IAS CSAT — Comprehension previous year questions with solutions.
Seven year old Jim came home from the park without his new bicycle. “An old man and a little boy borrowed it”, he explained. “They are going to bring it back at four o’clock.” His parents were upset that he has given his expensive new bicycle, but were secretly proud of his kindness and faith. Came four o’clock, no bicycle. The parents were anxious. But at 4:30, the doorbell rang, and there stood a happy man and a boy, with a bicycle and a box of chocolates. Jim suddenly disappeared in to bed room, and then came running out. “All right” he said after examining the bicycle. “You can have your watch back!” When Jim came home without his bicycle, his parents:
Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. The law in many parts of the world increasingly restricts the discharge of agricultural slurry in to water courses. The simplest and most economically sound practice returns the material to the land as semisolid manure or as sprayed slurry. This dilutes its concentration in the environment to what might have occurred in a more primitive and sustainable type of agriculture and converts pollutant into fertilizer. Soil microorganisms decompose the organic components of sewage and slurry and most of the mineral nutrients become available to be absorbed again by the vegetation. The excess input of the nutrients, both nitrogen and phosphorus – based, from agricultural runoff (and human sewage) has caused many ‘healthy’ oligotrophic lakes (low nutrient concentrations, low plant productivity with abundant water weeds, and clear water) to change to eutrophic condition where high nutrient lead to high phytoplankton productivity (sometimes dominated by bloom-forming toxic species). This makes the water turbid, eliminates large plants and, in the worst situations, leads to anoxia and fish kills; so called cultural eutrophication. Thus important ecosystem services are lost, including the provisioning service of wild-caught fish and cultural service associated with recreation. The process of cultural eutrophication of lakes has been understood for some time. But only recently did scientists notice huge ‘dead zones’ in the oceans near river outlets, particularly those draining large catchment areas such as Mississippi and North America and the Yangtze in China. The nutrient enriched water flows through streams, rivers and lakes and eventually to the estuary and ocean where the ecological impact may be huge, killing virtually all invertebrates and fish in areas up to 70,000 km2 in extent. More than 150 sea areas worldwide are now regularly starved of oxygen as a result of decomposition of algal blooms, fueled particularly by nitrogen from agricultural runoff of fertilizers and sewage from large cities. Oceanic dead zones are typically associated with industrialized nations and usually lie off countries that subsidize their agriculture, encouraging farmers to increase productivity and use more fertilizer. The passage refers to the conversion of “pollutant to fertilizer”. What is the pollutant and what is the fertilizer in this context?
It was already late when we set out for the next town, which according to the map was about fifteen kilometers away on the other side of the hills. There we felt that we would find a bed for the night. Darkness fell soon after we left the village, but luckily we met no one as we drove swiftly along the narrow winding road that led to the hills. As we climbed higher, it became colder and rain began to fall, making it difficult at times to see the road. I asked John, my companion, to drive more slowly. After we had travelled for about twenty kilometers, there was still no sign of the town which was marked on the map. We were beginning to get worried. Then without warning, the car stopped and we found we had run Out of petrol. The travellers were worried after twenty kilometers because
A number of empirical studies find that farmers are risk averse, though only moderately in many cases. There is also evidence to show that farmers’ risk aversion results in crop-ping patterns and input use designed to reduce risk rather than to maximize income. Farmers adopt a number of strategies to manage and cope with agricultural risks. These include practices like crop and field diversification, non-form employment, storage of stocks and strategic migration of family members. These are also institutions ranging from share tenancy to kinship, extended family and informal credit agencies. One major obstacle to risk sharing by farmers is that the same type of risk can affect a large number of farmers in the region. Empirical studies show that the traditional methods are not adequate. Hence there is a need for policy interventions, especially methods that cut across geographical regions. Policies may aim at tackling agricultural risks directly or indirectly. Examples of risk-specific policies are crop insurance, price stabilization and the development of varieties resistant to pests and diseases. Policies which affect risk indirectly are irrigation, subsidized credit and access to information. No single risk specific policy is sufficient to reduce risk and is without side effects, whereas policies not specific to risk influence the general situation and affect risks only indirectly. Crop insurance as a policy measure to tackle agricultural risk directly, deserves careful consideration in the Indian context and in many other developing countries – because the majority of farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture and in many areas yield variability is the predominant cause of their income instability. The need for policy intervention to mitigate risks in agriculture is because:
