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UPSC CSE CSAT 2022 · Question 31 · Reading comprehension

According to the passage, natural selection cannot anticipate future environments on the earth as

Directions for the following 4 (four) 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

Natural selection cannot anticipate future environments on the earth. Therefore, the set of existing organisms can never be fully prepared for environmental catastrophes that await life. An outcome of this is the extinction of those species which cannot overcome environmental adversity. This failure to survive, in modern terms, can be attributed to the genomes which are unable to withstand geological vagaries or biological mishaps (infections, diseases and so on). In biological evolution on the earth, extinction of species has been a major feature. The earth may presently have up to ten million species, yet more than 90% of species that have ever lived on the earth are now extinct. Once again, the creationist doctrines fail to satisfactorily address why a divine creator will firstly bother to create millions of species and then allow them to perish. The Darwinian explanation for extinct life is once again simple, elegant and at once convincing—organisms go extinct as a function of environmental or biological assaults for which their inheritance deems them ill-equipped. Therefore, the so-called Darwinian theory of evolution is not a theory at all. Evolution happens—this is a fact. The mechanism of evolution (Darwin proposed natural selection) is amply supported by scientific data. Indeed, to date no single zoological, botanical, geological, paleontological, genetic or physical evidence has refuted either of the central two main Darwinian ideas. If religion is not taken into consideration, Darwinian laws are acceptable just like the laws proposed by Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein—sets of natural laws that explain natural phenomena in the universe.

CSAT 2022 · Q31

Reading comprehension Easy

According to the passage, natural selection cannot anticipate future environments on the earth as

  1. 1.species not fully prepared to face the environmental changes that await them will face extinction
  2. 2.all the existing species would get extinct as their genomes will not withstand biological mishaps
  3. 3.inability of the genome to withstand environmental changes would result in extinction
  4. 4.extinction of species is a common feature

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) 1, 3 and 4

The passage says unprepared species go extinct, that this is due to genomes unable to withstand geological vagaries or biological mishaps, and that extinction “has been a major feature”. It never says that all existing species will go extinct.

  • ✓ 1. “The set of existing organisms can never be fully prepared for environmental catastrophes… An outcome of this is the extinction of those species which cannot overcome environmental adversity.”
  • ✗ 2. Too extreme: extinction is said to strike “those species which cannot overcome” adversity, not all existing species.
  • ✓ 3. “This failure to survive… can be attributed to the genomes which are unable to withstand geological vagaries or biological mishaps.”
  • ✓ 4. “Extinction of species has been a major feature”, and more than 90% of species that ever lived are now extinct.

Remember · Knock out the ‘all’ statement first: if the passage limits a claim to ‘those which…’, a universal claim fails.

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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