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UPSC CSE CSAT 2019 · Paper II (CSAT) · Question 3 · Reading comprehension

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2019, General Studies Paper II (CSAT), Question 3 — Reading comprehension.

Passage—2

Education plays a great transformatory role in life, particularly so in this rapidly changing and globalizing world. Universities are the custodians of the intellectual capital and promoters of culture and specialized knowledge. Culture is an activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty and human feelings. A merely well informed man is only a bore on God’s earth. What we should aim at is producing men who possess both culture and expert knowledge. Their expert knowledge will give them a firm ground to start from and their culture will lead them as deep as philosophy and as high as art. Together it will impart meaning to human existence.

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

  1. 1.A society without well educated people cannot be transformed into a modern society.
  2. 2.Without acquiring culture, a person’s education is not complete.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) 2 only

The author wants people with 'both culture and expert knowledge' and dismisses the merely well-informed man as a bore, so education without culture is incomplete. The passage speaks of education transforming life, not of a society becoming 'modern'.

  • ✗ 1. The 'transformatory role' is 'in life'; the passage makes no claim about modernising a society, and 'cannot' sets a sweeping condition it never states.
  • ✓ 2. 'A merely well informed man is only a bore' and 'we should aim at... both culture and expert knowledge' — for the author, education lacking culture falls short.

Remember · Check what the passage is about — here an individual's education — and reject statements that shift to a different subject or add 'cannot'.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

Cite this question: UPSC CSE CSAT 2019, Q3 — minimalistias.com/pyqs/csat/2019/q3

In the UPSC syllabus: Reading comprehension › Inference & assumptions See it and tick it covered →

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