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CSAT 2018 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2018 · Question 78 · Reading comprehension

What is the most rational and crucial message given by the passage?

Directions for the following 3 (three) items: Read the following two passages and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage—1

The quest for cheap and plentiful meat has resulted in factory farms where more and more animals are squeezed into smaller lots in cruel and shocking conditions. Such practices have resulted in many of the world’s health pandemics such as the avian flu. Worldwide, livestock are increasingly raised in cruel, cramped conditions, where animals spend their short lives under artificial light, pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones, until the day they are slaughtered. Meat production is water-intensive. 15000 litres of water is needed for every kilogram of meat compared with 3400 litres for rice, 3300 litres for eggs and 255 litres for a kilogram of potatoes.

CSAT 2018 · Q78

Reading comprehension Medium

What is the most rational and crucial message given by the passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (d) Environmental cost of meat production is unsustainable when it is produced through industrial farming.

The passage describes factory farming's cruelty and health risks and ends on its water cost — 15000 litres per kilogram of meat against 255 for potatoes. The crucial message is that industrially produced meat carries an unsustainable environmental cost.

  • ✗ (a) The quest for 'cheap and plentiful meat' is mentioned only to criticise where it has led; nothing recommends it for poor countries.
  • ✗ (b) Conditions are called 'cruel', but the passage never mentions laws or their violation.
  • ✗ (c) The passage criticises industrial farming but calls for no immediate stop; the option goes further than the text.
  • ✓ (d) The passage's evidence builds to this: meat is 'water-intensive', needing 15000 litres a kilogram against far less for rice, eggs or potatoes — a cost industrial scale makes unsustainable.

Remember · Choose the message the passage's evidence builds towards; avoid options that add legal claims or drastic prescriptions.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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