UPSC (Prelims) 2026 English & Comprehension Reading Comprehension Previous Year Questions

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow.
Passage

The key source of the battle for clean skies and clear lungs i s the fuel we burn-from household Chulhas to the thermal power plants. In most cases, i t is biomass or coal. The Supreme Court banned the use of pet coke-the dirtiest of such fuels. The Delhi Government banned the use of coal, which was later extended to the entire National Capital Region. It was also agreed that the thermal power plants would clean up or shut down. Action on this has been patchy to say the least. The lesson from the transition to CNG is that people need alternatives for a ban to b e effective. When diesel buses were stopped, CNG supply had to be assured. It also had to be feasible in terms of cost. The Supreme Court agreed that fiscal measures were needed to keep clean fuel cheaper than dirty fuel. Now even as coal is banned, the price of natural gas makes industry uncompetitive.

Which of the following inferences is/are correct?

1. The source of the energy we consume is the key to the battle for cleaner air.

2. Bans are effective where the will is strong and the people are convinced that such bans are for the greater good of society.

3. There is judicial approval for a policy that intervenes fiscally to facilitate benevolent pricing for cleaner fuel.

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Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage. Passage India is starting to deploy Al for critical use cases such as weather forecasting, pest detection and control, and crop yield optimisation. However, penetration is limited to a small subset of tech-savvy farmers. In the US and in Europe, generative Al tools have started offering precision farming at scale, integrating large datasets to provide real-time agronomic insights. For at-scale integration and accessibility of Al tools in India, it would be helpful to develop Indian languages-based A I tools for smallholder farmers, partner with AgTechs to create affordable Al solutions, and disseminate Al-based advisory services through government programmes.

Which of the following statements is/are not correct according to the passage?

1. Tech-savvy farmers will drive the AgTech companies of the future.
2. The development of advisory services by the government programmes for the use of AI tools in agriculture would be helpful.
3. In the US and Europe, AI tools have replaced traditional agricultural practices.
4. The integration of large datasets for use in real-time agronomic analysis is already a reality.

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Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
Previous waves of customer-service technology, including email and those pesky voice menus, stoked concerns of job losses, only for them to fail to materialise. Al could yet prove different. And if it does, its effects may be salutary. Human agents could be freed up to spend more time on creative and rewarding tasks, like using feedback to make products and services better-and thereby spend less time listening to irate customers!

Which of the following conclusions, made on the basis of the given passage, is/are correct?

1. The advent of new customer-service technology had invariably sparked fears about job losses.
2. Often it is found that instead of job losses, alternative channels for employee engagement are discovered while certain tasks are replaced by technology.
3. The advent of technology inevitably leads to stressful outcomes.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage. Passage
How is deflation done? Most countries use a method called 'double deflation', where input and output prices are deflated separately. Consider a manufacturer importing oil for use in production. If oil prices fall, output prices do not and quantities remain the same, real value added should not change. But if the same deflator is used for inputs and outputs, as in India, it would look as if the manufacturer had become more productive.

Which of the following assumptions is/are valid?

1. Deflation strategies can be used to make manufacturers appear to be doing better than they actually are.

2. When input and output prices are both deflated against a single input price, it is referred to as 'double deflation'.

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Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage. Passage
How is deflation done? Most countries use a method called 'double deflation', where input and output prices are deflated separately. Consider a manufacturer importing oil for use in production. If oil prices fall, output prices do not and quantities remain the same, real value added should not change. But if the same deflator is used for inputs and outputs, as in India, it would look as if the manufacturer had become more productive.

Read the passage on deflation and answer: Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. Real value should not change in the instance of static output cost and unchanged quantities against falling oil prices.
2. Deflators are to be used separately for inputs and outputs, and this is a practice universally adopted by all economies.
   Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should b e based solely on the passage.
Passage
Cattle from the nearby villages came to the common ground to graze, and there was still a cool freshness in the air. Hori took several deep breaths and thought of sitting down for a while, since he'd b e dying of heat in the scorching 1o0' wind the rest of the day. A number of farmers were eager to lease this bit of land and had offered a good price, but Rai Sahib-God bless him-had plainly told them it was reserved for grazing and would not b e relinquished for any price. If he'd been one of those selfish Zamindars, he'd have said the cattle could g o to hell, that there was no reason for him to miss the chance to make a little money. But the Rai Sahib still held to the old values, feeling that any landlord who didn't look after his tenants was less than human.

