GATE CS 2014 Set 2 Q.6 (GA Q.6): Reading Comprehension and Verbal Deduction

The old city of Koenigsberg, which had a German majority population before World War 2, is now called Kaliningrad. After the events of the war, Kaliningrad is now a Russian territory and has a predominantly Russian population. It is bordered by the Baltic Sea on the north and the countries of Poland to the south and west and Lithuania to the east respectively. Which of the statements below can be inferred from this passage?

Kaliningrad was historically Russian in its ethnic make up

Kaliningrad is a part of Russia despite it not being contiguous with the rest of Russia

Koenigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad, as that was its original Russian name

Poland and Lithuania are on the route from Kaliningrad to the rest of Russia

Official answer and solution

Official answer: B
From: Official GATE 2014 answer key

Solution

Analyze the geographical and political relationships described in the passage to identify the sound inference.

The passage states that Kaliningrad is an administrative territory of Russia.
The borders are given as: Baltic Sea to the north, Poland to the south and west, and Lithuania to the east.
Because it is surrounded by Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea, it shares no contiguous land border with mainland Russia (it is a non-contiguous Russian exclave).
Other statements are contradicted or ungrounded:
- Option A contradicts the text ('had a German majority population before World War 2').
- Option C is unsupported by the passage.
- Option D is an over-generalization about travel routes not mentioned in the text.

Thus, it can be logically inferred that Kaliningrad is part of Russia despite not being contiguous with the rest of Russia (option B).

Final answer

Common trap

Assuming Kaliningrad was historically Russian ethnically, which contradicts the stated German majority before WWII.

The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.

Source

Paper: GATE 2014 Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) Session 2
Question: 6 of 65, printed as GA Q.6
Section: General Aptitude

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