[Mission 2023] Insta–DART (Daily Aptitude and Reasoning Test) 6 & 7 June 2023

We are witnessing a dangerous dwindling of biodiversity in our food supply. The green revolution is a mixed blessing. Over time farmers have come to rely heavily on broadly adapted, high yield crops to the exclusion of varieties adapted to the local conditions. Monocropping vast fields with the same genetically uniform seeds helps boost yield and meet immediate hunger needs. Yet high-yield varieties are also genetically weaker crops that require expensive chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides. In our focus on increasing the amount of food we produce today, we have accidentally put ourselves at risk for food shortages in future.

Which among the following is the most logical and critical inference that can be made from the above passage?

Some people believe that leadership is a quality which you have at birth or not at all. This theory is false, for the art of leadership can be acquired and can indeed be taught. This discovery is made in time of war and the results achieved can surprise even the instructors. Faced with the alternatives of going left or right, every soldier soon grasps that a prompt decision either way is better than an endless discussion. A firm choice of direction has an even chance of being right while to do nothing will be almost certainly wrong.

The author of the passage holds the view that

The Arctic’s vast reserves of fossil fuel, fish and minerals are now accessible for a longer period in a year. But unlike Antarctica, which is protected from exploitation by the Antarctic Treaty framed during the Cold War and is not subject to territorial claims by any country, there is no legal regime protecting the Arctic from industrialization, especially at a time when the world craves for more and more resources. The distinct possibility of ice-free summer has prompted countries with Arctic coastline to scramble for great chunks of the melting ocean.

Which one of the following is the most important implication of the passage?

Directions (4-7) 

Read the passage and answer the question based on it.

On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos , Spain , with less than a hundred crew members to discover a new route to Asia. After spending a difficult time at sea, the party sighted land early on the morning of October 12, 1492. They set foot on an island in the Bahamas which they named Al Salvador. Columbus presumed that the indigenous people were Native Indians as he was under the mistaken belief that he had set foot on Indian soil. Probably some 10 million American Indians were natives to the land before the large-scale inhabitation by Europeans and subsequent annihilation of Native Americans started.
However, it took more than a hundred years after Columbus discovered America for the Europeans to finally take the momentous decision to make the New World their home.
The Native Americans actually welcomed the pale-skinned visitors primarily out of curiosity than anything else. They were fascinated by the steel knives and swords, fire spewing cannons, brass and copper utensils, etc. that these visitors brought with them. Eventually, cultural differences erupted. The natives could not stomach the arrogance of the newcomers and the scant respect they paid to nature. The European settlers viewed every resource — plants, animals, and people as something to be commercially exploited.
The native Indians were vastly outnumbered in the wars that ensued. The resistance they put up never proved enough to stop the European settlers. The nomadic lifestyle of the Indians, the relatively unsophisticated weapons at their disposal, the unwillingness of some of their own people to defend themselves, and the diseases of the white men — all contributed to the virtual elimination of their race. Some of the diseases brought by Europeans from their overcrowded cities that decimated the natives were: small pox, plague, measles, cholera, typhoid, and malaria. These deadly diseases, to which most natives had developed no resistance, devastated many tribes between 1775 and 1850.
America was named after an Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the Northern parts of South America in 1499 and 1500 and later announced to the world about the discovery of a new continent.

The primary purpose of the passage is to

From the passage we can infer that in comparison to the Europeans, Native Americans were

What can be inferred from the third paragraph?

Based on the information in the passage which of the following cannot be inferred?

1. Alien diseases wiped out a large proportion of certain Native American tribes
2. The early settlers totally eliminated the Native Americans
3. To the early settlers, even people were resources to be exploited commercially

Directions (8-10): A statement is given followed by two inferences I and II. You have to consider the statement to be true even if it seems to be at variance from commonly known facts. You have to decide which of the given inferences, if any, follow from the given statement.

Statement: Government has asked people with sufficient income to give up the subsidy.

Inferences:

i. All citizens do not need the subsidy.

II. Poor people are not getting any subsidy.

• Statement: Only good dancers are invited to the festival. No one without rhythm can be called a good dancer.

Inferences:

1. 1. All dancers who are invited to the festival have rhythm in their feet.
   2. The dancers who do not have any rhythm in their feet are not invited to the festival.

Statement: S. Dhoni has resigned from the ODI captaincy of Team India. He said that the pressure was too much and he would like to concentrate on his personal life. He jokingly said that he had started getting white hair prematurely too.

Inferences:

He is irritated being a captain of Team India.

II. The stress of captaincy had taken a toll on his family