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CSAT 2024 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2024 · Question 32 · Reading comprehension

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

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

“The history of science is the real history of mankind.” In this striking epigram, a nineteenth-century writer links science with its background. Like most epigrams, its power lies in emphasizing by contrast an aspect of truth which may be easily overlooked. In this case, it is easy to overlook the relations between science and mankind, and to treat the former as some abstract third party, which can sometimes be praised for its beneficial influences, but frequently and conveniently blamed for the horrors of war. Science and mankind cannot be divorced from time to time at men’s convenience. Yet we have seen that, in spite of countless opportunities of improvement, the opening years of the present period of civilization have been dominated by international conflict. Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?

CSAT 2024 · Q32

Reading comprehension Medium

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

  1. 1.The horrors of modern life are the inevitable result of the progress of science.
  2. 2.The aspect of truth likely to be overlooked is that science is what man has made it.

Which of the assumptions given above is/are correct?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) 2 only

The aspect ‘easily overlooked’ is the relation between science and mankind: science is not an abstract third party but is shaped by men. The author questions, rather than assumes, that the horrors of war are the inevitable result of science.

  • ✗ 1. The author asks ‘Is this the inevitable result of the progress of science or does the fault lie elsewhere?’ and says science is ‘conveniently blamed’. That is the opposite of assuming inevitability.
  • ✓ 2. The overlooked aspect is ‘the relations between science and mankind’. Since the two ‘cannot be divorced’ and science is not an abstract third party, science is what man has made of it.

Remember · A question the author raises is not an assumption. Words like ‘conveniently blamed’ show where the author really stands.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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