2021 CSAT — Q3

Locate. This asks for the central idea — the load-bearing thesis, not a true-but-minor detail. Separate the thesis from the supporting details and pick the option that fits the whole passage, not one sentence. The passage’s movement: climate change → “more run-off and less recharge,” degraded groundwater, “increase in the frequency of droughts,” and as a result “farmers… increase dependency on groundwater resources.” Two things rise together — the threat to water and the reliance on it.

Test (thesis-vs-detail + scope-fit). The crux must hold the passage’s two-sided point: water becomes more critical (farmers lean on it harder) precisely as it becomes more threatened (less recharge, droughts). (c) states both halves. Test the rivals against the whole text: (a) covers only the opening clause (regional climate models); (b) and (d) add policy/value judgments the passage never makes.

Eliminate by anatomy. (a) offers a supporting detail as if it were the point — “regional climate models” is the study’s method, not its message. (b) is a claim the passage never makes — “adopt dry-land cropping” is a remedy the passage never proposes. (d) over-states, mixing right and wrong — “unsustainable livelihoods and risky coping” loads a negative verdict onto the neutral fact that farmers depend more on groundwater. The transferable rule: the crux fits the passage end to end; a true-but-partial detail and an unstated prescription both fail scope-fit. Key: (c).

“These climatic shifts will have an impact on the hydrological cycles… lead to more run-off and less recharge, and affect the groundwater tables. Further, there has been an increase in the frequency of droughts… This has driven farmers to increase dependency on groundwater resources.” — the passage’s whole arc is that climate change BOTH degrades water (less recharge, droughts) AND makes water more vital (farmers depend on it more). (c) names exactly that double movement — criticality up, availability threatened. (a) is a true detail (the study used regional models) offered as the crux; (b) is a prescription the passage never gives; (d) injects “unsustainable/risky,” words the passage avoids.

The passage describes a study over the Cauvery basin: rising temperatures, fewer rainy days, more run-off and less recharge, declining groundwater, more frequent droughts — and farmers responding by depending more on groundwater. The net point is a paradox: climate change makes water both scarcer (threatened) and more essential (critical).

• (c) captures the paradox — criticality rises while availability is threatened. Correct.
• (a) is only the method clause (regional climate models), not the crux.
• (b) prescribes dry-land cropping, which the passage never mentions.
• (d) brands the farmers’ response “unsustainable/risky,” a verdict the passage does not pass.

Answer: (c).

The deciding move is scope-fit. (a) is true — the study did use regional climate models — and that is why it tempts; but a crux must cover the passage, and (a) covers only its first line. (c) alone tracks the passage’s full motion: the same climate shift that threatens water (less recharge, droughts) is what makes water more critical (farmers depend on it more). When an option is true but only of one sentence, it is a detail wearing the crux’s clothes.