Malnutrition most commonly occurs between the ages of six months and two years. This happens despite the child’s food requirements being less than that of an older child. Malnutrition is often attributed to poverty, but it has been found that even in households where adults eat adequate quantities of food, more than fifty per cent of children-under-five do not consume enough food. The child’s dependence on someone else to feed him/her is primarily responsible for the malnutrition. Very often the mother is working and the responsibility of feeding the young child is left to an older sibling. It is therefore crucial to increase awareness regarding the child’s food needs and how to satisfy them. According to the author, poverty is not the main cause of malnutrition, but the fact that. 1. taking care of younger ones is not a priority for working mothers. 2. awareness of nutritional needs is not propagated by the public health authorities. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. Financial markets in India have acquired greater depth and liquidity over the years. Steady reforms since 1991 have led to growing linkages and its financial system with the global economy. Weak global economic prospects and continuing uncertainties in the international financial markets therefore, have had their impact on the emerging market economies. Sovereign risk concerns particularly in the Euro area, affected financial markets for the greater part of the year with contagion of Greece’s sovereign debt problem spreading to India and other economies by way of higher-than-normal levels of volatility. The funding constraints in international financial markets could impact both the availability and cost of foreign funding for banks and corporates. Since the Indian financial system is bank dominated, banks ability to withstand stress is critical to overall financial stability. Indian banks, however remains robust, not with standing a decline in capital to risk weighed assets ratio and a raise in nonperforming asset levels in the recent past. Capital adequacy levels remain above the regularity requirements. The financial market infrastructure continues to function without any major disruption. With further globalization, consolidation, deregulation and diversification of these financial systems, the banking business may become more complex and riskier. Issues like risk and liquidity management and enhancing skill therefore assume greater significance. The Indian financial markets are affected by global changes mainly due to the:
Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. The law in many parts of the world increasingly restricts the discharge of agricultural slurry in to water courses. The simplest and most economically sound practice returns the material to the land as semisolid manure or as sprayed slurry. This dilutes its concentration in the environment to what might have occurred in a more primitive and sustainable type of agriculture and converts pollutant into fertilizer. Soil microorganisms decompose the organic components of sewage and slurry and most of the mineral nutrients become available to be absorbed again by the vegetation. The excess input of the nutrients, both nitrogen and phosphorus – based, from agricultural runoff (and human sewage) has caused many ‘healthy’ oligotrophic lakes (low nutrient concentrations, low plant productivity with abundant water weeds, and clear water) to change to eutrophic condition where high nutrient lead to high phytoplankton productivity (sometimes dominated by bloom-forming toxic species). This makes the water turbid, eliminates large plants and, in the worst situations, leads to anoxia and fish kills; so called cultural eutrophication. Thus important ecosystem services are lost, including the provisioning service of wild-caught fish and cultural service associated with recreation. The process of cultural eutrophication of lakes has been understood for some time. But only recently did scientists notice huge ‘dead zones’ in the oceans near river outlets, particularly those draining large catchment areas such as Mississippi and North America and the Yangtze in China. The nutrient enriched water flows through streams, rivers and lakes and eventually to the estuary and ocean where the ecological impact may be huge, killing virtually all invertebrates and fish in areas up to 70,000 km2 in extent. More than 150 sea areas worldwide are now regularly starved of oxygen as a result of decomposition of algal blooms, fueled particularly by nitrogen from agricultural runoff of fertilizers and sewage from large cities. Oceanic dead zones are typically associated with industrialized nations and usually lie off countries that subsidize their agriculture, encouraging farmers to increase productivity and use more fertilizer. What is/are the characteristics of a water body with cultural eutrophication? 1. Loss of ecosystem services. 2. Loss of flora and fauna. 3. Loss of mineral nutrients.
Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. The law in many parts of the world increasingly restricts the discharge of agricultural slurry in to water courses. The simplest and most economically sound practice returns the material to the land as semisolid manure or as sprayed slurry. This dilutes its concentration in the environment to what might have occurred in a more primitive and sustainable type of agriculture and converts pollutant into fertilizer. Soil microorganisms decompose the organic components of sewage and slurry and most of the mineral nutrients become available to be absorbed again by the vegetation. The excess input of the nutrients, both nitrogen and phosphorus – based, from agricultural runoff (and human sewage) has caused many ‘healthy’ oligotrophic lakes (low nutrient concentrations, low plant productivity with abundant water weeds, and clear water) to change to eutrophic condition where high nutrient lead to high phytoplankton productivity (sometimes dominated by bloom-forming toxic species). This makes the water turbid, eliminates large plants and, in the worst situations, leads to anoxia and fish kills; so called cultural eutrophication. Thus important ecosystem services are lost, including the provisioning service of wild-caught fish and cultural service associated with recreation. The process of cultural eutrophication of lakes has been understood for some time. But only recently did scientists notice huge ‘dead zones’ in the oceans near river outlets, particularly those draining large catchment areas such as Mississippi and North America and the Yangtze in China. The nutrient enriched water flows through streams, rivers and lakes and eventually to the estuary and ocean where the ecological impact may be huge, killing virtually all invertebrates and fish in areas up to 70,000 km2 in extent. More than 150 sea areas worldwide are now regularly starved of oxygen as a result of decomposition of algal blooms, fueled particularly by nitrogen from agricultural runoff of fertilizers and sewage from large cities. Oceanic dead zones are typically associated with industrialized nations and usually lie off countries that subsidize their agriculture, encouraging farmers to increase productivity and use more fertilizer. According to the passage, why should the discharge agricultural slurry into watercourses be restricted? 1. Losing nutrients in this way is not good practice economically. 2. Water courses do not contain microorganisms that can decompose organic components of agricultural slurry. 3. The discharge may lead to the eutrophication of water bodies.
