Monday, February 4, 2013

Passage


Passage - 3

Today's developing economic use much less energy per capita than developed countries such as the United States did at similar incomes, showing the potential for lower-carbon growth. Adaptation and mitigation need to be integrated into a climate-smart development strategy that increases resilience, reduces the threat of further global warming, and improves development outcomes. Adaptation and mitigation measures can advance development, and prosperity can raise incomes and foster better institutions. A healthier population living in better-built houses and with access to bank loans and social security is better equipped to deal with a changing climate and its consequences. Advancing robust, resilient development policies that" promote adaptation is needed today because changes, in the climate, already begun, will increase even in the short term...........

10.    Which   of   the following   conditions   of growth can add to vulnerability?
1.   When the growth occurs due to excessive exploitation of mineral resources and forests.
2.   When the growth brings about a change in humankind's creative potential.
3.   When the growth is envisaged only for providing houses and social security to the people.
4.   When the growth occurs due to emphasis on farming only.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a)    1 only
(b)    2, 3 and 4 only
(c)    1 and 4 only
(d)    1, 2, 3 and 4

ANSWER: A

11.    What does low-carbon growth imply in the present context?
1.    More emphasis on the use of renewable sources of energy.
2.     Less emphasis on manufacturing sector and more emphasis on agriculture sector.
3.    Switching over from monoculture practices to mixed farming.
4.  Less demand for goods and services.
Select   the   correct   answer   using the codes given below:
(a)    1 only
(b)    3 and 4 only
(c)    1 and 4 only
(d)    None of the above implies low-carbon growth

ANSWER: D

12.    Which of the following conditions is/are necessary for sustainable economic growth?
1.    Spreading of economic prosperity more.
2.     Popularising/spreading of adaptive technologies widely.
3.    Investing on research in adaptation and mitigation technologies.
Select   the   correct   answer   using the codes given below:
(a)    1 only
(b)    2 and 3 only.
(c)    1 and 3 only
(d)    1, 2 and 3

ANSWER: B

13.    Which of the following inferences can be made from the passage?    
1.    Rainfed crops should not be cultivated in irrigated areas.
2.    Farming under water-deficient areas should not be a part of development strategy.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a)    1 only
(b)    2 only
(c)     Both I and 2
(d)    Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWER: D


14.    Consider the following assumptions
1.    Sustainable economic growth demands the use of creative potential of man.
2.    Intensive    agriculture    can    lead    to ecological backlash.
3.    Spread   of   economic   prosperity   can adversely    affect    the    ecology    and environment.
With reference to the passage, which of the above assumptions is/are valid?
(a)    1 only
(b)    2 and 3 only
(c)    1 and 3
(d)    Only 1, 2 and 3
ANSWER: D

15.    Which one of the following statements constitutes the central theme of this passage?
(a)    Countries with greater economic prosperity are better equipped to deal with the consequences of climate change.
(b)    Adaptation and mitigation should be integrated with        development strategies, s
(c)    Rapid economic growth should not be pursued by both developed and developing economies.
(d)    Some countries resort to overexploitation of natural resources for the sake of rapid development.

ANSWER: B


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 he 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 n few individual 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 (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) resistance was reported early as 1946. There is exponential increase in the numbers of m vertebrates 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 well as in weeds and plant pathogens, Take the Alabama leaf-worm, 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, problem-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 of 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 diseases, are so frightening that the social and health cost 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 al the pests

4.    The evolution of pesticide resistance is natural selection in action." What does it actually imply?
(a)    It is very natural for many organisms to have pesticide resistance.
(b)    Pesticide resistance among organisms is a universal phenomenon.
(c)    Some individuals in any given population show resistance after the application of pesticides.
(d)    None of the statements (a), (b) and (c) given- above is correct.

ANSWER: C

5.    With reference to the passage, consider the following statement.
1.    Use of chemical pesticides has become imperative in all the poor countries of the world.
2.    Chemical    pesticides should not have in role in sustainable agriculture.
3.    One pest can develop   resistance to many pesticides.
    Which of the statements given   above is/are correct?
(a)    1 and 2 only
(b)    3 only
(c)    1 and 3 only
(d)    1, 2 and 3

ANSWER: C

6.    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)    Pesticide are biodegradable.
(d)    None of the statements (a), (b) and (c) given above is correct.

ANSWER: D

7.    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 only
(c)    3 only
(d)    1, 2 and 3

ANSWER: B

8.    Why is the use of chemical pesticides generally justified by giving the examples of poor and developing countries?
1.    Development 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 pesticides addressing the problem of epidemic diseases of crops and eases the food problem.
3.    The social and heath costs of pesticides 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 only
(c)    2 only
(d)    1, 2 and 3

ANSWER: C

9.    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.

ANSWER: D

Friday, February 1, 2013

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow passage. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only...


Read the following  passage and answer the items that follow passage. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage I

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 field 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 conversion 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



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.



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

With reference to the passage...


The need for Competition Law becomes more evident when foreign direct investment (FDI) is liberalised. The impact of FDI is not always pro-competitive. Very often FDI takes the form of a foreign corporation acquiring a domestic enterprise or establishing a joint venture with one. By making such an acquisition the foreign investor may substantially lessen competition and gain a dominant position in the relevant market, thus charging higher prices. Another scenario is where the affiliates of two separate multinational companies (MNCs) have been established in competition with one another in a particular developing economy, following the liberisation of FDI. Subsequently, the parent companies overseas merge. With the affiliates no longer remaining independent, competition in the host country may be artificially inflated. Most of these adverse consequences of mergers and acquisitions by MNCs can be avoided if an effective competition law is in place. Also, an economy that has implemented an effective competition law is in a better position to attract FDI than one that has not. This is not just because most MNCs are expected to be accustomed to the operation of such a law in their home countries and know how to deal with such concerns but also that MNCs expect competition authorities to ensure a level playing field between domestic and foreign firms.

39. With reference to the passage, consider the following statements:

1. It is desirable that the impact of Foreign Direct investment should be pro-competitive.

2. The entry of foreign investors invariably leads to the inflated prices in domestic markets.

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


40. According to the passage, how does a foreign investor dominate the relevant domestic market?

1. Multinational companies get accustomed to domestic laws.

2. Foreign companies establish joint ventures with domestic companies.

3. Affiliates in a particular market/sector lose their independence as their parent companies overseas merge.

4. Foreign companies lower the cost of their products as compared to that of products of domestic companies.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

a) 1 and 2 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 1, 2 and 3 only

d) 1, 2, 3 and 4


41. What is the inference from this passage?

a) Foreign investors and multinational companies always dominate domestic market.

b) It is not in the best interest of domestic economy to allow mergers company.

c) With competition law, it is easy to ensure a level playing field between domestic and foreign firms.

d) For countries with open economy Foreign Direct investment is essential for growth.