Railway Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, un-deviated. A ray that passes through the optical centre of a thin lens comes out in the same direction, without any bending. The optical centre is the central point of the lens on its principal axis. Near it the two faces of the lens are almost parallel, like a thin glass slab, so the ray shifts sideways by a negligible amount and keeps its direction. This is one of the three standard rays used to draw ray diagrams: a ray parallel to the principal axis passes through the focus after refraction in a convex lens, a ray through the focus comes out parallel to the axis, and a ray through the optical centre goes straight on. B is wrong because only rays that strike the lens away from the centre are deviated. C is wrong because bent means the same as deviated, which does not happen at the centre. D is wrong because a lens refracts light; reflection is what mirrors do. Exam tip: through the optical centre = straight through; parallel ray = through the focus; ray through the focus = emerges parallel.

The correct answer is D, (i) - (c), (ii) - (b), (iii) - (a). Red cabbage is a natural acid-base indicator, methyl orange is a synthetic acid-base indicator, and onion and clove are olfactory indicators. An indicator tells whether a solution is acidic or basic. Natural indicators come from plants: litmus from lichen, turmeric, red cabbage leaves and coloured petals such as hydrangea and petunia. Synthetic indicators made in the laboratory include methyl orange, which is red in acid and yellow in base, and phenolphthalein, which is colourless in acid and pink in base. Olfactory indicators change their smell instead of their colour; onion, vanilla and clove lose their smell in a basic solution. A is wrong because it calls methyl orange an olfactory indicator. B is wrong because it labels red cabbage as olfactory. C is wrong because it puts onion and clove under natural colour indicators. Exam tip: change of smell = olfactory (onion, clove, vanilla); change of colour = litmus, turmeric, red cabbage; lab-made = methyl orange, phenolphthalein.

The correct answer is A, 3 to 12. The d-block occupies the middle of the modern periodic table, groups 3 to 12, and its members are also called transition elements. In these elements the last electron enters a d orbital of the second-last shell, which is why they show variable valency, form coloured compounds and work as good catalysts. Iron, copper, zinc, silver, gold and mercury all belong here. The block has four series, filling the 3d, 4d, 5d and 6d orbitals, one in each of periods 4 to 7. B is wrong because groups 1 and 2 are the s-block, the alkali and alkaline earth metals. C is wrong because groups 13 to 18 form the p-block, which holds most non-metals and the noble gases. D is wrong because the d-block does not stop at group 10; zinc, cadmium and mercury in group 12 are part of it. Exam tip: s-block = groups 1 and 2, d-block = groups 3 to 12, p-block = groups 13 to 18, f-block = lanthanides and actinides placed below the table.

The correct answer is D, Shape - Amoeboid or circular. A red blood cell is a biconcave disc, thin in the middle and thick at the edge, not an amoeboid cell. This shape gives it more surface area to pick up oxygen and lets it bend through narrow capillaries. Mature human RBCs have no nucleus, are about 7.5 micrometres wide, live for about 120 days and are made in the red bone marrow. Their red colour comes from haemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and part of the carbon dioxide back. A is wrong as a choice because 7.5 μm really is the size of an RBC. B is wrong because carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide is exactly what RBCs do. C is wrong because a haemocytometer is indeed the counting chamber used to count blood cells under a microscope. Exam tip: RBC = biconcave, no nucleus, 120 days; WBC = amoeboid, has a nucleus; the amoeboid shape belongs to white cells, not red.

The correct answer is D, Hg. Mercury (Hg) belongs to group 12, not group 11. Group 11 of the modern periodic table holds copper (Cu, atomic number 29), silver (Ag, 47) and gold (Au, 79). These three are called the coinage metals because coins were made from them; each has one electron in its outermost s orbital, which makes them soft and shiny, and silver and copper are the best conductors of electricity of all metals. Mercury sits right next to gold in period 6 but in group 12, together with zinc and cadmium, and it is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. A is wrong because silver is a group 11 metal. B is wrong because gold is also in group 11. C is wrong because copper heads group 11. Exam tip: Group 11 = Cu, Ag, Au (coinage metals); Group 12 = Zn, Cd, Hg; the liquid metal mercury is never a coinage metal.

