Deriving Conclusions From Passages Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Data inadequate

The passage says there is a need to continually benchmark Indian ports against the best in the world. That is a recommendation about what should be done in future; it does not tell us whether any grading has already been carried out. A call for something to be done regularly is not evidence that it has never been done at all, so the passage leaves the question open.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Probably false

The passage states the opposite: pre-berthing time has been marginally increasing over the years. It is the average turn-around time that has been falling. The statement therefore runs against what is written, and since the fourth option here is worded ‘probably false’ rather than ‘definitely false’, that is the strongest verdict available - and the right one to choose when the contradiction is clear but the passage hedges with ‘marginally’.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Definitely true

This is stated almost directly. The passage says India needs higher investment in the port sector, that its ports still lag far behind international ports in container traffic, and that they need to be continually benchmarked against the best ports worldwide. Taken together those are precisely the claim that considerable development is needed to match the best, so the inference follows without any assumption of its own.

Answer: D

It is mentioned in the passage that there is a need to engage in policy efforts so as to attain prices per container 'of port services which are the lowest in the world. This indicates that at present these service charges are not the lowest.

Answer: A

The appropriate inference is there is a strong correlation between crow birth and cracker sales.

The two curves rise, flatten, spike and fall together over the same years, so the data show a strong correlation: the two quantities move together. That is all the data can show, because the studies were unrelated and nothing links the two mechanisms.

The other three options all claim causation, in one direction or the other: that cracker use raises crow births, that falling cracker sales would lower crow births, or that more crow births raise cracker sales. Correlation alone does not establish causation; the two series could share a cause, or coincide by chance.

Answer: B

The correct inference is that more people are visiting the malls but not spending enough.

The passage gives two facts: the number of visitors is impressive, and the revenue from sales is generally low. Many visitors with low total sales means that, on average, visitors are not buying much.

'Fewer people are visiting' contradicts the impressive visitor numbers, so both options that start that way are wrong. 'Spending more' contradicts the low revenue, which rules out the remaining option.