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UPSC CSAT Tough Reading Comprehension 30 — The Adaptation Paradox: When Coping with a Problem Makes It Harder to Solve

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Sample Questions from UPSC CSAT Tough Reading Comprehension 30 — The Adaptation Paradox: When Coping with a Problem Makes It Harder to Solve

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Q1. Which one of the following best captures the central argument of the passage?

A. Adaptation should generally be avoided because it allows governments to postpone necessary structural reforms.

B. Adaptation is valuable for reducing immediate harm, but its long-term effects depend on whether it preserves future options, avoids creating new vulnerabilities and supports rather than substitutes for structural reform.

C. Structural reform is preferable to adaptation because only structural policies can eliminate the causes of social and environmental problems.

D. Private adaptation is socially undesirable whenever some individuals possess greater resources to adapt than others.

Q2. Which one of the following most accurately distinguishes adaptation from structural reform as discussed in the passage?

A. Adaptation is undertaken by individuals, whereas structural reform can be undertaken only by governments.

B. Adaptation primarily reduces the consequences of a problem, whereas structural reform seeks to alter important conditions that generate or sustain the problem.

C. Adaptation produces immediate benefits, whereas structural reform produces only long-term benefits.

D. Adaptation relies on technology, whereas structural reform relies on changes in institutions.

Q3. With reference to the passage, consider the following statements: 1. Successful private adaptation can sometimes weaken political coalitions supporting improvements in shared public systems. 2. Maladaptation necessarily refers to an adaptation that fails to provide any immediate benefit. 3. Durable investments made for adaptation can influence the range and cost of future policy choices. 4. Stable outcomes necessarily indicate that the underlying system has become more resilient. Which of the statements given above are consistent with the passage?

A. 1 and 3 only

B. 1, 2 and 3 only

C. 2 and 4 only

D. 1, 3 and 4 only

Q4. In a city with unreliable public electricity, affluent households and major businesses increasingly install private generators and battery systems. Power failures consequently become less disruptive to these groups, while poorer households remain dependent on the public grid. Which inference is most consistent with the passage?

A. Private energy systems should be prohibited because they inevitably undermine public infrastructure.

B. The adaptations may improve individual welfare while simultaneously changing the political incentives for reforming the shared electricity system.

C. Public electricity reform becomes unnecessary once a sufficient proportion of consumers can obtain private alternatives.

D. The deterioration of public electricity must have been caused by affluent consumers leaving the system.

Q5. Which one of the following assumptions is most essential to the argument that successful adaptation can reduce pressure for structural reform?

A. Political demand for reform is influenced partly by how strongly individuals and groups continue to experience the consequences of the underlying problem.

B. Individuals generally prefer private solutions to collective solutions whenever both are available.

C. Structural reforms are normally more expensive than adaptive measures.

D. Governments undertake structural reforms only when citizens experience severe economic losses.

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