Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: World Water Day is observed every year on 22 March under the UN, each year with a theme.

1. The 2025 theme was “Glacier Preservation”.
2. It highlighted that melting glaciers threaten freshwater supplies, i.e. glacier melting and water security.
3. 2025 was also declared the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation by the UN.

Yaad rakhein: Water Day 2025 + Year of Glaciers' Preservation → glaciers.

Answer: (D) Glacier melting and water security

Concept: The Asian Development Bank (ADB), headquartered in Manila, runs many private-sector programmes for Asia-Pacific countries.

1. In 2025 the ADB launched the ‘Frontier Seed’ initiative to boost private sector growth and ocean impact in the Pacific.
2. The Pacific island nations are ADB members, so this falls in ADB's regional mandate.
3. World Bank, BIS and European Investment Bank are not the launching bodies.

Yaad rakhein: Pacific / Asia region + development bank → ADB (Manila).

Answer: (C) Asian Development Bank

Concept: The President's power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions, and to suspend, remit or commute sentences, is given in one Article.

1. Article 72 – pardoning power of the President (also covers death sentences and court-martial).
2. Article 71 – disputes about election of President/Vice-President; Article 74 – Council of Ministers to aid and advise; Article 75 – appointment of ministers.
3. Governor's similar power is in Article 161.

Yaad rakhein: President pardon = 72, Governor pardon = 161.

Answer: (A) Article 72

Concept: The Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) lies between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages.

1. Its hallmark is microliths – tiny stone blades fitted into handles to make arrows, spears and sickles; the bow and arrow came into use, along with grinding stones for plants.
2. Polished stone axes with settled farming villages belong to the Neolithic; heavy hand-axes to the Lower Palaeolithic; iron tools to the much later Iron Age.
3. Indian sites: Bagor (Rajasthan), Adamgarh (MP), Langhnaj (Gujarat).

Yaad rakhein: Meso = micro (microliths).

Answer: (B) Use of microlithic tools along with bow-and-arrow and plant-processing implements

Concept: A sudden vertical shift of the sea floor during an undersea earthquake displaces a huge volume of water.

1. This produces very long, fast sea waves called tsunamis (Japanese: “harbour waves”).
2. They travel across oceans at several hundred km per hour and grow tall near the coast, e.g. the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004.
3. Monsoon winds, land depressions and glacial surges are not earthquake-generated waves.

Yaad rakhein: Undersea quake → tsunami; tide is due to Moon, not quake.

Answer: (B) Tsunamis

Concept: Before the central RTI Act, 2005, several states passed their own transparency laws.

1. Tamil Nadu was the first state to enact a Right to Information Act, in 1997 (Goa followed the same year).
2. Rajasthan's law came in 2000, after the MKSS movement; Karnataka's in 2000.
3. The central RTI Act was passed in 2005 and came into force on 12 October 2005.

Yaad rakhein: First state RTI → TN 1997; national RTI → 2005.

Answer: (A) Tamil Nadu

Concept: Lok Adalats got statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.

1. Section 19 of this Act allows State/District Authorities, the Supreme Court/High Court Legal Services Committees and Taluk Committees to organise Lok Adalats.
2. The Act came into force on 9 November 1995 – hence 9 November is National Legal Services Day.
3. It gives effect to Article 39A (equal justice and free legal aid).

Yaad rakhein: Legal Services Act 1987, in force 1995, Lok Adalat in Section 19.

Answer: (B) 1987

Concept: In a closed hall, sound reflects many times from walls, ceiling and floor.

1. The persistence (lasting) of sound due to these repeated reflections is called reverberation.
2. Echo is a single distinct reflection heard separately (needs at least about 17 m distance); resonance is vibration at natural frequency; quality (timbre) distinguishes voices.
3. Auditoriums use sound-absorbing materials (curtains, fibreboard) to reduce reverberation.

Yaad rakhein: Echo = one repeat; reverberation = many overlapping reflections that make sound linger.

Answer: (A) Reverberation

Concept: Browsers and most programs have a Find command to locate a word on the current page.

1. Ctrl + F opens the Find bar; type the word and matches are highlighted.
2. Ctrl + S saves, Ctrl + Tab switches to the next tab, Ctrl + V pastes.

Trick: F for Find.

Answer: (B) Ctrl + F

Concept: Force $=$ mass $\times$ acceleration, and acceleration $=\frac{\text{length}}{{\text{time}}^2}$.

1. $[F]=[M]\times [L{T}^{-2}]$
2. $[F]=[ML{T}^{-2}]$, i.e. mass $\times$ length $\times$ time${}^{-2}$.
3. $ML{T}^{-1}$ is momentum and $M{L}^2{T}^{-1}$ is angular momentum – the tempting wrong options.

Trick: Newton $={\text{kg m s}}^{-2}$ – read the dimensions straight from the SI unit.

Answer: (C) mass $\times$ length $\times$ time${}^{-2}$

Concept: Recent books on political leaders are frequently asked in RRB papers.

