CSAT Solved Papers/ 2024/Q11
2024 CSAT — Q11
Passage
Today, if we consider cities such as New York, London and Paris as some of the most iconic cities in the world, it is because plans carrying a heavy systems approach were imposed on their precincts. The backbone of the systems theory is the process of translating social, spatial and cultural desirables into mathematical models using computing, statistics, optimization and an algorithmic way of formulating and solving problems. The early universities of the West which began to train professionals in planning, spawned some of the most ingenious planners, who were experts in these domains. This was because these very subjects were absorbed into the planning curriculum that had its roots in the social sciences, geography and architecture. Planning in India, and its education differ from the West.
Which one of the following statements best reflects the most logical and rational inference that can be made from the above passage?
Thinking pathway
Locate. This asks for the best-supported inference: the key is the one option a quotable line entails. The passage’s load-bearing claim: the world’s iconic cities were planned via a systems approach, and the West’s ingenious planners came from “the planning curriculum that had its roots in the social sciences, geography and architecture” — a multi-disciplinary curriculum.
Test (find-the-line-then-match). Take each option to the text. (a) — curricula should be diverse and interdisciplinary: the “roots in social sciences, geography and architecture” line, plus the systems approach drawing on computing/statistics/optimization, directly entails a diverse, interdisciplinary curriculum. Matches. (b), (c), (d) — each names a fact about Indian urban governance (bureaucracy’s training, local funding shortfalls, population density and poverty) that the passage never states; the passage says only that “Planning in India… differ[s] from the West,” with no detail on bureaucracy, funds, density, or poverty.
Eliminate by anatomy. (b), (c), (d) are all claims the passage never actually makes — each is a plausible real-world claim about Indian cities, but none is anchored in the passage; they punish the reader who answers from general knowledge instead of the text. (a) is the only option built from a quotable line. The transferable rule: when three options describe the world and one restates the passage, the text-anchored one wins. Key: (a).
Evidence in the text
“these very subjects were absorbed into the planning curriculum that had its roots in the social sciences, geography and architecture” — the iconic cities’ success came from a planning curriculum drawing on multiple disciplines, so the inference the passage entails is that urban-planning curricula should be diverse and interdisciplinary (a). Options (b), (c), (d) name bureaucracy, insufficient funds, population density and poverty — none of which appear in the passage (out-of-scope).
Worked rationale
The passage credits iconic cities to a heavy systems approach and traces the West’s expert planners to a planning curriculum “absorbed” from “the social sciences, geography and architecture,” combined with computing, statistics and optimization — an explicitly multi-disciplinary education.
(a) — that urban-planning curricula should be diverse and interdisciplinary — is exactly the inference this entails. (b), (c), (d) introduce bureaucracy, insufficient funds, population density and poverty, none of which the passage mentions; they cannot be inferences from the text.
Answer: (a).
Why the other options miss
- B a claim the passage never actually makes: “bureaucracy lacks formal training” is a believable claim about Indian city administration, but the passage says nothing about who administers Indian cities or their training. Pulled in by a reader filling the “India differs” gap with general knowledge.
- C a claim the passage never actually makes: “local affair… insufficient funds” is real-world plausible but absent from the text.
- D a claim the passage never actually makes: population density and poverty are never mentioned; the option leans on what the reader knows about Indian cities, not on the passage.
Specialist insight
The whole item tests one discipline: answer from the passage, not from what you know about Indian cities. Three options bait the well-informed aspirant with true-sounding facts about Indian urban governance — but the passage’s only India sentence is “Planning in India… differ[s] from the West,” with no such detail. The single inference the text actually licenses is the one about curriculum breadth (a), which sits directly on the “roots in social sciences, geography and architecture” line.
(b)/(c)/(d) are true-sounding facts about Indian cities the passage never states; only (a) restates the text's multi-disciplinary-curriculum point — (a).