Which of the following statements are not correct?

1. The landholdings of Rai Sahib were currently not being used for farming.
2. Temperamentally, Rai Sahib was as greedy as other landlords.
3. It cannot be ascertained that Rai Sahib could have made some money by leasing out the grazing land.
4. It may be asserted that Rai Sahib valued his tenants and wanted to protect their livelihood.

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Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage. Passage
When SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in 2019, it was a truly novel virus for the world. At that time, no one in the world had been exposed t o SARS-CoV-2 or had specific immunity against it. In contrast, people across the world have been exposed to HMPV for decades and the virus is well-studied. HMPV and SARS-CoV-2 belong to two very different virus families with fundamentally different characteristics and epidemiology, with strong seasonality seen in HMPV, unlike SARS-CoV-2. Both viruses cause different severity of symptoms, particularly over the long term, and the affected population segments do not fully overlap. In general, HMPV causes milder illness with deaths being very rare and with no long-term post-viral symptoms.

Which of the following statements reflect the logical and rational inferences that can be drawn from the passage?

1. HMPV has, historically, had longer documentation of studies when compared with SARS-CoV-2.
2. The two viruses are different from each other and this results in markedly different outcomes amongst those affected.
3. Long-term impacts of the two viruses are dissimilar and this is an important differentiator between them.
4. One of the common factors between the two viruses is seasonal specificity.

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Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
Was it the sun-dappled ambience, the strawberries and cream, the frustration of Flavio Cobolli's unforced errors against Serbian Novak Djokovic on Centre Court or simply the crushing weight of being a 64-year-old man in the third act of a very public life? Whatever the reason, Hugh Grant, the actor, deserves empathy. There he was, in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, flanked by Britain's well-dressed and well-rested spectators, watching the men's singles quarterfinals, when the actor did something quietly radical: head at a tilt, eyes closed, utterly unbothered, he took a nap. S o praise be t o Grant for serving up a n unexpected ace. In that small, delicious moment, he didn't merely catch forty winks, he made an elegant case for surrender. Not to laziness, but to limits. To the body's quiet wisdom over society's relentless performance metrics. Wimbledon had its tennis. The perpetually sleep-deprived discovered a leading man, not of action, but of rest.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. Hugh Grant was watching, from the Royal Box, the men's semifinal match on Centre Court between Flavio Cobolli and Novak Djokovic.

2. The phrase 'unexpected ace' in the context uses a term from the game of tennis to highlight Hugh Grant's somewhat uncharacteristic act of catching 'forty winks'; an act that is viewed with opprobrium.

3. Grant subjects the demands of society to the wisdom of his body.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.

Passage
'Kalagram', the cultural village set up at the Maha Kumbh Mela, unfolded as a mosaic of India's diverse regions, each represented by seven meticulously crafted 'Sanskriti Angans'- stepping through the grand portal was like entering another world. These thematic zones inspired by iconic temples like the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple and the Brahma
Mandir, were treasure troves of regional artistry. Bengal's Pattachitra paintings, Assam's bamboo crafts, Tamil Nadu's
Thanjavur paintings, and Madhya Pradesh's tribal sculpture-all were showcased in these living galleries where 230 master artisans breathed life into them using age-old techniques, their hands shaping India's ancient history into creations to behold.

Which one of the following statements is not correct?

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage. Passage
India is starting to deploy Al for critical use cases such as weather forecasting, pest detection and control, and crop yield optimisation. However, penetration is limited to a small subset of tech-savvy farmers. In the US and in Europe, generative Al tools have started offering precision farming at scale, integrating large datasets to provide real-time agronomic insights. For at-scale integration and accessibility of Al tools in India, it would be helpful to develop Indian languages-based A I tools for smallholder farmers, partner with AgTechs to create affordable Al solutions, and disseminate Al-based advisory services through government programmes.

Which of the following assumptions is/are valid based on the passage?

1. Agricultural productivity has marched ahead in the West because of the economies of scale facilitated by the adoption of AI tools.
2. Affordable AI tools rendered available in local languages can help AI-based solutions reach more and more small farmers.
3. Though penetration is as yet low, critical application areas deploying AI tools are already in use in India.

