State Exams 2015 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is B, Swadeshi Movement. The Swadeshi Movement began as the answer to Lord Curzon's partition of Bengal, which came into effect on 16 October 1905. Curzon called the partition an administrative measure, but the real aim was to divide Hindus and Muslims and break the strength of the nationalists in Bengal. The protest took the form of boycotting British cloth and goods and of promoting Indian-made cloth, salt, schools and banks; the day of the partition was observed as a day of mourning, and the annulment of the partition came in 1911. A is wrong because the Civil Disobedience Movement began in 1930 with the Dandi March. C is wrong because the Quit India Movement was launched in August 1942 after the failure of the Cripps Mission. D is wrong because the Non-Cooperation Movement started in 1920, growing out of Jallianwala Bagh and the Khilafat question. Exam tip: Partition of Bengal 1905 goes with Swadeshi and Boycott, and the partition was annulled in 1911.

The correct answer is D, film. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted in 1969 for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who made the first Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra, in 1913 and is called the father of Indian cinema; the first recipient was the actress Devika Rani. Option A is wrong because the highest sporting honours are the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and the Arjuna Award, which cover cricket along with other games. Option B is wrong because hockey is honoured through the same sports awards, and Major Dhyan Chand's name is attached to them. Option C is wrong for the same reason. Note also that the award is presented with the National Film Awards. Phalke's own films, made between 1913 and the coming of sound, were silent, so the award honours a body of work rather than a single film.

The correct answer is C, Turkish. Babur wrote his memoirs in Chagatai Turkish, the language of his homeland in Central Asia, and the book is admired for its plain, observant prose about the men, fruits, animals and rivers of the countries he passed through. Option A is wrong for the language of composition although it is the language of the famous translation, made for the Mughal court, in which form the work is known as the Baburnama; the question asks in which language it was written. Option B is wrong because Arabic was the language of religious scholarship rather than of Mughal memoirs, and the well known Arabic work on India is Al Biruni's Kitab-ul-Hind. Option D is wrong because Urdu took shape long after Babur's death in 1530.

The correct answer is C, Machilipatnam. Machilipatnam, also written as Masulipatnam, was the first Dutch factory in India, opened in 1605, and the English and the French also traded there; it was never a Portuguese possession. Option A, Bombay, was Portuguese until 1661, when it was given to Charles II of England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza and passed to the East India Company in 1668. Option B, Hooghly, was a Portuguese settlement in Bengal from the sixteenth century until Shah Jahan expelled them in 1632 for piracy and slave trading. Option D, Chaul, on the Konkan coast south of Bombay, was one of the early Portuguese ports and the site of a famous naval battle with the Egyptian fleet in 1508. Reading a settlement as Dutch when it is on the Coromandel coast is a reliable short cut in such questions.

The correct answer is D, 35‰. Every kilogram of sea water carries about 35 grams of dissolved salts, written as 35 parts per thousand, and roughly 27 of those grams are common salt, sodium chloride. Salinity is not the same everywhere. It falls where big rivers pour in fresh water or where heavy rain and melting ice dilute the sea, and it rises in hot, enclosed basins where evaporation is strong. That is why the Red Sea stands near 41 parts per thousand while the Baltic Sea is only about 7. A is wrong because 130 parts per thousand is far beyond any open ocean and belongs to a salt pan. B is wrong because 25 parts per thousand describes a brackish coastal patch near a river mouth, not the ocean as a whole. C is wrong because 225 parts per thousand is a laboratory strength brine. Exam tip: 35 average, Red Sea the saltiest sea, Baltic the least salty.

The correct answer is B, adrenaline. Adrenaline, also called epinephrine, is made by the medulla of the adrenal gland and is the body's emergency hormone; it makes the heart beat faster and stronger and narrows the small blood vessels, so blood pressure rises within seconds. That is why an injection of adrenaline is the first treatment when pressure crashes in shock or in a severe allergic reaction. The same hormone widens the air passages, raises blood sugar and gets the body ready for the fight or flight response. A is wrong because insulin, from the beta cells of the pancreas, lowers blood sugar and is used in diabetes. C is wrong because thyroxine from the thyroid controls the rate of metabolism and growth, and acts slowly over days. D is wrong because vasopressin, the antidiuretic hormone of the pituitary, chiefly saves water by making the kidney reabsorb it. Exam tip: adrenal medulla makes adrenaline, the fight or flight hormone that raises heart rate and blood pressure.

The correct answer is D, the speed is less than the square root of 2gh. A body that slides down a smooth slope turns all of its potential energy mgh into translational kinetic energy and reaches the bottom with a speed equal to the square root of 2gh. A cylinder that rolls without slipping must also spin, so the same mgh has to be shared between translation and rotation, and the speed of its axis is bound to come out smaller. Working it out for a solid cylinder, mgh equals half m v squared plus one fourth m v squared, which gives v as the square root of four gh by three, about 1.15 times the square root of gh against 1.41 for the sliding body. Option A is wrong because gh is not even a speed, as the units do not match. Option B is wrong because mgh is an energy and the mass cancels out in any case. Option C is wrong because that value belongs to a body that slides without rotating. Exam tip: of bodies rolling down the same slope, a solid sphere beats a solid cylinder, which beats a ring.

