People by and large are concerned with and pursue self-interest. They are unlikely to be motivated to use renewable resources in a prudent and sustainable fashion. They are unlikely to be motivated under the following conditions : if their resource catchments are vast, so that degradation of any particular portion affects them very little; or if they have open before them possibilities of substitution as any one resource element is depleted; or if their control over the resource base is tenuous, so that others may, at any time, deplete a resource they value, even if they use it in a restrained fashion. Indeed, exhaustive use is highly likely when any one of these three conditions obtains. It is only when people perceive their resource catchments as limited, possibilities of substitution of exhausted resource elements as not readily feasible, and their own control over the resource base as secure, will they be motivated to use the resources in a prudent fashion. People, rooted in a locality, and retaining control over their resource base are most likely to fulfil all three prerequisites for sustainable resource use; and therefore to behave in ways conducive to the conservation of biodiversity within their localities. When do people use resources exhaustively ?
- (a)When the substitution of resource is felicitated by NGOs
- (b)When the resource is about to expand
- (c)When the resources use has little impact
- (d)When they desire desperately for sustainable development
Correct — C, ‘When the resources use has little impact’. The first of the writer's three conditions is that people's resource catchments are vast, ‘so that degradation of any particular portion affects them very little’. When the damage their own use causes barely touches them, they have no reason to hold back. This option restates that clause, and its wording is reproduced exactly as the booklet prints it.
- (a)When the substitution of resource is felicitated by NGOs — No agency of any kind appears in the passage, so nothing supports it — and the printed ‘felicitated’ looks like a slip for ‘facilitated’ in the first place.
- (b)When the resource is about to expand — An expanding resource is not among the three conditions; the passage is concerned throughout with depletion.
- (d)When they desire desperately for sustainable development — Wanting sustainable development is the opposite of exhaustive use, and the passage ties prudent use to limited catchments and secure control rather than to desire.
The first condition the writer gives for exhaustive use is a resource catchment so vast that damage to any part of it is not felt by the person using it.
Find the clause, not the keyword. Three options here raise matters the passage never touches — NGOs, an expanding resource, a desire for sustainable development — while the fourth restates a clause of the text in substance. Two printing slips sit in this item and are carried as they appear in the booklet: option (a) has ‘felicitated’ where ‘facilitated’ is plainly meant, and option (c) reads ‘the resources use’ without an apostrophe. Neither slip changes which option the passage supports.
- The passage's wording is that degradation of any particular portion affects the user very little.
- Vast catchments, easy substitution and insecure control are treated as three separate triggers for exhaustive use.
- Choosing an option because it mentions a familiar idea such as sustainable development.
- Assuming an option that carries a printing error cannot be the right one.
Asked as a passage-based comprehension item — choose the option the passage actually states.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
According to the passage, a vast resource catchment discourages prudent use because
- (a)it is difficult to police
- (b)degradation of any particular portion affects the user very little
- (c)it is owned by the state
- (d)substitutes for it are unavailable
Answer(b) degradation of any particular portion affects the user very little — the writer's own explanation of the condition.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The passage links secure control over a resource base to
- (a)exhaustive use
- (b)prudent use
- (c)migration away from the locality
- (d)the search for substitutes
Answer(b) prudent use — secure control is one of the three perceptions that motivate restraint.