The company’s coffee crop for 1998-99 totaled 8,079 tonnes, an all time record. The increase over the previous year’s production of 5,830 tonnes was 38.58 per cent. The previous highest crop was 6,089 tons in 1970-71. The company thanks to the emphasis laid on the key areas of irrigation, replacement of unproductive coffee bushes and intensive refilling, has improved agricultural practices. It is now our endeavor to reach the target of 10,000 tonnes in 2001-02.Which one of the following would contribute most to making the target of 10,000 tonnes in 2001-02 unrealistic?

Animals in general are shrewd in proportion as they cultivate society. Elephants and beavers show the greatest signs of this sagacity when they are together in large numbers, but when man invades their communities they lose all their spirit of industry. Among insects, the labours of the bee and the ant have attracted the attention and admiration of naturalists, but all their sagacity seems to be lost upon separation, and a single bee or ant seems destitute of every degree of industry. It becomes the most stupid insect imaginable and it languishes and soon dies. Which of the following can be inferred from the above passage?

In a recent report, the gross enrolment ratios at the primary level, that is the number of children enrolled in classes one to five as a proportion of all children aged six to ten were shown to be very high for most states in many cases, they were way above 100 percent. These figures are not worth anything since they are based on the official enrolment data compiled from school records. They might as well stand for gross exaggeration ratios.Which one of the following options best supports the claim that the ratios are exaggerated?

Szymanski suggests that the problem of racism in football may be present even today. He begins by verifying an earlier hypothesis that clubs’ wage bills explain 90 percent of their performance. Thus if players’ salaries were to be only based on their abilities, clubs that spend more should finish higher. If there is pay discrimination against some group of players-fewer teams bidding for black players---fewer teams bidding for black players thus lowering the salaries for blacks with the same ability as whites-that neat relation may no longer hold. He concludes that certain clubs seem to have achieved much less than what they could have by not recruiting black players.Which one of the following findings would best support Szymanski’s conclusion?

The pressure on Italy’s 257 jails has been increasing rapidly. These jails are old and overcrowded. They are supposed to hold up 43,000 people-9,000 fewer than now. San Vittore in Milan which has 1,800 inmates is designed for 800. The number of foreigners inside jails has also been increasing. The minister in charge of prisons fears that tensions may snap and so has recommended to the government an amnesty policy.Which one of the following, if true, would have most influenced the recommendation of the minister?

The offer of the government to make iodised salt available at a low price of one rupee per kilogram is welcome especially since the government seems to be so concerned about the ill effects of no-iodised salt. But it is doubtful that the reports outlining three new and simple but experimental methods for reducing the costs of iodization to about five paise per kilogram will actually be implemented. But these reports have remained just those-reports on paper.Which one of the following, if true, most weaken the author’s contention that it is doubtful whether the offer will be actually implemented?

About 96 percent of Scandinavian moths have ears tuned to the ultrasonic pulses that bats, their predators, emit. But the remaining 4 per cent do not have ears and are deaf. However, they have a larger wingspan than the hearing moths, and also have higher wing-loadings-the ratio between a wing’s area and its weight-meaning higher manoeuvrability.Which one of the following can be best inferred from the above passage? 

Argentina’s beef cattle herd has dropped to under 50 million from 57 million ten years ago in 1970. The animals are worthless too : prices fell by over a third last year, before recovering slightly. Most local meat packers and processors are in financial trouble and recent years have been a string of plant closures. The Beef Producers Association has now come up with a massive advertisement campaign calling upon Argentines to eat more beef-their juicy, healthy, rotund, plate-filling steaks.Which one of the following, if true, would contribute most to a failure of the campaign? 

The problem of traffic congestion in Athens has been testing the ingenuity of politicians and town planners for years. But the measures adapted to date have not succeeded in decreasing the number of cars on the road in the city centre. In 1980, odds and evens number-plate legislation was introduced under which odd and even plates were banned in the city centre on alternate days thereby expecting to halve the number of cars in the city centre. Then in 1993 it was decreed that all cars in use in the city centre must be fitted with catalytic converters, the only condition being that the buyer of such a ‘clean’ car offered for destruction, a car at least 15-years old.Which one of the following options if true would best support the claim that the measures adopted to date have not succeeded? 

The argument for liberalization which answers the worries of the Left parties about the possible trade deficits created by the opening up of the Indian economy goes thus: many trading countries, the trade between two specific countries need to be balanced. The differing demands of goods and services and the differing productive capabilities of the same among different countries will cause a country like India to have trade deficits with some countries and surpluses with other countries. On the whole, the trade deficits and surpluses will balance out in order to give a trade balance’.Which of the following conclusions best summaries the argument presented in the passage above?