The correct answer is A, Platelets. Platelets are the tiny cell fragments that rush to a cut and start the clot. They are also called thrombocytes and are made in the bone marrow from large cells called megakaryocytes. A healthy adult has about 1.5 to 4 lakh platelets per cubic millimetre of blood, and each one lives for only 8 to 10 days. At a wound they stick together to form a plug and release chemicals that turn the soluble protein fibrinogen into fibrin threads, which trap blood cells and seal the leak. B is wrong because plasma proteins such as fibrinogen take part in clotting, but the paper marks platelets as the component that starts and aids clot formation. C is wrong because white blood cells fight infection, not bleeding. D is wrong because red blood cells carry oxygen with haemoglobin. Exam tip: RBC = oxygen, WBC = immunity, platelets = clotting; a falling platelet count is what dengue is known for.

The correct answer is Article 48A. Added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, it says the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. The same amendment added a matching Fundamental Duty in Article 51A(g), asking every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife. Laws such as the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 give effect to this goal.

The other options are the Articles right next to it. Article 48 asks the State to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern lines and to prohibit the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle. Article 47 is about nutrition, public health and the prohibition of intoxicating drinks. Article 49 is about protecting monuments of national importance. Remember the pair: the State's duty to the environment is Article 48A, and the citizen's duty is Article 51A(g).

The correct answer is Eighty-sixth Amendment Act, 2002. Originally Article 45 asked the State to provide free and compulsory education for all children until they reached fourteen, within ten years. The 86th Amendment moved that promise into the Fundamental Rights as Article 21A, covering children aged six to fourteen, and rewrote Article 45 so that it now asks the State to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete six years. The same amendment added the Fundamental Duty in Article 51A(k), asking parents to educate their children.

The 42nd Amendment (1976) added Articles 39A, 43A and 48A but did not touch Article 45. The 74th Amendment (1992) created the constitutional framework for municipalities. The 44th Amendment (1978) removed the right to property and added Article 38(2). So when a question pairs "below six years" with an amendment, the answer is the 86th; when it pairs "six to fourteen" with a Fundamental Right, the answer is Article 21A.

The correct answer is Article 43 B. The 97th Amendment Act, 2011 was about co-operative societies, and it touched three Parts of the Constitution. It added "co-operative societies" to the freedom of association in Article 19(1)(c), a Fundamental Right; it inserted Article 43B, a Directive Principle asking the State to promote the voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of co-operative societies; and it added a new Part IXB on co-operative societies.

The other options were all added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, not by the 97th. Article 48A is about protecting the environment, forests and wildlife; Article 39A is about equal justice and free legal aid; and Article 43A is about the participation of workers in the management of industries. So there are two "43" Articles with letters: 43A for workers (1976) and 43B for co-operatives (2011). Keeping these two apart is what the question really tests.

The correct answer is Article 39(d). Article 39 lists several principles the State should direct its policy towards, and clause (d) asks it to secure equal pay for equal work for both men and women. Parliament gave effect to it through the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, whose provisions are now part of the Code on Wages, 2019, and the Supreme Court has also treated equal pay for equal work as flowing from Articles 14 and 16.

The other options are real Directive Principles on related subjects, which is why they mislead. Article 39(a) is about an adequate means of livelihood for all citizens, men and women equally. Article 42 asks for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. Article 43 is about a living wage and a decent standard of life for workers. A good way to separate them: 39(a) livelihood, 39(d) equal pay, 42 working conditions and maternity, 43 living wage.

