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CSAT 2023 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2023 · Question 11 · Reading comprehension

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crucial message conveyed by the author of…

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

Passage—1

The emissions humans put into the atmosphere now will affect the climate in the middle of the century and onwards. Technological change, meanwhile, could make a future transition away from fossil fuels cheap or it might not, leaving the world with a terrible choice between sharply reducing emissions at huge cost or suffering through the effects of unabated warming. Businesses that do not hedge against the threat of uncertain outcomes fail. The world cannot afford such recklessness on climate change.

CSAT 2023 · Q11

Reading comprehension Easy

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crucial message conveyed by the author of the passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) Waiting to deal with carbon emissions until technology improves is not a wise strategy.

Emissions released now shape the climate decades later, and cheap clean technology may or may not arrive. Just as businesses that do not hedge against uncertainty fail, the world cannot gamble on future technology, so waiting for it before cutting emissions is unwise.

  • ✗ (a) Closing down or paying for pollution is not discussed; businesses appear only as an example of hedging against uncertainty.
  • ✗ (b) The passage says technology 'could make a future transition ... cheap or it might not', so it denies that technology is a sure, let alone the only, solution.
  • ✓ (c) Betting on uncertain future technology instead of acting now is the 'recklessness' the world 'cannot afford'.
  • ✗ (d) New industries and renewables are not the point; the passage is about hedging against uncertainty by acting on emissions now.

Remember · When a passage uses an analogy, the message is the analogy's lesson applied to the main subject.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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