Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Plant growth has three phases: meristematic, elongation and maturation.

1. Meristematic cells (root/shoot apex) are rich in protoplasm, have large nuclei, thin primary cellulose walls and abundant plasmodesmata.
2. Their key feature is continuous active cell division.
3. Large vacuoles and maximum cell size belong to the elongation phase; thick walls to the maturation phase.

Yaad rakhein: Meristem = ‘Making new cells’ (division); Elongation = enlargement + vacuoles; Maturation = thick walls.

Answer: (B) Active cell division

Concept: During Windows boot, after the kernel loads, the first user-mode process started is the Session Manager Subsystem (smss.exe).

1. Session Manager (smss.exe) creates system sessions, sets environment variables, creates paging files and starts csrss.exe and wininit.exe/winlogon.exe.
2. Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) starts only after the user logs in; Task Manager and Control Panel are user tools.

Yaad rakhein: Boot chain: Kernel → smss.exe → csrss/wininit → winlogon → explorer.

Answer: (D) Session Manager

Concept: Greenland is the world’s largest island and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

1. In 2025 Greenland drew global attention as US President Donald Trump repeatedly said the US should acquire it – echoing his 2019 offer to buy the island.
2. Its Arctic location, rare-earth minerals and the US Pituffik Space Base give it strategic value.
3. Faroe Islands is also Danish but was not the subject; Iceland is independent; Svalbard is Norwegian.

Yaad rakhein: Denmark’s two autonomous territories: Greenland and Faroe Islands.

Answer: (C) Greenland

Concept: SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment) demonstrated in-space docking with two small satellites, SDX01 (Chaser) and SDX02 (Target).

1. It was launched on PSLV-C60 from Sriharikota on 30 December 2024.
2. Docking succeeded on 16 January 2025 – India became the 4th country (after USA, Russia, China) to dock in space.
3. SSLV-D2 launched EOS-07 (2023); GSLV Mk III (LVM3) launched Chandrayaan-3.

Yaad rakhein: SpaDeX → PSLV-C60 (last launch of 2024).

Answer: (D) PSLV-C60

Concept: Sangam literature describes rural society in the Tamil region in terms of land and occupation.

1. Uzhavar (Ulavar) = ploughmen / ordinary cultivators who tilled the land.
2. Vellalar = large landowners; Adimai = slaves.
3. Priests were Brahmanas/Anthanar, not Uzhavar.

Yaad rakhein: Uzhavar – Uzhavu (ploughing); Vellalar – landlords; Adimai – slaves.

Answer: (A) Ploughmen

Concept: A user interface is the way a user communicates with the computer.

1. In a Command-based (Command Line) Interface the user types text commands with the keyboard, e.g. MS-DOS, Linux terminal, Windows Command Prompt.
2. GUI uses icons, windows and a mouse; touch and voice interfaces use fingers and speech.

Yaad rakhein: CLI = type; GUI = click; Touch = tap; Voice = speak.

Answer: (D) Command-based Interface

Concept: Vitamin A (retinol) is needed to form rhodopsin (visual purple) in the rod cells of the retina.

1. Lack of Vitamin A → poor rhodopsin → difficulty seeing in dim light = night blindness; severe lack causes xerophthalmia.
2. B12 lack → pernicious anaemia; D → rickets; C → scurvy.

Yaad rakhein: A – Andhapan (night blindness), C – scurvy, D – rickets, B12 – anaemia.

Answer: (B) Vitamin A

Concept: In the Details tab of Windows Task Manager, right-clicking a process shows advanced options.

1. Analyze Wait Chain shows which other processes/threads a program is waiting on – useful to find why an app is ‘Not Responding’.
2. Go to Details jumps to the process entry; Open File Location opens its .exe folder; End Task closes it.

Yaad rakhein: Hung app? → Analyze Wait Chain tells ‘who is it waiting for’.

Answer: (D) Analyze Wait Chain

Concept: Optical discs are read/written by laser; ‘RW’ means ReWritable.

1. CD-RW (Compact Disc-ReWritable) uses a phase-change alloy layer, so data can be erased and rewritten many times.
2. CD-R can be written only once; CD-ROM is read-only. Other options are not real formats.

Yaad rakhein: ROM → read only; R → write once; RW → write many times.

Answer: (A) Compact Disc-ReWritable

Concept: The Great Bath is the most famous structure of Mohenjo-daro (Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan).

1. It is a brick tank in the citadel, made watertight with gypsum mortar and bitumen, with steps on two sides – thought to be used for ritual bathing.
2. Dholavira is known for water reservoirs and a signboard; Lothal for its dockyard; Surkotada for horse remains.

Yaad rakhein: Mohenjo-daro: Great Bath, Great Granary, Dancing Girl, Priest-King.

Answer: (B) Mohenjo-daro

Concept: The early national movement is divided into Moderate, Extremist and Gandhian phases.