The correct answer is A, stagflation. Stagflation is a blend of the words stagnation and inflation: output stops growing, unemployment rises, and yet prices keep climbing. Normally inflation and unemployment move in opposite directions, as the Phillips curve shows, so stagflation is a puzzle for policy makers, because raising interest rates to cool prices worsens unemployment while spending to create jobs pushes prices higher. The classic example is the 1970s, when the oil price shocks of 1973 and 1979 hit western economies with slow growth and double-digit inflation at the same time. B is wrong because an inflation premium is the extra return lenders demand to make up for expected inflation. C is wrong because an inflationary gap is the amount by which total demand exceeds full-employment output, a situation of too much demand, not of high unemployment. D is wrong because reflation is a deliberate policy of boosting demand to lift an economy out of a slump. Exam tip: stagflation equals high inflation plus high unemployment plus stagnant growth, remembered by the 1970s oil crisis.

The correct answer is B, Harsha. Ratnavali is one of three Sanskrit plays attributed to Emperor Harshavardhana of Kannauj, who ruled from 606 to 647 CE; the other two are Priyadarshika and Nagananda. Ratnavali tells how Princess Ratnavali of Simhala, living in disguise as Sagarika, wins the love of King Udayana of Vatsa. Harsha was a great patron of learning as well as a writer: Banabhatta lived at his court and wrote Harshacharita and Kadambari, the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited him, and he held assemblies at Kannauj and Prayag. A is wrong because Kalidasa, of the Gupta age, wrote Abhijnanashakuntalam, Meghaduta and Raghuvamsha. C is wrong because Bhavabhuti, in the court of Yashovarman, wrote Uttararamacharita and Malatimadhava. D is wrong because Vishakhadatta wrote Mudrarakshasa about Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya. Exam tip: Harsha's three plays are Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda; his biographer was Banabhatta.

The correct answer is D, The People of India. The Preamble opens with the words WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, which declare that the Constitution draws its authority from the people, not from any king, court or legislature. It goes on to promise Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and ends by recording that the Constituent Assembly adopted, enacted and gave the Constitution to ourselves on 26 November 1949. The Preamble is based on Nehru's Objectives Resolution of 1946; the words Socialist, Secular and Integrity were added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976; and in the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) the Supreme Court held that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution. A is wrong because the Supreme Court is created by the Constitution and cannot be its author. B is wrong because Parliament too gets its powers from the Constitution. C is wrong because the Central Government is only an organ that works under the Constitution. Exam tip: Preamble begins We the People, adopted 26 November 1949, amended once in 1976.

The correct answer is A, Ganga. The Ganga basin is the most populous river basin on earth, home to more than 600 million people across India, Nepal, Bangladesh and a small part of Tibet. In India alone it covers about 8.6 lakh square km, roughly a quarter of the country, across Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana, Delhi and parts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and it supports about 40 percent of India's population. Fertile alluvial soil, plentiful groundwater and a long farming history explain the dense settlement. B is wrong because the Nile, though the longest river, flows mostly through desert and its basin holds far fewer people. C is wrong because the Mississippi basin lies in the thinly populated interior of the USA. D is wrong because the Amazon has the largest discharge and basin area but its rainforest is among the least populated regions on earth. Exam tip: Ganga is the most populated basin; Amazon is the largest by area and water; Nile is the longest river.

The correct answer is C, Open market operations. Open market operations, or OMO, are the buying and selling of government securities by the central bank in the open market to control the money supply. When the RBI buys government bonds it pays money to banks, so liquidity in the system rises and interest rates tend to fall; when it sells bonds it pulls money out, tightening liquidity and pushing rates up. OMO is a quantitative tool of monetary policy, used along with the cash reserve ratio, the statutory liquidity ratio, the repo rate and the bank rate, and the RBI also uses it to manage the government's borrowing programme. A is wrong because national market operations is not a term used in monetary policy. B is wrong because closed market operations does not exist; the whole point is that the trades happen in the open market. D is wrong because international market operations would refer to foreign exchange dealings, not government securities. Exam tip: RBI buys securities means more money, RBI sells securities means less money; that is OMO.

