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UPSC CSE CSAT 2017 · Question 8 · Reading comprehension

The author suggests that habits

Passage—8

There is no harm in cultivating habits so long as they are not injurious. Indeed, most of us are little more than bundle of habits. Take away our habits and the residuum would hardly be worth bothering about. We could not get on without them. They simplify the mechanism of life. They enable us to do a multitude of things automatically, which, if we had to give fresh and original thought to them each time, would make existence an impossible confusion.

CSAT 2017 · Q8

Reading comprehension Easy

The author suggests that habits

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) make it easier for us to live

The author says habits 'simplify the mechanism of life' and let us do many things automatically; without them existence would be 'an impossible confusion'. So habits make it easier for us to live.

  • ✗ (a) The opposite of the passage, which says we 'could not get on without them'.
  • ✗ (b) Precision is not mentioned; the benefit described is ease — not having to think afresh every time.
  • ✓ (c) Habits simplify life and spare us fresh thought for every routine act, so they make living easier.
  • ✗ (d) The passage does speak of the 'mechanism of life' and of doing things automatically, but as a help, not as a complaint that habits mechanize life.

Remember · Match the author's attitude: a passage that praises something will not support an option that criticises it, even if the option borrows the passage's words.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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