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CSAT 2022 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2022 · Question 1 · Reading comprehension

Unsustainability in production pattern is due to which of the following?

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

Passage—1

The main threat to maintaining progress in human development comes from the increasingly evident unsustainability of production and consumption patterns. Current production models rely heavily on fossil fuels. We now know that this is unsustainable because the resources are finite. The close link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions needs to be severed for human development to become truly sustainable. Some developed countries have begun to alleviate the worst effects by expanding recycling and investing in public transport and infrastructure. But most developing countries are hampered by the high costs and low availability of clean energy sources. Developed countries need to support developing countries’ transition to sustainable human development.

CSAT 2022 · Q1

Reading comprehension Easy

Unsustainability in production pattern is due to which of the following?

  1. 1.Heavy dependence on fossil fuels
  2. 2.Limited availability of resources
  3. 3.Expansion of recycling

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Answer & explanation

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The passage says current production models rely heavily on fossil fuels and that this is unsustainable because the resources are finite. Recycling appears only as a remedy some developed countries are using, never as a cause.

  • ✓ 1. “Current production models rely heavily on fossil fuels. We now know that this is unsustainable…” — heavy dependence on fossil fuels is named as the problem.
  • ✓ 2. The reason given is “because the resources are finite” — that is, resources are available only in limited amounts.
  • ✗ 3. Expanding recycling is how some developed countries “alleviate the worst effects”. It eases the problem; it does not cause it.

Remember · Separate cause from remedy: whatever a passage lists as a fix for a problem cannot also be its cause.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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