UPSC CSAT Mock Tests – Chapter 2: Mock Test 1 – Standard Level (80 MCQs)

Passage 1

In many States, electricity for farm pumps is supplied free or at a flat rate. The policy was meant to protect small farmers from the cost of irrigation, and for some years it did. But when the price of pumping is zero, the farmer has no reason to stop pumping, and the water table falls a little every year. The deeper the water, the larger the pump needed to lift it, and the larger the pump, the more electricity it draws. Those who can afford deeper borewells keep their crops alive; those who cannot see their shallow wells run dry. A subsidy designed for the small farmer thus ends up favouring the large one. Metering the supply and paying the farmer a fixed cash support, which he keeps if he uses less power, would protect his income without rewarding waste.

Which of the following best expresses the central idea of the passage?

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

The proposal in the last sentence of the passage assumes that:

What is the smallest number greater than 7 which, when divided by 12, 15 and 20, leaves a remainder of 7 in each case?

What is the unit digit of 13⁴⁵?

When the product 19 × 31 × 43 is divided by 8, what is left over?

Statements:

All painters are artists.

Some artists are teachers.

No teacher is a dancer.

Conclusions:

I. Some painters are teachers.

II. Some artists are not dancers.

Which of the following is correct?

Ravi will get the scholarship only if he scores above 90 per cent and attends at least 75 per cent of his classes. Ravi got the scholarship.

Which of the following must be true?

I. Ravi scored above 90 per cent.

II. Ravi attended at least 75 per cent of his classes.

Passage 2

Glaciers are often called the water towers of Asia, but the image can mislead. A tower stores water and releases it at will; a glacier releases more water when it is melting fast. For some decades, therefore, a warming climate may increase the flow of glacier-fed rivers. The danger lies later, when the glacier has shrunk so much that its summer melt falls. A region that plans for today's flow may find itself short of water just when its population is largest.

Which of the following is the most logical inference from the passage?

If the six-digit number 54k372 is divisible by 9, what is the digit k?

How many factors (divisors) does 360 have, including 1 and 360?

Passage 3

Every time an antibiotic is used, the few bacteria that happen to survive it are left with less competition. If the course is cut short, or the drug is given for a viral fever it cannot cure, the survivors multiply and pass on their resistance. The problem is therefore not only one of medicine but also of habit: a drug that works for everyone is used carelessly by each. No single patient sees the harm, because resistance builds up across millions of doses. That is why rules on prescription and sale matter as much as the discovery of new drugs.

Which of the following is a valid inference from the passage?

Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?

What is the term after 72 in 1, 2, 6, 12, 36, 72, …?

What comes next in the letter series A, C, F, J, O, …?

A number is first increased by 20 per cent and the result is then decreased by 20 per cent. What is the net change?

In an election between two candidates, the winner got 58 per cent of the valid votes and won by 4,800 votes. If 4 per cent of the votes polled were invalid, how many votes were polled?

Passage 4

Mangroves grow where few other trees can: in salt water that floods and drains twice a day. Their tangled roots slow down waves and trap silt, so a belt of mangroves can reduce the force of a storm surge before it reaches a village. The same roots shelter young fish and crabs, and many coastal families depend on that catch. Yet mangroves have long been treated as wasteland, cleared for shrimp ponds, ports and housing. The loss is seldom counted, because the services a mangrove gives – protection, nursery grounds, carbon stored in its mud – are not sold in any market. A ledger that records only what is sold will always find it profitable to cut them down.

According to the passage, mangroves are cleared mainly because:

Which of the following is the most logical corollary of the passage?

In the passage, the word "ledger" refers to:

Data set 1

The table shows the production of three crops in a district (in thousand tonnes).

In which year was the percentage increase in rice production over the previous year the highest?

In 2024, pulses formed approximately what percentage of the total production of the three crops?

What was the average annual production of wheat over the four years?

Passage 5

Funds given to village panchayats are often tied to particular schemes, each with its own guidelines. A panchayat that needs a culvert may receive money only for a community hall. Untied grants let the village decide what it needs most, and the people who live with the result are often the best judges of it. Untied money can be misused, of course, but so can tied money; the difference is that with untied funds the village can at least be held responsible for its own choices.

The author favours untied grants mainly because they:

Goods are priced 30 per cent over cost, and buyers get 10 per cent off that price. What profit per cent does the seller make?

