Chapter 19: ASSERTION AND REASON


Introduction


For the Assertions (A) and Reasons (R) below, choose the correct alternative from the following :

(а) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(б) Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.
(e) Both A and R are false.



Two statements are given and the candidate is asked to choose one of the above options. Assertion is a statement and Reason is an explanation provided for it. We have to say if the assertion is true or false and if true then the reason for it is correct or not.

Problems and Answers

 
A. UP is called the Sugar Bowl of India.
R. UP is the top producer of sugar in India

Ans: Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A

A. Himalayas once laid under the sea.
R. Fossils of marine creatures are traced on the Himalayas .



Ans. Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A

A. Increase in carbon dioxide would melt polar ice.
R. Global temperature would rise.

Ans. Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A

A. Government has asked cigarette manufacturers to remove all branding information and display cancer warnings prominently on packs.
R. Smoking is injurious to health.



Ans.
Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A

A. Pluto was removed from the list of planets
R. Pluto being farthest from the sun hardly receives any sun rays.

Ans.
Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A

A. 3x + 4y < 20
R. x = 1, 2

Ans.
Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A



Statement and Arguments


Answer of the following has to be an option from below choices:

(a) if only argument I is strong;

(b) if only argument II is strong;

(c) if either I or II is strong;

(d) if neither I nor II is strong and

(e) if both I and II are strong.


Statement : Should number of holidays of government employees be reduced ?




Arguments :


I. Yes. Our government employees are having maximum number of holidays among the other countries of the world.


II. Yes. It will lead to increased productivity of government offices.


Answer: Second argument is more strong as increased working days shall increase productivity.



Statement : Should there be reservation of seats and posts on communal
basis ?


Arguments :


1. Yes. It will check most of the inter-communal biases. ;
II. No. Ours is a secular state.




Answer. Clearly, reservations on communal basis will increase inter communal biases. So, argument I is vague. Also, it will be against the secular policy, according to which no communal group is given preference over the others. So, only argument II holds.



Statement : Should government stop spending huge amounts of money on
international sports ?


Arguments :




I. Yes. This money can be utilised for upliftment of the poor.


II. No. Sports persons will be frustrated and will not get international exposure.


Answer. Clearly, spending money on sports cannot be avoided merely because it can be spent on socioeconomic problems. So, argument I does not hold. Also if the expenses on sports are curtailed, the sports persons would face lack of facilities and training and our country will lag behind in international sports competitions.


Statement and Assumptions


Assumption is something that is used as a precondition to making a statement. It may or may not be logical.


E.g: 


Statement --->  "There is traffic jam on the roads, there must be a railway strike"




Assumption -->  " Only railway strikes force more people to commute with cars".


Give answer


(a) if only assumption I is implicit;

(b) if only assumption II is implicit;

(c) if either I or II is implicit;

(d) if neither I nor II is implicit
(e) if both I and II are implicit.


Problems and Answers


Statement : It is desirable to put the child in school at the age of 5 or so.


Assumptions :




I. At that age the child reaches appropriate level of development and is ready to learn.


II . The schools do not admit children after six year s of age.


Answers: Assumption I is implicit in the statement but not assumption 2.



Statement : The chairman and secretary of the housing society have requested society member's to use water economically to help society to save on water tax.




Assumptions :


I . Majority of members of society are likely to follow the request.


II . It is desirable to reduce expenditure wherever possible.


Answers: Nothing can be said about assumption 1 but assumption 2 is implicit.



Statements: We must settle all the payment due to our suppliers within three working days .


Assumptions :




I . We will always have necessary funds in our account to settle the bills.


II . We are capable of verifying and clearing the bills in less than three working days .


Answers: Both I and II are implicit. The first assumption agrees that we have the capacity to make payments every time. Second assumption states that the office is capable of clearing the bills in three days and so the deadline can be met.



Statement : Read this book to get detailed and most comprehensive information on this issue.




Assumptions :


I .  The person who wants this information can read.
II . There are other books available on this issue.


Answers: The speaker is advising his friend to read a book so the first assumption is implicit. Comparative degree "most comprehensive" is used so we can assume that multiple books are present.



Statement : Even with the increase in the number of sugar factories in India, we still continue to import sugar.




Assumptions :


I .    The consumption of sugar per capita has increased in India.
II . Many of the factories are not in a position to produce sugar to their fullest capacity.


Answers: The dependence on imports can be both for assumption 1 or 2. Hence either of the two assumptions is implicit.

Read and Select the right Inference


Q.Efficiency is all right in its place, in the shop, the factory, the store. The trouble with efficiency is that it wants to rule our play as well as our work; it won't be content to reign in the shop, it follows us home.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. efficiency can become all-pervading.

  2. efficiency does not always pay.

  3. efficiency can be more of a torture than a blessing.

