CSAT Solved Papers/ 2021/Q71
2021 CSAT — Q71
Passage
Medieval merchants risked the hazards of the Silk Road to reach the markets of China; Portuguese caravels in the 15th century sailed beyond the bounds of the known world, searching less for knowledge than for gold and spices. Historically, the driver for opening frontiers has always been the search for resources. Science and curiosity are weaker drivers. The only way to open up space, whether the space of solar system or interstellar space is to create an economic engine and that engine is resource extraction.
Which one of the following statements best sums up the passage given above?
Thinking pathway
Locate. This is a “best sums up” stem — a central-idea cousin: find the thesis that spans the whole passage. The passage’s examples (Silk Road merchants, Portuguese caravels “searching less for knowledge than for gold and spices”) all serve one claim: “the driver for opening frontiers has always been the search for resources,” with science/curiosity “weaker drivers,” and space openable only via “an economic engine… resource extraction.”
Test (thesis-vs-detail + scope-fit). The summary must name that driver: frontier exploration is motivated principally by economic/resource considerations. (c) states it. Test the rivals: (a) over-reaches to “any human endeavour” (the passage is about opening frontiers, not all human action); (b) flips the relation (the passage says an economic engine opens space, not that space governs the economy); (d) fixates on the “risk-taking” detail in the examples.
Eliminate by anatomy. (a) is too strong for what the passage says — “any human endeavour” widens the scope far beyond frontier-opening. (b) reverses the passage’s relation — economy is the cause of space-opening, not space the governor of economy. (d) offers a detail, not the main idea — risk-taking is incidental colour in the merchant/caravel examples, not the resource-motive thesis. The transferable rule: the summary inherits the passage’s exact subject (opening frontiers) and its causal direction (resources drive exploration). Key: (c).
Evidence in the text
“Historically, the driver for opening frontiers has always been the search for resources. Science and curiosity are weaker drivers. The only way to open up space… is to create an economic engine and that engine is resource extraction.” — the passage’s whole point is that the exploration of new frontiers is driven principally by economic/resource motives → (c). (a) over-generalises to “any human endeavour”; (b) reverses the relation (economy opens space, not space governs economy); (d) seizes the “risk-taking” detail rather than the resource-motive thesis.
Worked rationale
The passage marshals historical examples to argue that the search for resources — not knowledge or curiosity — is what drives humans to open new frontiers, including space.
- (c) sums that up: exploration of new frontiers is principally economically motivated. Correct.
- (a) over-generalises to all human endeavour.
- (b) reverses cause and effect (economy opens space, not vice versa).
- (d) elevates the incidental “risk-taking” detail.
Answer: (c).
Why the other options miss
- A too strong for what the passage says: “primary motive for any human endeavour” stretches a claim about opening frontiers into a claim about all of human activity.
- B cause and effect reversed: the passage says an economic engine is needed to open space; (b) flips it into space “governing our future economy.”
- D a detail, not the main idea: “risk-taking behaviour of some men” is incidental to the merchant/caravel examples, not the resource-motive thesis.
Specialist insight
Two clean traps frame the right answer. (a) over-scopes (“any human endeavour”) — the passage is strictly about frontiers/exploration, so the summary must stay there. (b) reverses direction — the passage’s causal claim is resources → exploration (economy opens space), and (b) inverts it. (c) keeps both the subject (opening frontiers) and the direction (driven by economic considerations). On “best sums up” items, check the option’s scope and causal direction against the passage before its surface plausibility.
(a) over-scopes to "any human endeavour" and (b) reverses the cause (economy opens space, not space governs economy); the thesis is resource-driven exploration, so (c).