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UPSC CSE CSAT 2019 · Question 8 · Reading comprehension

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Passage—7

Around 56 million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean had not fully opened and animals, perhaps including our primate ancestors, could walk from Asia to North America through Europe and across Greenland. Earth was warmer than it is today, but as the Palaeocene epoch gave way to Eocene, it was about to get much warmer still — rapidly and radically. The cause was a massive geologically sudden release of carbon. During this period called Palaeocene – Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM, the carbon injected into the atmosphere was roughly the amount that would be injected today if humans burned all the Earth’s reserves of coal, oil and natural gas. The PETM lasted for about 1,50,000 years, until the excess carbon was reabsorbed. It brought on drought, floods, insect plagues and a few extinctions. Life on Earth survived — indeed, it prospered — but it was drastically different.

CSAT 2019 · Q8

Reading comprehension Medium

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

  1. 1.Global warming has a bearing on the planet’s biological evolution.
  2. 2.Separation of land masses causes the release of huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere.
  3. 3.Increased warming of Earth’s atmosphere can change the composition of its flora and fauna.
  4. 4.The present man-made global warming will finally lead to conditions similar to those which happened 56 million years ago.

Which of the assumptions given above are valid?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) 1 and 3

The PETM warming brought extinctions and left life 'drastically different', so warming bears on the course of evolution and can change the mix of plants and animals. The carbon release is not tied to continents separating, and the passage compares only amounts of carbon, not future outcomes.

  • ✓ 1. Warming brought drought, floods, insect plagues and extinctions; life survived but was 'drastically different' — warming shaped its course.
  • ✗ 2. The unopened Atlantic is only background; the cause of warming was 'a massive geologically sudden release of carbon', not linked to land masses separating.
  • ✓ 3. Extinctions and a 'drastically different' life mean the composition of flora and fauna changed.
  • ✗ 4. The passage compares the carbon released with burning all fossil reserves; it does not predict that today's warming 'will finally lead' to PETM conditions.

Remember · A comparison of quantities ('roughly the amount') is not a forecast; reject 'will finally lead to' claims the passage never makes.

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). ·

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