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Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
The process by which countries close their labour-productivity gap with the technology leader is based on convergence theory. The convergence model divides economic eras into three phases: the breakaway, the catch-up, and the fine-tuning phase. It also divides economic entities into two categories: the technology leaders and the technology followers. The process begins with the development of a new technology, such as scavenging three million years ago (MYA), hunting-one MYA, farming-12 thousand years ago, and industrial technology—a little more than 200 years ago. During the breakaway phase, the per capita income o f the technology leaders (e.g., Western Europe and North America in the industrial era) rises, but is unchanged for the technology followers. In the catch-up phase, the followers adopt the new technology and close their per capita income gap with the technology leaders. In the fine-tuning phase, where participants try to extract the remaining benefits from an increasingly exhausted technology, leaders and followers have similar per capita incomes.

Which of the following conclusions are correct?

1. In the breakaway phase, economic progress is slow for the technology followers.

2. In the catch-up phase, leaders stagnate and followers, therefore, close the gap between them and the leaders.

3. In the fine-tuning phase, technology is exhausted, as it were, and both leaders and followers attempt to extract leftover benefits, leading to more or less similar per capita income levels.

4. Industrial technology followed scavenging, which preceded hunting, which itself was followed by farming.

Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow.
Passage

The key source of the battle for clean skies and clear lungs i s the fuel we burn-from household Chulhas to the thermal power plants. In most cases, i t is biomass or coal. The Supreme Court banned the use of pet coke-the dirtiest of such fuels. The Delhi Government banned the use of coal, which was later extended to the entire National Capital Region. It was also agreed that the thermal power plants would clean up or shut down. Action on this has been patchy to say the least. The lesson from the transition to CNG is that people need alternatives for a ban to b e effective. When diesel buses were stopped, CNG supply had to be assured. It also had to be feasible in terms of cost. The Supreme Court agreed that fiscal measures were needed to keep clean fuel cheaper than dirty fuel. Now even as coal is banned, the price of natural gas makes industry uncompetitive.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. Thermal power stations in Delhi were required to summarily shut down.

2. CNG supplies had to be assured once diesel vehicles were prohibited from plying.

3. The Supreme Court banned the use of coal across the National Capital Region.

Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
Cattle from the nearby villages came to the common ground to graze, and there was still a cool freshness in the air. Hori took several deep breaths and thought of sitting down for a while, since he'd b e dying of heat in the scorching 1o0' wind the rest of the day. A number of farmers were eager to lease this bit of land and had offered a good price, but Rai Sahib-God bless him-had plainly told them it was reserved for grazing and would not b e relinquished for any price. If he'd been one of those selfish Zamindars, he'd have said the cattle could g o to hell, that there was no reason for him to miss the chance to make a little money. But the Rai Sahib still held to the old values, feeling that any landlord who didn't look after his tenants was less than human.

Which of the following conclusions is/are correct?

1. All landlords essentially have some goodness trapped within them.
2. The common grazing grounds of a village are intended for use by the cattle of that village.
3. Landlords who believe in tradition tend to be more concerned about their tenants.
4. Winds later in the day tend to be cooler post the hot winds of the morning.

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Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage. Passage
When SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in 2019, it was a truly novel virus for the world. At that time, no one in the world had been exposed t o SARS-CoV-2 or had specific immunity against it. In contrast, people across the world have been exposed to HMPV for decades and the virus is well-studied. HMPV and SARS-CoV-2 belong to two very different virus families with fundamentally different characteristics and epidemiology, with strong seasonality seen in HMPV, unlike SARS-CoV-2. Both viruses cause different severity of symptoms, particularly over the long term, and the affected population segments do not fully overlap. In general, HMPV causes milder illness with deaths being very rare and with no long-term post-viral symptoms.

Which of the following reflect the intent of the writer in the above passage?

1. To evolve methodologies for objective analysis of the two viruses
2. To establish the epidemiological similarities and differences between the two viruses
3. To offer a better understanding of the remedies of HMPV when analysed in conjunction with SARS-CoV-2

Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
Was it the sun-dappled ambience, the strawberries and cream, the frustration of Flavio Cobolli's unforced errors against Serbian Novak Djokovic on Centre Court or simply the crushing weight of being a 64-year-old man in the third act of a very public life? Whatever the reason, Hugh Grant, the actor, deserves empathy. There he was, in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, flanked by Britain's well-dressed and well-rested spectators, watching the men's singles quarterfinals, when the actor did something quietly radical: head at a tilt, eyes closed, utterly unbothered, he took a nap. S o praise be t o Grant for serving up a n unexpected ace. In that small, delicious moment, he didn't merely catch forty winks, he made an elegant case for surrender. Not to laziness, but to limits. To the body's quiet wisdom over society's relentless performance metrics. Wimbledon had its tennis. The perpetually sleep-deprived discovered a leading man, not of action, but of rest.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. Radical action can also be attributed to mild surrender where one acts against societal expectations.

