CTET 2021 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, A, B and C. When the British left in 1947, India had, besides the provinces under direct British rule, about 565 princely states whose rulers had accepted British paramountcy. That paramountcy lapsed with independence and every ruler had to accede either to India or to Pakistan; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon, working through the States Department, persuaded almost all of them to sign an Instrument of Accession. Statements A and B therefore both describe princely states. Statement C is also true, since several, among them Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, were kept as separate administrative units and became full states only later. Statement D is false, because Goa, Daman and Diu were Portuguese and Pondicherry was French, European possessions and never princely states. Option A is wrong because it leaves out statement C. Options B and C are wrong because each includes the false statement D. Exam tip: about 565 princely states, Patel and V. P. Menon, the Instrument of Accession, and Goa and Pondicherry as European colonies.

The correct answer is B, 9. In the binary system every place stands for a power of two, and 257 is 256 plus 1, that is two raised to the eighth plus two raised to the zero. It is therefore written as 100000001, a one followed by seven zeros and another one, which is nine digits in all. A quicker way is to look for the largest power of two that fits inside the number: for 257 that is 256, so the highest place used is the ninth from the right, and every number from 256 up to 511 needs exactly nine binary digits. A is wrong because eight digits reach only up to 255, one short of 257. C is wrong because seven digits stop at 127. D is wrong because ten digits become necessary only from 512 onward. Exam tip: n binary digits count from 0 to two raised to n minus one, so 8 bits end at 255.

The correct answer is B, both statements are true, but B is not the correct explanation of A. Chola temples such as the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur, built by Rajaraja I, were far more than places of worship. They held land and villages, employed priests, garland makers, cooks, dancers and musicians, ran schools and craft workshops, and even lent money, so the religious, social and cultural life of the region gathered around them. Chola bronzes were cast by the lost wax method and mostly show deities such as Nataraja, Vishnu and Parvati, while a few portray donors and devotees, including saints and members of the royal family. Both statements are correct facts, but the subject matter of the bronzes does not explain why the temples were social centres; their land, wealth and grants do. So option A is wrong. Option C is wrong because Statement B is true, and option D is wrong because Statement A is true. Exam tip: Brihadisvara temple, Thanjavur, Rajaraja I; Chola bronzes by the lost wax method, Nataraja the most famous.

The correct answer is C, Satyashodak Samaj – Maharashtra. Jyotirao Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, the Truth Seekers' Society, at Pune in 1873 to fight caste rank and priestly control in Maharashtra. Phule, helped by his wife Savitribai, had already opened schools for girls and for children of the castes then called low, and in his book Gulamgiri he compared the state of the Shudras with that of slaves. The Samaj arranged marriages without Brahmin priests and spoke for peasants, workers and women. A is wrong because the Satnami movement was led by Guru Ghasidas among the leather-working castes of Chhattisgarh, not in Punjab. B is wrong because the Matua sect was started by Harichand Thakur among the Namasudras of Bengal, not in Tamil Nadu. D is wrong because the Arya Samaj was founded by Dayanand Saraswati in 1875 and was strongest in Punjab and north India, not Kerala. Exam tip: Phule – Satyashodhak Samaj, Pune 1873, Gulamgiri; Ghasidas – Satnami, Chhattisgarh.

The correct answer is D, It is upright and smaller than the object. A concave lens is a diverging lens, so for every position of a real object it forms an image that is virtual, erect and diminished. Rays that pass through a concave lens spread out; when they are extended backwards they appear to meet on the same side as the object, between the optical centre and the focus. Such an image cannot be caught on a screen. Because the image is always small and the field of view is wide, a concave lens is used in spectacles for myopia and in the peephole viewer of a door. A and B are wrong because an inverted image is always a real image, and a concave lens never forms one. C is wrong because a concave lens cannot magnify; an erect and enlarged image comes from a convex lens when the object lies between its optical centre and focus. Exam tip: concave lens – virtual, erect and diminished image, always.

The correct answer is D, a-iii, b-iv, c-ii, d-i. Coniferous forests grow in the cold northern belt of Asia, Europe and North America and are made of softwood evergreen trees such as pine, fir and spruce, whose light wood is used for paper and furniture. Mediterranean vegetation belongs to the west and south-west margins of the continents, where winters are wet and summers dry, and it is known for citrus fruits, olives and grapes. Tropical evergreen forests of the hot wet equatorial belt carry heavy hardwood trees such as mahogany, ebony and rosewood. Temperate evergreen forests lie on the eastern margins of the continents, where rain falls through the year. A, B and C are wrong because each misplaces at least two pairs, usually by tying coniferous forests to a continental margin instead of to softwood. Exam tip: conifer means softwood, Mediterranean means western margin, equatorial means hardwood.

The correct answer is C, Both A and B. India's village iron smelters were ruined by two pressures at once. Cheap iron and steel made in British factories was brought into India in large quantities from the middle of the nineteenth century, and local smiths could not match its price, so demand for their metal fell away. At the same time the colonial forest laws of the later nineteenth century turned large tracts into reserved forest and shut smelting communities out. They could no longer cut wood to make the charcoal their furnaces ran on, and without charcoal the furnaces went cold. Some paid heavy fees to enter, and many families gave up the craft and turned to farming or labour. A alone and B alone are incomplete, because each names only one of the two causes. D is wrong because both statements are correct. Exam tip: cheap British imports plus forest laws that cut off charcoal ended village iron smelting.