Malnutrition most commonly occurs between the ages of six months and two years. This happens despite the child’s food requirements being less than that of an older child. Malnutrition is often attributed to poverty, but it has been found that even in households where adults eat adequate quantities of food, more than fifty per cent of children-under-five do not consume enough food. The child’s dependence on someone else to feed him/her is primarily responsible for the malnutrition. Very often the mother is working and the responsibility of feeding the young child is left to an older sibling. It is therefore crucial to increase awareness regarding the child’s food needs and how to satisfy them. According to the passage, malnutrition in children can be reduced:
It was already late when we set out for the next town, which according to the map was about fifteen kilometers away on the other side of the hills. There we felt that we would find a bed for the night. Darkness fell soon after we left the village, but luckily we met no one as we drove swiftly along the narrow winding road that led to the hills. As we climbed higher, it became colder and rain began to fall, making it difficult at times to see the road. I asked John, my companion, to drive more slowly. After we had travelled for about twenty kilometers, there was still no sign of the town which was marked on the map. We were beginning to get worried. Then without warning, the car stopped and we found we had run Out of petrol. The travellers set out for the town although it was getting dark because
The miseries of the world cannot be cured by physical help only. Until man’s nature changes, his physical needs will always arise, and miseries will always be felt, and no amount of physical help will remove them completely. The only solution of the problem is to make mankind pure. Ignorance is the mother of evil and of all the misery we see. Let men have light, let men have light, let them be pure and spiritually strong and educated; then along will misery cease in the country into a charitable asylum we may fill the land with hospitals, but human misery will continue until man’s character change. According to the passage, which of the following statements is most likely to be true as the reason for man’s miseries?
A local man, staying on the top floor of an old wooden house, was awakened at midnight by a fire. Losing his way in a smoke-filled passage, he missed the stairway and went into another room. He picked up a bundle to protect his face from the fire and immediately fell through the floor below where he managed to escape through a clear doorway. The ‘bundle’ proved to be the baby of the Mayor's wife. The ‘hero’ was congratulated by all. The man was called a hero because he
Most champions of democracy have been rather reticent in suggesting that democracy would itself-promote development and enhancement of social welfare - they have tended to see them as good but distinctly separate and largely independent goals. The detractors of democracy, on the other hand, seemed to have been quite willing to express their diagnosis of what they see as serious tensions between democracy and development. The theorists of the practical split - ‘Make up your mind: do you want democracy, or instead, do you want development?’ - Often came, at least to start with, from East Asian countries, and their voice grew in influence as several of these countries were immensely successful - through the 1970s and 1980s and even later - in promoting economic growth without pursuing democracy. To deal with these issues we have to pay particular attention to both the content of what can be called development and to the interpretation of democracy (in particular to the respective roles of voting and of public reasoning.) The assessment of development cannot be divorced from the lives that people can lead and the real freedom that they enjoy: Development can scarcely be seen merely in terms of enhancement of inanimate objects of convenience, such as a rise in the GNP (or in personal incomes), or industrialization - important as they may be as means to the real ends. Their value must depend on what they do to the lives and freedom of the people involved, which must be central to the idea of development. If development is understood in a broader way, with a focus on human lives, then it becomes immediately clear that the relation between development and democracy has to be seen partly in terms of their constitutive connection, rather than only through their external links. Even though the question has often been asked whether political freedom is ‘conducive to development’, we must not miss the crucial recognition that political liberties and democratic rights are among the ‘constituent components’ of development. Their relevance for development does not have to be established indirectly through their contribution to the growth of GNP. According to the passage, why is a serious tension perceived between democracy and development by the detractors of democracy?
