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CSAT 2026 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2026 · Question 61 · Reading comprehension

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

Directions for the next 2 (two) items: Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.

Passage

Was it the sun-dappled ambience, the strawberries and cream, the frustration of Flavio Cobolli’s unforced errors against Serbian Novak Djokovic on Centre Court or simply the crushing weight of being a 64-year-old man in the third act of a very public life? Whatever the reason, Hugh Grant, the actor, deserves empathy. There he was, in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, flanked by Britain’s well-dressed and well-rested spectators, watching the men’s singles quarterfinals, when the actor did something quietly radical: head at a tilt, eyes closed, utterly unbothered, he took a nap. So praise be to Grant for serving up an unexpected ace. In that small, delicious moment, he didn’t merely catch forty winks, he made an elegant case for surrender. Not to laziness, but to limits. To the body’s quiet wisdom over society’s relentless performance metrics. Wimbledon had its tennis. The perpetually sleep-deprived discovered a leading man, not of action, but of rest.

CSAT 2026 · Q61

Reading comprehension Medium Provisional key

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

  1. 1.Radical action can also be attributed to mild surrender where one acts against societal expectations.
  2. 2.Submitting to one’s limitations, given the effect of age and other factors, ought not to be conflated with laziness.
  3. 3.‘Leading man’ usually refers to one who plays the lead role in a movie; in this instance the implication is that Hugh Grant is performing the role of not an action hero, but that of a resting one!

Select the answer using the code given below.

Answer & explanation

Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

The writer calls Grant's public nap 'quietly radical' — a gentle surrender that defies society's performance metrics. It is framed as yielding to limits, not laziness, given his age, and the closing line plays on 'leading man' as a hero of rest rather than action. All three statements read the passage correctly.

  • ✓ 1. The nap is 'something quietly radical' and 'an elegant case for surrender' against 'society's relentless performance metrics'.
  • ✓ 2. 'Not to laziness, but to limits' — and the passage cites 'the crushing weight of being a 64-year-old man' among possible reasons.
  • ✓ 3. The actor becomes 'a leading man, not of action, but of rest' — a play on the film term.

Remember · Literary passages: decode each figure of speech the passage uses (radical, surrender, leading man) and test the statement against it.

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

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