By selling an article for ₹1,140, a trader loses 5 per cent. At what price should he sell it to gain 10 per cent?

Reasoning set 1

Six friends P, Q, R, S, T and U sit in a row facing north.

– R sits at one of the ends of the row.

– Q sits third to the right of R.

– U sits between Q and S, next to both.

– T is an immediate neighbour of R.

Who sits at the right end of the row?

Who sits between T and Q?

How many persons sit between R and U?

Passage 6

Cities draw workers because they pay more than villages, but they rarely plan for the people they draw. A construction worker who moves to the city for wages finds that the cheapest room near work is in a settlement that has no title, no sewer and no address. Without an address he cannot easily open a bank account or move his ration card, and so he remains a stranger in the city whose buildings he raises. Planning that counts only land and buildings, and not the workers who build them, creates the very slums it later tries to remove.

The main concern of the author is that:

The phrase "a stranger in the city whose buildings he raises" suggests that the worker:

₹7,200 is divided among A, B and C in the ratio 2 : 3 : 4. By how much does C's share exceed A's share?

A 60-litre mixture contains milk and water in the ratio 3 : 1. How much water must be added to make the ratio 3 : 2?

Meena cycles 9 km towards the south, turns right and cycles 7 km, and then turns left and cycles 15 km. Where is she now with respect to her starting point?

What is the angle between the hour hand and the minute hand of a clock at 3:40?

Passage 7

When a State gave free bicycles to all girls entering secondary school, the effect was most visible in villages far from the nearest high school. For a girl living next door to a school, a bicycle changed little; for one who lived several kilometres away, it made the difference between continuing and stopping. A benefit given to all thus had its largest effect on those for whom distance was the barrier.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

The average of 11 numbers is 36. The average of the first six numbers is 32 and that of the last six is 40. What is the sixth number?

The average age of 30 students in a class is 14 years. When the teacher's age is included, the average rises by 1 year. What is the teacher's age?

Passage 8

A public office that is never asked how it is doing has no reason to improve. Private firms learn from customers who walk away; a citizen who needs a caste certificate or a land record has nowhere else to go. For such services, the citizen's voice must take the place of the customer's choice. Simple tools help: a fixed time limit for each service, a receipt that shows the date of application, and a published count of how many applications were cleared on time. None of these needs new technology. What they need is a willingness to be measured – and the measurement must be made public, because a figure that only the office sees can be quietly forgotten.

Which of the following best captures the crux of the passage?

According to the passage, why does a private firm have a reason to improve?

The author assumes that:

You are the officer in charge of relief after a flood. Local leaders insist that relief should first reach the villages of their supporters. What is the most appropriate course of action?

The present ages of a father and his son are in the ratio 7 : 2. After 10 years, the ratio will be 9 : 4. What is the father's present age?

Pens cost ₹12 each and notebooks ₹30 each. Ravi spends exactly ₹246 on pens and notebooks, buying at least one of each. In how many different ways can he do this?

Passage 9

It is fashionable to say that science has "proved" this or that. Science does not prove; it tests. A good theory is one that has survived many attempts to show it wrong and remains open to the next attempt. When scientists speak of certainty, they speak loosely; when the public hears of certainty, it hears finality. Much of the distrust of science begins in that gap.

According to the author, public distrust of science arises partly because:

Statement: "Use public transport and save fuel." – an advertisement issued by a city transport corporation.

Assumptions:

I. Some people will respond to the advertisement.

II. Public transport uses less fuel for each traveller than private vehicles.

Which of the following is correct?

Argument: "Students who take notes by hand remember more than those who type them, so schools should ban laptops in class." Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?

A sum of money doubles itself in 8 years at simple interest. In how many years will it become four times itself at the same rate?

What is the compound interest on ₹12,000 for 3 years at 5 per cent a year, compounded annually?

A alone needs 15 days for a task and B alone 20 days. After both work for 6 days, A quits. How many more days does B need to complete the task?

Passage 10

Millets need far less water than rice and can grow on poor soils, yet for decades their share of the plate shrank. Cheap rice and wheat through the ration system, the ease of cooking them, and the idea that millets were food for the poor all played a part. Bringing millets back is not only a matter of telling people they are healthy. Farmers will grow them only if they can sell them at a fair price, and families will eat them only if they are easy to buy and cook. Without both, campaigns change slogans, not diets.

