CDS 2024 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is B, 1 and 2 only. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan is a campaign to make places, transport and information accessible; it is run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and has no pension component.

Also called the Accessible India Campaign, it was launched on 3 December 2015, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It works on three fronts: the built environment (making government buildings, airports and stations barrier-free with ramps, lifts and accessible toilets), the transport system, and information and communication technology (accessible websites, sign language on TV). Its goal is equal opportunity and an inclusive society in which persons with disabilities can live independently.

A is wrong: statement 3 is incorrect, because disability pensions come under other schemes, not this campaign.

C is wrong: it wrongly includes statement 3 and leaves out statement 1, which is correct.

D is wrong: statement 2 is also correct, as building an inclusive society is the campaign's aim.

Exam tip: Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, 3 Dec 2015, DEPwD; three pillars: buildings, transport, ICT.

The correct answer is B, Water and dissolved minerals. Xylem carries water along with the minerals dissolved in it from the roots up to the stem and leaves.

Plants have two kinds of conducting tissue. Xylem is made of tracheids, vessels, xylem parenchyma and xylem fibres; most of its conducting cells are dead and form long tubes. Water absorbed by the roots carries nitrates, phosphates and other minerals, and this solution rises mainly because transpiration from the leaves pulls the water column upward. Phloem is the other tissue, and it carries food made in the leaves to the rest of the plant. Xylem moves materials only upward; phloem can move them both ways.

A is wrong: xylem does carry water, but the minerals dissolved in it travel too, so "water" alone is incomplete.

C is wrong: gases enter and leave mainly through stomata and lenticels by diffusion, not through xylem.

D is wrong: food, mainly sucrose, is carried by phloem, not xylem.

Exam tip: xylem = water and minerals, upward; phloem = food, both directions (translocation).

The correct answer is A, Raja Man Singh of Gwalior. Man Kautuhal was compiled under the patronage of Raja Man Singh Tomar, who ruled Gwalior from 1486 to 1516.

Man Singh Tomar was a great patron of music, and his court is closely linked with the growth of the Dhrupad style of Hindustani singing. Man Kautuhal, a treatise on music and ragas, was prepared by scholars of his court and is named after him. In the reign of Aurangzeb, Faqirullah translated it into Persian as Rag Darpan, which is how much of its content survives. Man Singh also built the Man Mandir palace inside Gwalior Fort.

B is wrong: Tansen, Akbar's court singer, trained in the Gwalior tradition but lived after Man Singh and did not commission this work.

C is wrong: Meera Bai was a Bhakti poet-saint of Rajasthan, known for her devotional songs to Krishna, not for a music treatise.

D is wrong: Amir Khusrau lived in the Delhi Sultanate period, about two centuries earlier.

Exam tip: Man Kautuhal = Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior; its Persian version Rag Darpan = Faqirullah.

The correct answer is C, Magnesium. Plants need magnesium in fairly large amounts, so it is a macronutrient, not a micronutrient.

Plant nutrients are grouped by how much of them a plant needs. Macronutrients are needed in large quantities: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulphur. Micronutrients, or trace elements, are needed in very small amounts: iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron, molybdenum, chlorine and nickel. Magnesium sits at the centre of every chlorophyll molecule and activates many enzymes, which is why a plant needs so much of it; its shortage yellows the older leaves between the veins.

A is wrong: iron is a micronutrient, needed in small amounts for making chlorophyll and for enzymes of respiration.

B is wrong: manganese is a micronutrient that helps split water during photosynthesis.

D is wrong: chlorine is a micronutrient that also takes part in the water-splitting step of photosynthesis.

Exam tip: N, P, K plus Ca, Mg, S are macronutrients; Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, Mo, Cl and Ni are micronutrients.

The correct answer is C, Red blood cells. Mature red blood cells, or erythrocytes, lose their nucleus before they enter the blood. Losing the nucleus, and the mitochondria too, leaves more room for haemoglobin, the iron-rich protein that carries oxygen, and gives the cell its flexible biconcave disc shape, which lets it squeeze through narrow capillaries. With no nucleus, red blood cells cannot divide or repair themselves; they live about 120 days, are made in the red bone marrow and are broken down mainly in the spleen, often called the graveyard of red blood cells. Platelets also lack a nucleus, but they are cell fragments, not whole cells. A is wrong, because muscle cells have nuclei, and skeletal muscle fibres even have many. B is wrong, because phagocytic cells such as neutrophils and macrophages have a nucleus; a neutrophil's nucleus has several lobes. D is wrong, because the ciliated cells lining the windpipe and the oviduct are normal cells with a nucleus. Exam tip: human red blood cells have no nucleus, live 120 days, are born in bone marrow and end in the spleen.

The correct answer is C, Abscisic acid. It is the main growth inhibitor among plant hormones and works against the growth promoters. Abscisic acid, or ABA, is called the stress hormone because it helps plants survive drought, cold and salt: it makes the stomata close to save water, keeps seeds and buds dormant so they do not sprout in bad weather, and helps leaves and fruits to age and fall. So when a question asks which hormone slows or stops growth, ABA is the answer; ethylene is the other hormone linked with ageing and ripening. A is wrong, because auxins promote growth by making cells elongate, and they make shoots bend towards light. B is wrong, because cytokinins promote cell division and delay the ageing of leaves. D is wrong, because gibberellins promote stem elongation, break seed dormancy and are sprayed on grapes to increase their size. Exam tip: the growth promoters are auxin, gibberellin and cytokinin; the inhibitor is abscisic acid, the stress hormone.