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CSAT 2022 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2022 · Question 72 · Reading comprehension

According to the author

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

To encourage research is one of the functions of a university. Contemporary universities have encouraged research, not only in those cases where research is necessary, but on all sorts of entirely unprofitable subjects as well. Scientific research is probably never completely valueless. However silly and insignificant it may seem, however mechanical and unintelligent the labours of the researchers, there is always a chance that the results may be of value to the investigator of talent, who can use the facts collected for him by uninspired but industrious researchers as the basis of some fruitful generalization. But where research is not original, but consists in the mere rearrangement of existing materials, where its object is not scientific but literary or historical, then there is a risk of the whole business becoming merely futile.

CSAT 2022 · Q72

Reading comprehension Easy

According to the author

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) any research result can be of value to an intelligent investigator

“There is always a chance that the results may be of value to the investigator of talent” — so any result can be useful to such an investigator, though none is guaranteed to be.

  • ✗ (a) The author stresses that even silly-looking research can help; “not many” goes against the passage.
  • ✗ (b) “Always valuable” turns “always a chance” into a certainty.
  • ✓ (c) However silly the research, its results “may be of value” to an investigator of talent — they can be, not must be.
  • ✗ (d) “Must always be” is again a certainty; the passage speaks only of a chance.

Remember · ‘Always a chance that it may’ means ‘can’, not ‘always is’ or ‘must be’.

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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