GS: Hindi / English · Language questions stay in their original language.
150 questions · 150 marks · 2 hours 30 minutes
Choose one option per question.
Tap an option to check it, or open “See answer”.
Correct answer: (B) Aditi Swami
At the World Archery Championships at Berlin in August 2023 Aditi Swami won the individual compound gold and became the youngest ever senior world champion.
Correct answer: (B) Jayaprakash Narayan
During the Quit India Movement Jayaprakash Narayan, working underground, organised the ‘Azad Dasta’, which carried out secret actions against British rule.
Correct answer: (A) April 1930
The Salt Movement began in Bihar in April 1930, right after Gandhiji's Dandi march; Champaran and Saran were its main centres.
Correct answer: (C) Odisha
The ‘Mission Shakti Scooter Yojana’ was approved by the Government of Odisha for the women of self-help groups.
Correct answer: (B) Mercalli scale
The Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake, while its intensity—how much damage was done where—is judged on the Mercalli scale.
Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above
In leaching the rainwater carries the soluble minerals of the topsoil down with it. That ties the process both to regions of heavy rainfall and to minerals and soil, so more than one option is correct.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
Pakistan's border touches Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, while Bangladesh's touches West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. No state borders both countries, so none of the options given is correct.
Correct answer: (A) Rajasthan
Rajasthan stands first in the production of millets; bajra is grown there on a large scale because it does well even with little rain.
Correct answer: (C) Jaisalmer
The driest place in India is taken to be Jaisalmer, which gets only about 150–200 mm of rain a year. Bikaner gets somewhat more. Leh gets less still, but it is a cold desert and is not usually counted as the answer to this question.
Correct answer: (C) Watermelon
Zaid crops are grown in the hot months, March to June—watermelon, muskmelon and cucumber among them. Moong and urad are mainly kharif crops.
Correct answer: (B) Middle Ganga Valley
The Magadha and Anga plains lie in Bihar, which is part of the middle valley of the Ganga. The lower valley falls in West Bengal and the upper in Uttar Pradesh.
Correct answer: (A) rare species
The Himalayan brown bear, the wild Asiatic buffalo and the desert fox have grown very few in number but are not extinct, so they are counted among the rare species.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
It was on Raj Kumar Shukla's repeated urging that Mahatma Gandhi came to Champaran in 1917. All three names given are wrong, so the answer is ‘None of the above’.
Correct answer: (B) Rajendra Prasad
‘India Divided’ was written by Dr Rajendra Prasad in 1946, in which he examined the question of the country's partition.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
There were two Home Rule Leagues—Bal Gangadhar Tilak's, begun in April 1916, and Annie Besant's in September 1916. Neither was started in 1915, the year the question gives, so the answer is ‘None of the above’.
Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above
Not one but several women were active in the Salt Satyagraha in Bihar, so more than one of the names given is correct.
Correct answer: (C) Dinabandhu Mitra
The play ‘Neel Darpan’ was written by Dinabandhu Mitra, showing the cruelty of the British planters towards the peasants who grew indigo.
Correct answer: (A) Sachindra Nath Sanyal
The Patna branch of the Anushilan Samiti was set up in 1913 by Sachindra Nath Sanyal, later among the founders of the Hindustan Republican Association.
Correct answer: (A) 1922
The Gaya session of the Congress was held in 1922 under the presidency of Chittaranjan Das. The ground for the Swaraj Party was laid after it.
Correct answer: (B) 1931
The nationalist daily ‘The Indian Nation’ began publication from Patna in 1931.
Correct answer: (C) longhand
In the passage the writer says that he writes his letters by hand, that is in longhand—not typed.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
By the passage his first letters were written to none of the three given, so the answer is ‘None of the above’.
Correct answer: (A) mother’s
The writer says that his letter ‘W’ looks like his mother's ‘W’.
Correct answer: (B) described
His parents' letters told each other about their lives, so the right word is ‘described’. ‘Criticized’ would mean finding fault, which does not fit the context.
Correct answer: (B) world
The letters drew a picture of the whole world his parents lived in—not merely of a house or a city.
Correct answer: (A) restricted in every society
The author says the natural exploratory urge of an infant is restrained to some degree in every society—this is not true of one society alone.
Correct answer: (B) in primitive rural cultures
Primitive rural cultures hold no traffic, electricity or gas, so the dangers for infants there are fewer and less complex.
Correct answer: (C) the environment is not natural
Parents are extra careful because the environment of today is not natural but man-made and full of hazards.
Correct answer: (A) grasp and master the environment
The whole point of a small child's exploratory urge is to grasp the things around it, understand them and gain mastery over them.
Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above
The author's tone is critical of parents who overprotect, and in places also sympathetic to how little choice they have—so more than one option applies.
Correct answer: (A) in spite of improvements in modern surgery
The passage says that in spite of great improvements in modern surgery people are still afraid of being operated on—the fear is not of drugs or of anaesthetics.
Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above
The surgeons of the early years of the century had less to learn than today's, and they could not perform every operation now known—so more than one statement applies to them.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
By the passage open-heart surgery belongs to none of the three reasons or times given, so the answer is ‘None of the above’.
Correct answer: (C) are obliged to specialize more than their predecessors
Medicine has grown so wide a field that a surgeon today must specialise in one organ or one group of diseases; earlier that was not necessary.
Correct answer: (C) you can even remove a portion of the brain
The passage says that in modern surgery even a portion of the brain can be removed—that is its measure of progress.
Correct answer: (C) never eats any animal products
A strict vegetarian is one who never eats any product that comes from an animal—not even eggs or milk.
Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above
Protein is the body-building substance in food, it is needed for health, and it can be got from vegetables as well—the passage says all of these, so more than one option is correct.
Correct answer: (B) because we do not get enough protein
Giving up meat makes us feel weak because we do not get enough protein—not because the quantity of food has fallen.
Correct answer: (A) about twenty different amino acids
Proteins are built up from about twenty different amino acids, which the body joins in different orders to make different proteins.
Correct answer: (B) the body must process too much waste
The passage argues that to get the protein needed from plants alone one must eat a far greater quantity, so the body has much more waste to process.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
By the passage Mr Deepak Gupta gave the jewellery to none of the three given, so the answer is ‘None of the above’.
Correct answer: (C) the owner
Mr Gupta wanted the waiter to get the jewellery to its real owner.
Correct answer: (B) To have a cup of coffee
Mr Gupta had gone to the restaurant only for a cup of coffee.
Correct answer: (C) Near the door
He had left his coat near the door, not on the chair.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
By the passage the mistake was none of the three's, so the answer is ‘None of the above’.
Correct answer: (C) Fragrance
‘Aroma’ means a pleasant smell, a fragrance—especially of food or coffee.
Correct answer: (C) Bring back to consciousness
‘Revive’ means to bring back to consciousness, or to give new life to.
Correct answer: (C) Expert
‘An old hand’ is said of someone very experienced at a thing, that is, an expert.
Correct answer: (A) Eagerly
‘Heart and soul’ means with one's whole mind, eagerly.
Correct answer: (A) Very easy
‘A bed of roses’ means a situation full of comfort and ease—a very easy one.