1. Moderate phase: 1885–1905 (Dadabhai Naoroji, Gokhale) – petitions and prayers.
2. Extremist (Militant) phase: 1905–1919 – began with the partition of Bengal and Swadeshi movement; led by Lal-Bal-Pal and Aurobindo; Surat split 1907.
3. Gandhian phase: 1920–1947.

Yaad rakhein: Bengal partition (1905) opens the Extremist era; Gandhi’s arrival in mass politics (1919) closes it.

Answer: (C) 1905–1919

Concept: Globalisation means integrating the domestic economy with the world through trade, investment, technology and people.

1. Reduction of trade barriers, entry of MNCs and e-commerce all link India with world markets – they aid globalisation.
2. Farm subsidies are domestic support to farmers; they protect local agriculture and are often criticised in WTO as trade-distorting – they do not promote globalisation.

Yaad rakhein: LPG reforms 1991: Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation – subsidies are protection, not opening up.

Answer: (D) Farm subsidies

Concept: The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Index is published by Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) with PRIO.

1. It measures women’s well-being through three dimensions – inclusion, justice and security.
2. In the WPS Index 2025–26, covering 181 countries, India ranked 131st.
3. Denmark topped the index; Afghanistan was at the bottom.

Yaad rakhein: WPS Index = 3 pillars: Inclusion, Justice, Security.

Answer: (C) 131st

Concept: Part III of the Constitution groups Fundamental Rights into six categories.

1. Right to Freedom – Articles 19 to 22: six freedoms (Art. 19), protection in conviction (20), life and personal liberty (21), protection against arbitrary arrest (22).
2. 14–18: Equality; 23–24: Against exploitation; 25–28: Religion; 32: Constitutional remedies.

Yaad rakhein: Equality 14–18, Freedom 19–22, Exploitation 23–24, Religion 25–28, Culture-Education 29–30, Remedies 32.

Answer: (C) Articles 19, 20, 21 and 22

Concept: Wasteland is degraded land that is not being used productively.

1. It includes rocky, arid/desert, saline-alkaline, waterlogged, gullied and mined-out land – unfit for cultivation due to natural or human causes (erosion, overgrazing, mining, faulty irrigation).
2. Forests, urban green areas and fertile river valleys are productive land, not wasteland.

Yaad rakhein: Wasteland = barren + unculturable + degraded land (mapped in the ‘Wastelands Atlas of India’).

Answer: (B) Land not suitable for cultivation due to natural or human causes

Concept: Compare what the customer actually pays for 8 toys under each scheme (marked price of one toy $=m$). The scheme with the highest bill is the least beneficial.

1. (A): $0.50\times 0.84=0.42$ → pays $8\times 0.42m=3.36m$.
2. (B): $0.51\times 0.92\times 0.87\approx 0.408$ → pays $\approx 3.27m$.
3. (C): $6\times 0.65m+2\times 0.55m=3.9m+1.1m=5.0m$.
4. (D): pays for 4 of 8 → $4m$.

Trick: Successive discounts $a\%$ then $b\%$ equal a single discount of $a+b-\frac{ab}{100}$; here (A) $=58\%$, far more than the $\approx 37.5\%$ of (C).

Answer: (C) C

Concept: Form two equations from total quantity and total cost, or use alligation with the mean price.

1. Mean price $=\frac{1600}{45}=\frac{320}{9}$ ₹/kg.
2. Ratio (₹32 : ₹40) $=(40-\frac{320}{9}):(\frac{320}{9}-32)=\frac{40}{9}:\frac{32}{9}=5:4$.
3. Check: $25\times 32+20\times 40=800+800=1600$ ✓.

Trick: Alligation: cheaper quantity : dearer quantity $=(\text{dearer}-\text{mean}):(\text{mean}-\text{cheaper})$.

Answer: (B) $5:4$

Concept: Write every factor as a power of 2 and add the exponents.

1. $0.125=2^{-3}$, $4^4=2^8$, ${0.25}^2=(2^{-2}{)}^2=2^{-4}$, $8^2=2^6$.
2. Product $=2^{-3+8-5-4+6}=2^2=4$.

Yaad rakhein: $0.5=2^{-1},0.25=2^{-2},0.125=2^{-3}$ — decimal powers of 2 appear often.

Answer: (C) 4

Concept: Take the cistern as LCM units and add the per-hour rates (emptying tap negative).

1. Cistern $=\text{LCM}(4,12,12)=12$ units.
2. Rates: $+3,+1,-1$ units/h → net $=3$ units/h.
3. One-fourth $=3$ units → time $=\frac{3}{3}=1$ hour.

Trick: B and C cancel each other, so only tap A works effectively: full in 4 h, quarter in 1 h.

Answer: (D) 1

Concept: The difference between two shares equals the difference of their ratio parts times the value of one part.

1. F − G $=7-5=2$ parts $=$ ₹4000 → 1 part $=$ ₹2000.
2. E $=9$ parts $=9\times 2000=$ ₹18000.

Trick: Always find the value of one part first; every share then comes by simple multiplication.

Answer: (C) ₹18000