The correct answer is B, no external forces act on the system. The law of conservation of linear momentum follows straight from Newton's second law: the rate of change of the momentum of a system equals the net external force acting on it, so when that force is zero the total momentum stays the same in size and in direction. The forces the bodies exert on one another are internal, they come in action and reaction pairs, and they cancel out, which is why a gun and its bullet, or two carrom coins that strike each other, keep the same total momentum. Option A is wrong because gravity is itself an external force and it changes the momentum of a falling body every second. Option C is wrong because kinetic energy is lost in an inelastic collision while momentum is still conserved, so the two are separate laws. Option D is wrong because option B states the condition correctly. Exam tip: momentum is conserved in every collision, kinetic energy only in a perfectly elastic one.

The correct answer is A, Poise. Dynamic viscosity measures how strongly a fluid resists flowing, and in the centimetre gram second system it is measured in poise, a unit named after the French physician Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille, who studied the flow of blood in narrow tubes. One poise is one dyne second per square centimetre, and since the SI unit is the pascal second, one pascal second equals ten poise. Thin liquids are usually quoted in centipoise: water at room temperature is about one centipoise while honey runs into thousands. Option B is wrong because the pascal second is the SI unit of dynamic viscosity, and the question asks for the CGS unit. Option C is wrong because the stoke is the CGS unit of kinematic viscosity, which is dynamic viscosity divided by density. Option D is wrong because option A already names the right unit. Exam tip: dynamic viscosity in poise and pascal second, kinematic viscosity in stoke and square metre per second.

The correct answer is C, 45 degree with the ground. Once the athlete's feet leave the ground they move as a projectile, and the horizontal distance covered, called the range, is given by R equal to u squared into sin 2 theta divided by g. The range is largest when sin 2 theta has its greatest value of one, which happens when 2 theta is 90 degrees, so the angle of projection theta must be 45 degrees. The same formula shows that two angles adding up to 90 degrees give equal ranges. Option A is wrong because a take-off straight up at 90 degrees sends the jumper vertically and the range falls to zero, though the height is the greatest. Option B is wrong because 60 degrees buys height at the cost of distance. Option D is wrong because 30 degrees keeps the jump flat and short, and it covers exactly the same distance as 60 degrees. Exam tip: maximum range at 45 degrees, maximum height at 90 degrees, and complementary angles share a range.

The correct answer is A, at maturity. Section 22 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 says that the maturity of a promissory note or bill of exchange payable otherwise than on demand is the date on which it falls due, and the three days of grace are already counted in arriving at that date. Payment therefore becomes due on the date of maturity itself, and the holder may present the instrument on that day.

Option B, after maturity, is wrong because the instrument is already overdue then and the holder's rights against the earlier parties can be affected. Option C, before maturity, is wrong because no party is bound to pay ahead of the due date, though a bill may be discounted earlier by agreement. Option D is a distortion of the days of grace, which are added while computing maturity and are not a separate day of payment after it. So A alone states the rule correctly.

The correct answer is B, there are not sufficient funds in your account. NSF stands for not sufficient funds, and a bank writes it on the return memo when the balance in the drawer's account is less than the amount of the cheque. This is the ground that attracts Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, under which issuing such a cheque is an offence punishable with imprisonment up to two years, or a fine up to twice the amount, or both.

Option A describes a know your customer problem, which is dealt with separately and is not what NSF means. Option C, forgery, is returned with a remark about the signature differing or the instrument appearing altered, and material alteration is covered by Section 87. Option D is not a banking return reason at all. Only the shortage of balance is described by the letters NSF.

The correct answer is C, Muhammad Shah. Muhammad Shah, who ruled from 1719 to 1748, was nicknamed Rangila for his love of music, painting and pleasure while the empire fell apart around him. His reign saw the Marathas press into north India and Nadir Shah of Persia win the Battle of Karnal in 1739 and sack Delhi, carrying away the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor. Option A is wrong because Farrukhsiyar, who ruled from 1713 to 1719, is remembered instead for the farman of 1717 that gave the English trading privileges in Bengal. Option B is wrong because Rafi-ud-Darajat held the throne for only a few months in 1719 and carries no such nickname. Option D is wrong for the same reason: Rafi-ud-Daula, also called Shah Jahan II, ruled briefly in 1719 under the control of the Sayyid brothers.