  4. None of these


Ans .A


Q.In order to ease the traffic congestion, the transport planners decided to have a sophisticated system of elevated monorail travel in the city. However, it was pointed out by somebody that a metro rail system would be a more effective solution to the traffic problem. The plan was thus stalled. Moreover, since a budget had not been drawn up for the project, it was deemed fit to stall the work of the monorail for some time. In the meanwhile, the traffic planners of the city decided to build an efficient system of subways and flyovers in the city with the aim of easing the same problem. At the instant when the planners were preparing to award the contracts to the concerned parties, the transport planners came up with the contention that the subways interfered with the site of a pillar of the monorail system. The traffic planners had to give up the idea and think of other possible solutions.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. The city authorities felt that the monorail system was essentially impractical.

  2. There is a strong contention between the two groups of planners in the city.

  3. The projects would be stalled for an indefinite period

  4. None of these


Ans .C


Q.The company encourages its managers to interact regularly, without a pre-set agenda, to discuss issues concerning the company and society. This idea has been borrowed from the ancient Indian concept of religious congregation, called satsang. Designations are forgotten during these meetings; hence, it is not uncommon in these meetings to find a sales engineer questioning the CEO on some corporate policy or his knowledge of customers.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. the company is concerned about its reputation with its employees.

  2. the company believes in fostering the spirit of dialogue without degenerating it into a positioning based debate.

  3. the company had some inter-personnel problems in the past due to which it felt the need for these corporate satsangs

  4. All of these


Ans .B


Q.From Cochin to Shimla, the new culture vultures are tearing down acres of India's architectural treasures. Ancestral owners are often fobbed off with a few hundred rupees for an exquisitely carved door or window, which fetches fifty times that much from foreign dealers, and yet more from the drawing room sophisticates of Europe and the US. The reason for such shameless rape of the Indian architectural wealth can perhaps, not wrongly, be attributed to the unfortunate blend of activist disunity and the local indifference.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. the environment created by the meeting between activist disunity and local indifference is ideal for antique dealers to thrive in India.

  2. only Indians are not proud of their cultural heritage and are hungry for the foreign currency that is easily available in return of artifacts.

  3. most Indian families have heirlooms which can be sold at high prices to Europeans and Americans.

  4. India provides a rich market for unscrupulous antique dealers.


Ans .A


Q.Deepa Metha's Fire is under fire from the country's self-appointed moral police. Their contention is that the film is a violation of the Indian cultural mores and cannot be allowed to influence the Indian psyche. According to them, such films ruin the moral fabric of the nation, which must be protected and defended against such intrusions at all cost, even at the cost of cultural dictatorship


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. the assumption underlying the moral police's critique of Fire is that the Indian audience is vulnerable to all types of influence.

  2. the assumption underlying the moral police's critique of Fire is that the Indian audience is impressionable and must be protected against 'immoral' influences.

  3. the moral police thinks it has the sole authority to pass judgement on films screened in India

  4. None of these


Ans .B


Q.The dominant modern belief is that the soundest foundation of peace would be universal prosperity. One may look in vain for historical evidence that the rich have regularly been more peaceful than the poor, but then it can be argued that they have never felt secure against the poor; that their aggressiveness stemmed from fear; and that the situation would be quite different if everybody were rich.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. a lot of aggression in the world stems from the desire of the haves to defend themselves against the have-nots.

  2. universal prosperity as a foolproof measure of peace can no longer be accepted.

  3. Both (a) and (b)

  4. Neither (a) nor (b)


Ans .A


Q.The effect produced on the mind by travelling depends entirely on the mind of the traveller and on the way in which he conducts himself. The chief idea of one very common type of traveller is to see as many objects of interest as he possibly can. If he can only after his return home say that he has seen such and such temple, castle, picture gallery, or museum, he is perfectly satisfied. Far different is the effect of travels upon those who leave their country with a mind prepared by culture to feel intelligent admiration for all the beauties of nature and art to be found in foreign lands. When they visit a new place, instead of hurrying from temple to museum to picture gallery, they allow the spirit of the place to sink into their minds, and only visit such monuments as the time they have at their disposal allows them to contemplate without irreverent haste


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. the writer prefers the second type of traveller.

  2. the first type of traveller is the lay traveller who does not understand the worth of any place he travels to.

  3. the objective of the second type of traveller is not to see much, but to see well.

  4. All of these


Ans .C


Q.Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. the speaker is a die-hard colonist

  2. the speaker has the good of the nation at heart.

  3. the speaker is addressing an issue related to a colonial empire.

  4. None of these


Ans .D


Q.Where the film Bombay loses out is where every commercial film congenitally goes awry — becoming too simplistic to address serious issues and failing to translate real life to reel.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. The film's director aimed at recreating real life on the silver screen

  2. The film was too simplistic for the audience's taste.

  3. The film was successful in spite of its shortcomings.

  4. None of these


Ans .D


Q.Aspiration is nothing new. Neither is the debate over what the Indian middle class is, what it wants and what it buys. Since the mid-80s, that has been the focus of the economic policy papers so called pro- and anti-poor budgets and marketing strategies that have successfully broken the barrier of urban selling and reached deeper into rural India with increasing income levels and aspirations.


It can be inferred from the above passage that


  1. the Indian middle class has been the focus of economic policies for a long time.

  2. the Indian middle class has graduated from being the 'deprived' middle class to the 'pampered' middle class.

  3. Both (a) and (b)

  4. Neither (a) nor (b)


Ans .A