CSAT Solved Papers/ 2022/Q72
2022 CSAT — Q72
Passage
To encourage research is one of the functions of a university. Contemporary universities have encouraged research, not only in those cases where research is necessary, but on all sorts of entirely unprofitable subjects as well. Scientific research is probably never completely valueless. However silly and insignificant it may seem, however mechanical and unintelligent the labours of the researchers, there is always a chance that the results may be of value to the investigator of talent, who can use the facts collected for him by uninspired but industrious researchers as the basis of some fruitful generalization. But where research is not original, but consists in the mere rearrangement of existing materials, where its object is not scientific but literary or historical, then there is a risk of the whole business becoming merely futile.
According to the author
Thinking pathway
Locate. This asks for the best-supported inference: fix the author’s modal, not a hardened or reversed version of it. The passage: “there is always a chance that the results may be of value to the investigator of talent.” The operative words are chance and may — possibility, not certainty.
Test (qualifier-match). (c) “any research result can be of value to an intelligent investigator” preserves the possibility modal (“can” ≈ “may / there is a chance”). Test the rest: (b) “is always valuable” hardens “may” into a guarantee; (d) “must always be of some value” hardens it further into a necessity; (a) “not many results can be of value” reverses the openness of the claim.
Eliminate by anatomy. (b) over-states the case — possibility → certainty. (d) changes the passage’s level of certainty — “may be of value” → “must always be of some value.” (a) gets the direction backwards — restricts what the author opens up. The transferable rule: “there is always a chance that X may be of value” licenses “X can be of value,” never “X is always / must be of value.” Key: (c).
Evidence in the text
“…there is always a chance that the results may be of value to the investigator of talent, who can use the facts collected for him by uninspired but industrious researchers as the basis of some fruitful generalization.” — the modal is possibility: ANY result MAY/CAN be of value to a talented investigator. (c) “any research result can be of value” matches the “can/may” hedge. (b) “always valuable” and (d) “must always be of some value” both harden “can/may” into a certainty; (a) reverses it → (c).
Worked rationale
The author says a talented investigator can always potentially make use of even dull research — there is always a chance it may prove valuable.
- (c) “any research result can be of value” keeps the possibility modal. Correct.
- (b) “always valuable” converts possibility to guarantee.
- (d) “must always be of some value” converts it to necessity.
- (a) reverses the author’s openness.
Answer: (c).
Why the other options miss
- A cause and effect reversed: “not many results can be of value” contradicts the author’s “always a chance that the results may be of value.”
- B too strong for what the passage says: “is always valuable” hardens the “may be of value” possibility into a flat certainty.
- D changes the passage’s level of certainty: “must always be of some value” turns the possibility (“chance… may”) into a necessity (“must always”) — the most tempting over-read because it borrows “always” and “some.”
Specialist insight
The contest is (c) vs (d). Both keep “any/some research result has value,” but (d) sneaks in “must always” — turning the author’s “there is always a chance it may be of value” into a guarantee. “Always a chance” modifies possibility, not the outcome: it means the possibility is ever-present, not that value is assured. (c) keeps “can”; (d) over-commits to “must.” On modal precision, pick the possibility reading. (c).
"There is always a chance results MAY be of value" supports "can be of value" (c); (d)'s "must always be of some value" hardens a possibility into a guarantee.