The correct answer is A, 70 dB hearing loss in both ears. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 defines a deaf person in its schedule as one having 70 dB hearing loss in speech frequencies in both ears. A person with 60 to 70 dB loss in speech frequencies in both ears falls in the separate category of hard of hearing, so the two definitions must be read together. The Act replaced the Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995, widened the list of recognised disabilities from seven to twenty-one, and reserved four per cent of government posts for persons with benchmark disability. Options B and C set the bar higher than the schedule does; at 80 or 90 dB many deaf persons would fall outside the definition and lose the benefits the Act gives. Option D, 60 dB, is the lower end of the hard of hearing band, not deafness. Exam tip: 60 to 70 dB is hard of hearing, 70 dB and above is deaf.

The correct answer is C, Residuary powers in the Centre – Canadian Constitution. The makers of the Constitution took the scheme of a federation with a strong centre from Canada, and with it the rule that subjects not listed in any of the three lists stay with the Union; Article 248 and entry 97 of the Union List carry that rule. The appointment of state Governors by the centre and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court come from the same source. Option A is wrong because the Directive Principles were borrowed from the Irish constitution; Australia gave the Concurrent List, freedom of trade and commerce, and the joint sitting of the two Houses. Option B names the American constitution for the federal system, whereas from the United States came fundamental rights, judicial review, an independent judiciary and the impeachment procedure. Option D is wrong because fundamental duties were taken from the constitution of the erstwhile USSR. Exam tip: Canada for residuary powers, Ireland for Directive Principles, USSR for duties.

The correct answer is B, isohyet. An isohyet is a line drawn on a map through all the places that receive the same amount of rainfall in a given period. Rainfall maps of India are drawn with isohyets, and the crowding of these lines along the Western Ghats shows how sharply rainfall falls from the windward coast to the rain shadow of the plateau.

Option A, an isobar, joins places of equal atmospheric pressure and is used on weather charts to locate depressions and anticyclones. Option C, an isotherm, joins places of equal temperature and is used on temperature maps. Option D, an isohaline, joins places of equal salinity and belongs to the study of the oceans. All four terms carry the Greek prefix iso, meaning equal, and examiners rely on a candidate confusing them.

The correct answer is C, Mrs. Sucheta Kripalani. Sucheta Kripalani became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 2 October 1963 and held the office till 1967, which made her the first woman to head any state government in India. She had taken part in the Quit India Movement, sang Vande Mataram in the Constituent Assembly on the eve of independence, and was a member of the sub-committee that worked on the Constitution. She was married to the Congress leader Acharya J. B. Kripalani. Option A is wrong because Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first woman judge of the Supreme Court, in 1989. Option B is wrong because Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the first woman President of the United Nations General Assembly and a governor, not a chief minister. Option D is wrong because Durba Banerjee was India’s first woman commercial pilot. Exam tip: Sucheta Kripalani first woman CM, Uttar Pradesh, 1963; Pratibha Patil first woman President, 2007.

The correct answer is C, 1024 kilobyte. Computer memory is counted in powers of two because a binary machine addresses memory in twos, so each step up the ladder is 1024 of the unit below it, not 1000. One byte is 8 bits, 1024 bytes make a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes make a megabyte, 1024 megabytes make a gigabyte and 1024 gigabytes make a terabyte, which is then followed by the petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte and yottabyte. So a megabyte is 1024 kilobytes, or 1048576 bytes. Option A is wrong because 1024 gigabytes make a terabyte, a unit far larger than a megabyte. Option B is wrong because 1000 bytes is roughly a kilobyte, and even that is only the decimal approximation. Option D is wrong because 1024 terabytes make a petabyte. Exam tip: the ladder is bit, byte, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, and each step is 1024, that is 2 to the power 10.

The correct answer is C, Application software. MS Word is a word processor made by Microsoft, and any program written to do a particular job for the user is application software. It runs on top of an operating system and is used to type, edit, format and print documents, saving them with the .docx extension. Software is broadly of two kinds: system software, which runs the machine itself, and application software, which does the user’s work. Option A is wrong because an operating system such as Windows, Linux or Android manages the hardware and gives other programs a place to run; MS Word needs one to work. Option B is wrong because a processing device is hardware, like the CPU, and MS Word cannot be touched. Option D is wrong because input devices such as the keyboard, mouse and scanner feed data into the computer. Exam tip: Windows is system software, MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint are application software.

The correct answer is D, Toggle Keys. A toggle key switches a feature on with one press and off with the next, so it has two states and keeps whichever one you left it in. Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock and the Insert key work this way, and most keyboards carry a small indicator light that glows while the feature is on. Caps Lock, for instance, holds capital letters until it is pressed a second time. Option A is wrong because navigation keys move the cursor or the view: the four arrow keys with Home, End, Page Up and Page Down. Option B is not a standard class; keys such as Enter, Esc, Tab and the Windows key are grouped as control or special keys, and none of them stay switched on. Option C is wrong because the function keys are F1 to F12, which run one command each time they are pressed. Exam tip: the four toggle keys are Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock and Insert.