Minimalist IAS
CSAT 2020 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2020 · Question 41 · Reading comprehension

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message of the passage?

Directions for the following 6 (six) items: Read the following five passages and answer the items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage—1

Spanish ships in the late 16th century first brought the potato tuber from South America to Europe whereby in the early 19th century, it had become a reliable backup to cereal crops, particularly in the cold, rain-soaked soils of Ireland. The Irish were soon almost wholly dependent on the potato as their staple food. And they were planting primarily one prodigious variety, the ‘Lumper’ potato, whose genetic frailty would be cruelly exposed by the fungus ‘Phytophthora infestans’. In 1845, spores of the deadly fungus began spreading across the country, destroying nearly all the Lumpers in its path. The resulting famine killed or displaced millions.

CSAT 2020 · Q41

Reading comprehension Easy

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message of the passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (d) Relying on a homogeneous food source is not desirable.

Ireland depended almost wholly on the potato, and mostly on a single variety, the Lumper. When one fungus struck that genetically frail variety, nearly the whole food supply failed at once. The lesson is the danger of depending on a uniform food source.

  • ✗ (a) The potato suited Ireland's 'cold, rain-soaked soils' well; the famine came from disease, not unsuitable soil or climate.
  • ✗ (b) The potato did serve as Ireland's staple; the passage faults reliance on one variety, not tubers as such.
  • ✗ (c) The passage does not say the fungus was unstoppable; the scale of disaster came from nearly all plants being the same vulnerable variety.
  • ✓ (d) The Irish were 'almost wholly dependent' on the potato and planted 'primarily one' variety, whose 'genetic frailty' let one fungus destroy nearly all of it.

Remember · Ask what turned one fungus into a national famine; the 'critical message' is that underlying cause, not the event itself.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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