The correct answer is A, mansabdari system. Mansab means a position or rank, and Akbar used it to place every officer of the empire on a graded ladder. A mansabdar's rank had two numbers: zat, which fixed his personal standing and pay, and sawar, which fixed how many horsemen he had to keep ready for service. Most mansabdars were paid not in cash but by the revenue of an assigned piece of land, and they were moved from one place to another so that no family could settle into a region. B is wrong because the iqta was the revenue assignment of the Delhi Sultanate, held by muqtis, and it did not grade officers in this way. C is wrong because zabt, or the dahsala system worked out under Todar Mal, was a way of assessing land revenue from measured land and average produce, not of ranking nobles. D is wrong because the jagir was only the land whose revenue paid a mansabdar's salary. Exam tip: mansab equals zat plus sawar; zabt or dahsala is revenue assessment.

The correct answer is A, Jyotirao Phule. Phule wrote Gulamgiri, meaning slavery, in Marathi in 1873, and dedicated it to the people of America who had fought to free slaves, drawing a line between their struggle and the condition of the lower castes in India. In it he argued that the upper castes had no right to their land or power, and he used the idea of a golden age before the coming of the Aryans. Phule and his wife Savitribai opened a school for girls in Pune in 1848, and he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873. B is wrong because Ambedkar's well known writings are Annihilation of Caste, Who Were the Shudras and The Buddha and His Dhamma. C is wrong because E. V. Ramaswamy, called Periyar, led the Self Respect Movement and wrote in Tamil. D is wrong because Narayana Guru of Kerala gave the call of one caste, one religion and one God for man. Exam tip: Phule, Gulamgiri and Satyashodhak Samaj, both 1873.

The correct answer is C, methane and carbon dioxide. Biogas is produced when cattle dung, crop waste and sewage are broken down by bacteria in a closed tank without air, a process called anaerobic digestion. The gas that collects is about 55 to 70 per cent methane and most of the rest is carbon dioxide, with small traces of hydrogen sulphide and water vapour. Methane is the part that burns, which is why biogas gives a clean blue flame and is used for cooking and lighting in villages; the slurry left behind is a good manure. A gobar gas plant thus turns waste into fuel and fertiliser at the same time. A is wrong because hydrogen is not a major part of biogas. B is wrong because helium is an inert gas that no bacteria produce. D is wrong because nitrogen is present only in traces and does not burn. Exam tip: biogas is mainly methane with carbon dioxide, made by anaerobic digestion, and its slurry is used as manure.

The correct answer is B, sulphurous acid. Sulphur dioxide dissolves in water to give sulphurous acid, a weak acid with the formula H2SO3, by the reaction SO2 + H2O to H2SO3. Sulphur dioxide is an oxide of a non-metal, and such oxides are acidic in nature, which is why the solution turns blue litmus red. The same gas, released when coal and diesel burn, dissolves in rain water in the air and is then slowly oxidised further, so sulphur dioxide is one of the main causes of acid rain. A is wrong because sulphur trioxide is made by oxidising sulphur dioxide with more oxygen over a catalyst, not by dissolving it in water. C is wrong because sulphuric acid is formed when sulphur trioxide, and not sulphur dioxide, meets water. D is wrong because sulphur is the element itself and cannot be got back simply by dissolving its oxide. Exam tip: SO2 with water gives H2SO3; SO3 with water gives H2SO4.

The correct answer is A, A is correct and B is incorrect. Statement A is right because Article 153 provides a Governor for each state, and the Governor is the constitutional head of the state, in whose name all executive action of the state is taken. Statement B is wrong on one word: the Governor is appointed by the President under Article 155, not by the state government, and holds office during the pleasure of the President for a term of five years. That is why the Governor can report to the President on the state of affairs in the state; a person appointed by the state ministry could hardly watch over it. The real work of government is done by the Chief Minister and the council of ministers, who advise the Governor. B is wrong because statement A is correct. C is wrong because statement B has the appointing authority wrong. D is wrong because statement A is correct. Exam tip: Article 153, a Governor for each state; Article 155, appointed by the President.

The correct answer is D, i - c, ii - d, iii - a, iv - b. An idgah is an open walled ground on the edge of a town where the whole community gathers for the Id prayer, so it matches an open prayer place. A dargah is the tomb of a Sufi saint, where followers of every faith come to offer flowers and prayers. A cul-de-sac is a narrow lane closed at one end, the kind of street that filled the crowded mohallas of Shahjahanabad. A khanqah is the hospice where a Sufi master lived with his disciples, taught and fed visitors. A is wrong because it turns the idgah into a Sufi lodge and the khanqah into a prayer ground. B is wrong because it calls the idgah a saint's tomb and the dargah an open prayer place. C is wrong because it makes the idgah a lodge and the khanqah a tomb. Exam tip: idgah, open Id prayer ground; khanqah, Sufi hospice; dargah, the saint's tomb.

The correct answer is B, Chitrakoot. Khabar Lahriya was started in 2002 in the Chitrakoot region of Uttar Pradesh, which lies in the Bundelkhand belt. It was run by a group of Dalit women who had learnt to read and write as adults, and it was brought out in Bundeli, the local dialect, so that newly literate readers in villages could follow it. Its eight pages carried reports on caste violence, corruption in village works, police inaction and the shortage of water, stories that big city papers usually left out. NCERT's Class 7 social and political life book uses it as an example of local media run by ordinary people rather than by a big company. A is wrong because Agra is known for the Taj Mahal and its leather work, not for this paper. C is wrong because Jhansi lies in the same Bundelkhand belt but the paper did not begin there. D is wrong because Mirzapur is a carpet weaving centre on the Ganga. Exam tip: Khabar Lahriya, Chitrakoot, 2002, written in Bundeli by Dalit women.