Question
The dawn of the 21st century witnessed the melting glaciers oscillating between giving too much and too little to billions of people who depend on them for fresh water. The UN climate report estimates that without deep cuts to man-made emissions, at least 30% of the northern hemisphere's surface permafrost could melt by the end of the century. Given this situation of imminent global exodus of billions of people displaced by rising seas, nation-states need to rethink their carbon footprint for political concerns, if not for environmental ones.
Which one of the following statements can be inferred from the given passage?
Official answer and solution
- Official answer
- D
- From
- Official GATE 2020 answer key
Solution
Evaluate each candidate statement against direct statements in the text.
The passage begins: 'The dawn of the 21st century witnessed the melting glaciers oscillating between giving too much and too little to billions of people who depend on them for fresh water.' It also mentions the 'situation of imminent global exodus of billions of people displaced by rising seas'.
This directly supports the inference that billions of people are affected by melting glaciers (both via fresh water availability and displacement due to sea level rise).
The passage does not state that nation-states lack environmental concerns (it mentions 'if not for environmental ones'), nor that billions of people are responsible for emissions.
D
The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.
Source
- Paper
- GATE 2020 Computer Science and Information Technology (CS)
- Question
- 4 of 65, printed as GA Q.4
- Section
- General Aptitude
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