2. Submitting to one's limitations, given the effect of age and other factors, ought not to be conflated with laziness.

3. 'Leading man' usually refers to one who plays the lead role in a movie; in this instance the implication is that Hugh Grant is performing the role of not an action hero, but that of a resting one!

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
Sport is not just about winning medals or getting jobs through a sports quota. Today's generation is struggling with issues like depression and anxiety. Parents often say that their children are inactive and rarely leave the house. Sport can help tackle these problems. From sport you can learn time management, fitness, teamwork, coordination, and so much more. We need to develop a culture in which sport is seen a s a way of life a path to building a healthier, happier society.

Which of the following statements is/are correct based on the passage?

1. Parents are not encouraging enough when it comes to children playing sport.
2. Participation in sporting activities can help develop life skills.
3. Sport as a way of life can help evolve the very nature of society itself.

Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.

Passage
'Kalagram', the cultural village set up at the Maha Kumbh Mela, unfolded as a mosaic of India's diverse regions, each represented by seven meticulously crafted 'Sanskriti Angans'- stepping through the grand portal was like entering another world. These thematic zones inspired by iconic temples like the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple and the Brahma
Mandir, were treasure troves of regional artistry. Bengal's Pattachitra paintings, Assam's bamboo crafts, Tamil Nadu's
Thanjavur paintings, and Madhya Pradesh's tribal sculpture-all were showcased in these living galleries where 230 master artisans breathed life into them using age-old techniques, their hands shaping India's ancient history into creations to behold.

Which of the following conclusions are valid?

1. Seven Sanskriti Angans, representing different regions of India, had been showcased in Kalagram.
2. Regional artistry was recognised via the inspiration drawn from iconic temples.
3. India's ancient history had been crafted by the contemporary craftsmanship of 230 artisans into creations to behold.
4. Art forms from all regions of India had been showcased in these living galleries.
   Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
Sport is not just about winning medals or getting jobs through a sports quota. Today's generation is struggling with issues like depression and anxiety. Parents often say that their children are inactive and rarely leave the house. Sport can help tackle these problems. From sport you can learn time management, fitness, teamwork, coordination, and so much more. We need to develop a culture in which sport is seen a s a way of life a path to building a healthier, happier society.

Which of the following conclusions are valid based on the passage about sport and its benefits?

1. Sport is more than just games; it is a way of life.
2. Sport can help mitigate the problems of seclusion among the young.
3. Earning laurels in sport can help one secure a job on the basis of an assigned quota.
4. Standard corporate sector skills cannot be learnt through sport.

Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage. Passage
When SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in 2019, it was a truly novel virus for the world. At that time, no one in the world had been exposed t o SARS-CoV-2 or had specific immunity against it. In contrast, people across the world have been exposed to HMPV for decades and the virus is well-studied. HMPV and SARS-CoV-2 belong to two very different virus families with fundamentally different characteristics and epidemiology, with strong seasonality seen in HMPV, unlike SARS-CoV-2. Both viruses cause different severity of symptoms, particularly over the long term, and the affected population segments do not fully overlap. In general, HMPV causes milder illness with deaths being very rare and with no long-term post-viral symptoms.

Which of the following conclusions is/are valid?

1. Though SARS-CoV-2 and HMPV are similar viruses with somewhat different epidemiology, the former became a pandemic because it was novel and people had not been exposed to it in the past.

2. The two viruses have fundamentally different impacts on human populations and should not therefore be dealt with in a similar manner.

Select the answer using the code given below.

Read the following passage and answer the items that follow. Your answers should be based solely on the passage.
Passage
Previous waves of customer-service technology, including email and those pesky voice menus, stoked concerns of job losses, only for them to fail to materialise. Al could yet prove different. And if it does, its effects may be salutary. Human agents could be freed up to spend more time on creative and rewarding tasks, like using feedback to make products and services better-and thereby spend less time listening to irate customers!

Which one among the following statements most appropriately reflects the point of view of the given passage?