Which of the following is the most logical inference from the passage?

The passage assumes that:

In a certain code, TABLE is written as FMCBU. How is CHAIR written in that code?

Find the odd one out: 121, 169, 289, 323

Passage 11

Rules are written for the usual case; officers meet the unusual one. A rule that forbids any change to a deadline may be fair to a thousand applicants and cruel to the one whose papers were lost in a flood. Discretion lets an officer do justice in such a case. But discretion without a record is an invitation to favour. The answer is not to remove discretion but to require that every exception be written down with its reason, so that the next officer, and the public, can see whether like cases were treated alike.

Which of the following best captures the crux of the passage?

According to the passage, recording the reasons for exceptions helps mainly to:

Pipes A and B can fill a tank in 24 minutes and 40 minutes respectively, and pipe C can empty the full tank in 20 minutes. If all three are opened together on an empty tank, in how many minutes will it be full?

A train 180 m long crosses a platform 120 m long in 15 seconds. What is the speed of the train?

A man travels to his office at 30 km/h and returns along the same road at 20 km/h. What is his average speed for the whole journey?

Passage 12

A family that keeps its savings in a box at home may feel safe, but when prices rise by six per cent a year, the money in the box buys six per cent less each year. The loss is invisible because the number of notes does not change. Saving, therefore, is not merely putting money aside; it is putting it where its value is protected.

The passage implies that:

Going with the current, a boat travels 36 km in 3 hours; against it, 24 km takes 4 hours. Find the speed of the current.

The perimeter of a rectangle is 46 cm and its diagonal is 17 cm. What is its area?

A circular park has a radius of 35 m. A path 7 m wide runs round it on the outside. What is the area of the path? (Take π = 22/7.)

Passage 13

The spread of digital payments has made small transactions faster and cheaper to record. A vendor who once kept no accounts now has a record of every sale, and that record can help him get a loan. But the same record can shut out those who are not online. An elderly pensioner without a smartphone, or a village where the network fails, still needs cash. A payment system is inclusive only if it works for the person with the least access, not merely for the average user.

Which of the following best reflects the author's view?

The last sentence of the passage implies that:

Statements:

No metal is a liquid.

Some liquids are fuels.

All fuels are useful.

Conclusions:

I. Some useful things are liquids.

II. Some fuels are not metals.

Which of the following is correct?

Of five boxes A, B, C, D and E, A is heavier than B but lighter than C. D is heavier than C. E is lighter than B. Which box is the second heaviest?

Pointing to a woman, Arun said, "Her mother is the only daughter of my mother's father." How is the woman related to Arun?

Passage 14

Cities are warmer than the countryside around them, especially at night. Concrete and asphalt soak up heat by day and release it slowly after dark, while trees and open water, which cool the air, are replaced by buildings. The poorest residents, living in crowded tin-roofed rooms without fans, feel this heat most. Planting trees and painting roofs white are cheap remedies, but they work best where they are needed most – in the neighbourhoods least able to pay for them.

Which of the following is the most logical corollary of the passage?

The six letters of the word BANANA can be placed in a row in how many distinct orders?

Two fair dice are thrown together. What is the probability that the sum of the numbers is 8?

How many numbers from 1 to 300 are divisible by 3 or by 5?

Passage 15

A judgment written in a language that the litigant cannot read is a decision about him, not a message to him. Courts have begun to publish translations of important judgments in Indian languages. The step matters less for lawyers, who can read the original, than for citizens who want to know why they won or lost.

The author values the translation of judgments mainly because it:

1 January 2027 is a Friday. What day of the week will 1 March 2027 be?

A cube painted red on all faces is cut into 125 equal smaller cubes. How many of the smaller cubes have exactly one face painted?

In a two-digit number, the tens digit is twice the units digit. If the digits are reversed, the number decreases by 36. What is the number?

Which of the following is the largest?

Which of the following fractions is the greatest?

As a team leader, you notice that a senior colleague often interrupts junior staff in meetings, and the juniors have stopped offering ideas. What is the best first step?

Question: What is the average weight of the five members of a family – two parents and three children?

Statement 1: The three children together weigh 96 kg.

Statement 2: The two parents together weigh 134 kg.