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. Community-identity 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 mariginalized, 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. Greater democratization in India has not necessarily led to
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 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 (dichloro diphenyltrichloroethane) 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 disease, 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 all the pests. Though the problems associated with the use of chemical pesticides is known for a long time, their widespread use has not waned. Why?
Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. Invasions of exotic species into new geographic areas sometimes occur naturally and without human agency. However, human actions have increased this trickle to a flood. Human caused introductions may occur either accidentally as a consequence of human transport, or intentionally but illegally to serve some private purpose or legitimately to procure some hoped-for public benefit by bringing a pest under control, producing new agricultural products new agricultural products or providing novel recreational opportunities. Many introduced species are assimilated into communities without much obvious effect. However, some have been responsible for dramatic changes to native species and natural communities. For example, the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake Boigairregularis into Guam, an island in the Pacific, has through nest predation reduced 10 endemic forest bird species to the point of extinction. One of the major reasons for the world’s great biodiversity is the occurrence of centers of endemism so that similar habitats in different parts of the world are occupied by different groups of species that happen to have evolved there. If every species naturally had access to everywhere on the globe, we might expect a relatively small number of successful species to become dominant in each biome. The extent to which this homogenization can happen naturally is restricted by the limited powers of dispersal. By virtue of the transport opportunities offered by humans, these barriers have been breached by an ever-increasing number of exotic species. The effects of introductions have been to convert a hugely diverse range of local community compositions into something much more homogeneous. It would be wrong, however, to conclude that introducing species to a region will inevitably cause a decline in species richness there. For example, there are numerous species of plants, invertebrates and vertebrates found in continental Europe but absent from the British Isles (many because they have so far failed to recolonize after the last glaciations). Their introduction would be likely to significant detrimental effect noted above arises where aggressive species provide a novel challenge to endemic biotas ill-equipped to deal with them. Why does man introduce exotic species into new geographical areas?
For fourteen and a half months I lived in my little call or room in the Dehradun jail, and I began to feel as if I was almost a part of it. I was familiar with every bit of it, I knew every mark and dent on the whitewashed walls and on the uneven floor and the ceiling with its moth-eaten rafters. In the little yard outside I greeted little tufts of grass and odd bits of stone as old friends. I was not alone in my cell, for several colonies of wasp and hornets lived there, and many lizards found a home behind the rafters, emerging in the evenings in search of prey. The author of the passage seems to suggest that:
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 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 (dichloro diphenyltrichloroethane) 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 disease, 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 all the pests. 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?
The need for Competition Law becomes more evident when foreign direct investment (FDI) is liberalized. 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 liberalization of FDI. Subsequently, the parent companies overseas merge. With the affiliate’s no longer remaining independent, competition in the host country may be virtually eliminated and the prices of the products 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. What is the inference from this passage?
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 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 (dichloro diphenyltrichloroethane) 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 disease, 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 all the pests. 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, pesticides address the problem of epidemic diseases of crops and eases the food problem. 3. The social and health costs of pesticides use are generally ignored in poor and developing countries. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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 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 (dichloro diphenyltrichloroethane) 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 disease, 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 all the pests. The evolution of pesticide resistance is natural selection in action.’ What does it actually imply?
For fourteen and a half months I lived in my little call or room in the Dehradun jail, and I began to feel as if I was almost a part of it. I was familiar with every bit of it, I knew every mark and dent on the whitewashed walls and on the uneven floor and the ceiling with its moth-eaten rafters. In the little yard outside I greeted little tufts of grass and odd bits of stone as old friends. I was not alone in my cell, for several colonies of wasp and hornets lived there, and many lizards found a home behind the rafters, emerging in the evenings in search of prey. Which of the following explains best the sentences in the passage ‘I was almost a part of it’?
Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. The poor especially in market economies need the strength that collectivises 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 collectivises, offers substantial scope for poverty as well as enhancing agricultural productivity. To realize this potential, however, the groups would need to be voluntary in nature, small in size, participative in decision making and equitable in work sharing and benefit distribution. There are many notable examples of such collectivises 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. Consider the following assumptions: 1. It is imperative for transition economies to have agricultural collectivises. 2. Agricultural productivity can be increased by group approach to fanning. With reference to the above passage, which of these assumptions is/are valid?
We started pitching the highest camp that has ever been made. Everything took five times as long as it would have taken in a place where there was enough air to breathe; but at last we got the tent up, and when we crawled in, it was not too bad. There was only a light wind, and inside it was not too cold for us to take off our gloves. At night most climbers take off their boots; but I prefer to keep them on. Hillary, on the other hand, took his off and laid them next to his sleeping bag. When they crawled into the tent