(d) Of the religious, linguistic and ethnic diversities in Norway