1. ‘Modi's Mission’ is written by Berjis Desai, a Mumbai-based lawyer and author.
2. Arundhati Roy wrote The God of Small Things; Amish Tripathi wrote the Shiva Trilogy.
3. So the correct author is Berjis Desai.

Yaad rakhein: Modi's Mission → Berjis Desai.

Answer: (A) Berjis Desai

Concept: The extension after the dot tells Windows what kind of file it is.

1. .exe = executable – a program file that runs when double-clicked (e.g. setup.exe).
2. .txt is a text file, .docx a Word document, .jpg/.png image files.

Trick: exe = EXEcutable.

Answer: (D) Executable program file

Concept: The Khudai Khidmatgars (“Servants of God”), also called Red Shirts, was a non-violent Pathan movement of the North-West Frontier Province.

1. It was founded in 1929 and led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly called ‘Frontier Gandhi’ / ‘Badshah Khan’.
2. It actively took part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930).
3. He received the Bharat Ratna in 1987 – the first non-Indian citizen to get it.

Yaad rakhein: Red Shirts → Frontier Gandhi → Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

Answer: (D) Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Concept: The Indian Councils Act, 1909 (Morley–Minto Reforms) enlarged councils but kept official control.

1. Central and provincial legislative councils were expanded; members could discuss the budget and ask supplementary questions (deliberative powers).
2. Satyendra Prasanna Sinha became the first Indian member of the Viceroy's Executive Council.
3. It also introduced separate electorates for Muslims. Provincial autonomy came only in 1935, so option (A) is wrong.

Yaad rakhein: 1909 = expansion + first Indian in Executive Council + communal electorate.

Answer: (B) Expansion of legislative councils, admission of Indians to Viceroy's executive council, and new deliberative powers.

Concept: The service industry provides services (transport, banking, travel, hospitality) rather than goods.

1. Automated ticket booking (e.g. railway/airline reservation through IRCTC) is a computer application in the service sector.
2. Heart-surgery monitoring is medical, spacecraft navigation is scientific/space, and car manufacturing is industrial (manufacturing) use.

Trick: Service = doing something for customers; manufacturing = making goods.

Answer: (C) Automated ticket booking

Concept: Write every term with the same base; then $a^m\times a^n=a^{m+n}$ and ${\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)}^{-n}={\left(\frac{b}{a}\right)}^n$.

1. ${\left(\frac{7}{26}\right)}^{11}={\left(\frac{26}{7}\right)}^{-11}$
2. LHS $={\left(\frac{26}{7}\right)}^{5-11+19}={\left(\frac{26}{7}\right)}^{13}={\left(\frac{7}{26}\right)}^{-13}$
3. So $9m+17=-13\Rightarrow 9m=-30\Rightarrow m=-\frac{10}{3}$

Trick: Flip the base and the sign of the power flips: just add/subtract the powers of $\frac{26}{7}$ and change sign.

Answer: (A) $-\frac{10}{3}$

Concept: If $a+b+c=0$, then $a^3+b^3+c^3=3abc$.

1. $a=23,b=-11,c=-12$: $a+b+c=23-11-12=0$
2. Value $=3\times 23\times (-11)\times (-12)$
3. $=3\times 23\times 132=9108$

Trick: Always check the sum first — a zero sum turns a cube-sum into $3abc$.

Answer: (C) 9108

Concept: $SI=\frac{P\times R\times T}{100}\Rightarrow R=\frac{SI\times 100}{P\times T}$.

1. $R=\frac{16562\times 100}{9800\times 13}$
2. $=\frac{1656200}{127400}=13\%$

Trick: Divide SI by P first: $\frac{16562}{9800}=1.69$ total for 13 years, so $\frac{169}{13}=13\%$ per year.

Answer: (D) $13\%$

Concept: $\tan \theta +\cot \theta =\frac{1}{\sin \theta \cos \theta }$ and $\text{cosec}2\theta =\frac{1}{2\sin \theta \cos \theta }$.

1. $b=\tan \theta +\cot \theta =\frac{{\sin }^2\theta +{\cos }^2\theta }{\sin \theta \cos \theta }=\frac{1}{\sin \theta \cos \theta }$
2. $\text{cosec}2\theta =\frac{1}{2\sin \theta \cos \theta }=\frac{b}{2}$
3. (Check: $a^2=b^2+2b$, so $\frac{a^2-b^2}{2}=b$, not $\frac{b}{2}$.)

Trick: Whenever $\tan \theta +\cot \theta$ appears, think $\frac{2}{\sin 2\theta }$, i.e. $2\text{cosec}2\theta$.

Answer: (D) $\frac{b}{2}$

Concept: If sides and diagonal satisfy Pythagoras, the angle between the sides is ${90}^{\circ }$ — the parallelogram is a rectangle.

1. $9^2+{12}^2=81+144=225={15}^2$
2. So the triangle on the diagonal is right-angled; the parallelogram is a rectangle
3. Area $=12\times 9=108{\text{cm}}^2$

Trick: 9-12-15 is the 3-4-5 triple $\times 3$ — spot it instantly.

Answer: (B) 108