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CSAT 2022 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2022 · Question 41 · Reading comprehension

The passage is based on the idea that

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

For two or three generations past, ever-increasing numbers of individuals have been living as workers merely, not as human beings. An excessive amount of labour is rule today in every circle of society, with the result that man’s spiritual element cannot thrive. He finds it very difficult to spend his little leisure in serious activities. He does not want to think; or he cannot even if he wants to. He seeks not self-improvement, but entertainment which would enable him to be mentally idle and to forget his usual activities. Therefore, the so-called culture of our age is dependant more on cinema than on theatre, more on newspapers, magazines and crime stories than on serious literature.

CSAT 2022 · Q41

Reading comprehension Medium

The passage is based on the idea that

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) the great evil of our age is overstrain

The passage traces everything — the stunted spiritual life, the craving for idle entertainment, the shallow culture — to “an excessive amount of labour”. The idea it rests on is that overwork, or overstrain, is the great evil of the age.

  • ✗ (a) The author objects to excessive labour, not to hard work as such; “should not work hard” is a prescription the passage never makes.
  • ✓ (b) “An excessive amount of labour is rule today in every circle of society, with the result that man’s spiritual element cannot thrive” — every other problem flows from this overstrain.
  • ✗ (c) “He does not want to think; or he cannot even if he wants to” is a symptom of overwork, not the idea the passage is built on.
  • ✗ (d) The spiritual element failing to thrive is a result of excessive labour; the option picks an effect, not the underlying idea.

Remember · For ‘based on the idea’ items, find the cause from which the other statements flow; effects and symptoms are traps.

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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