The correct answer is C, Article 360. Article 360 lets the President proclaim a financial emergency when the financial stability or credit of India, or of any part of it, is threatened. Such a proclamation must be approved by both Houses of Parliament within two months, after which it continues indefinitely until revoked; there is no maximum period. During it the Union can direct states to follow canons of financial propriety, and salaries of government servants, including Supreme Court and High Court judges, can be reduced. No financial emergency has ever been declared in India, though it was discussed during the 1991 crisis. D is wrong because Article 352 is the national emergency on grounds of war, external aggression or armed rebellion, imposed in 1962, 1971 and 1975. A is wrong because Article 356 is President's rule, imposed when a state's constitutional machinery fails. B is wrong because Article 359 only suspends the enforcement of fundamental rights during a national emergency. Exam tip: 352 national, 356 state, 360 financial; only 360 has never been used.

The correct answer is C, 277. Water is densest at about 4 degrees Celsius, and 4 plus 273 gives roughly 277 kelvin. Most liquids keep shrinking as they cool, but water behaves oddly: below 4 degrees Celsius it starts to expand again because its molecules begin forming the open, hexagonal pattern of ice. This anomalous expansion is why ice is lighter than water and floats, and why a lake freezes from the top while the 4-degree water sinks to the bottom, letting fish survive the winter. Its density at that point is very close to 1 gram per cubic centimetre. D is wrong because 273 kelvin is 0 degrees Celsius, the freezing point, where water is already less dense than at 4 degrees. A is wrong because 0 kelvin is absolute zero, where no liquid water can exist. B is wrong because 227 kelvin is about minus 46 degrees Celsius, far below freezing. Exam tip: maximum density of water at 4 degrees Celsius equals 277 K; freezing at 273 K, boiling at 373 K.

The correct answer is C, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. National Unity Day, or Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, is observed on 31 October, the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, who was born in 1875 at Nadiad, Gujarat. The day was started in 2014 to honour his role as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister who brought more than 560 princely states into the Indian Union, earning him the title Iron Man of India. It is marked with a Run for Unity and a unity pledge, and on 31 October 2018 the 182-metre Statue of Unity was unveiled in his memory at Kevadia on the Narmada. A is wrong because Dr Ambedkar's birth anniversary, 14 April, is Ambedkar Jayanti. B is wrong because Indira Gandhi's birthday, 19 November, is observed as National Integration Day. D is wrong because Mother Teresa was born on 26 August, which is not a national day. Exam tip: 31 October means Sardar Patel, National Unity Day and the Statue of Unity.

The correct answer is D, Jyotirao Govindrao Phule. Jyotiba Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj at Pune on 24 September 1873 to fight caste discrimination and the hold of priests over society. The same year he published Gulamgiri (Slavery), attacking Brahmanical domination, and earlier, in 1848, he and his wife Savitribai had opened one of the first schools for girls in Pune. The Samaj promoted education for Shudras, Dalits and women, marriages without priests, and equality; Phule was given the title Mahatma in 1888, and Dr Ambedkar counted him among his three gurus. A is wrong because Savitribai Phule, though a pioneer of women's education and a member of the Samaj, was not its founder. B is wrong because E. V. Ramasamy Periyar led the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu from 1925. C is wrong because Ayyankali was a Dalit reformer of Kerala who set up the Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham in 1907. Exam tip: Satyashodhak Samaj, Pune, 1873, Jyotiba Phule, book Gulamgiri.

The correct answer is B, 44th Constitutional Amendment 1978. The 44th Amendment, passed by the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai, took the right to property out of Part III of the Constitution. It deleted Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31, which had guaranteed the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property, and put in their place Article 300A, which says no person shall be deprived of property except by authority of law. Property thus became a legal or constitutional right, not a fundamental one, from 20 June 1979, so a citizen can no longer go straight to the Supreme Court under Article 32 for it. C is wrong because the 42nd Amendment of 1976 added the words Socialist, Secular and Integrity and the Fundamental Duties; it did not remove property. A is wrong because the 46th Amendment (actually of 1982) dealt with sales tax on goods. D is wrong because the 48th Amendment (1984) extended President's rule in Punjab. Exam tip: 42nd added Fundamental Duties, 44th removed the fundamental right to property (now Article 300A).