UPSC EPFO EO/AO 2023 · Question 3
Question 3 of the UPSC EPFO EO/AO Recruitment Test 2023 (General Ability Test) (2 July 2023). Try it first, then open the answer and explanation.
The first and sixth sentences of a passage are given as S1 and S6. The four sentences in between have been jumbled up and labelled P, Q, R and S. Choose the proper sequence of the four sentences. S1: Contemporary history is necessary, but it is at best a tentative record. S6: Some portentous events can be seen to be so from the moment of their occurrence, like the discovery of the New World; others of comparable momentousness are hidden in obscurity. P: The relevance of the issue of proportion is significant. Q: It possesses, indeed, a massive supply of public record, but it necessarily lacks the inner knowledge of politicians' minds, of planners' proposals, of scientists' discoveries, of technicians' break-throughs. R: It also lacks perspective since it is bereft of a sense of proportion. S: It is impossible, over just a few years of observation, to estimate accurately the significance of various events.
- QPSR
- SRPQ
- QSRP
- PRSQ
Show answer
Answer: (3) QSRP
The order is QSRP. Q follows S1 directly: "It" is contemporary history, and its "massive supply of public record" picks up S1's "tentative record" before saying what it lacks. S gives a second limitation: a few years of observation cannot show the real significance of events. R adds, with "also lacks", the lack of perspective and of a sense of proportion, and P can only come after R, because "the issue of proportion" needs R to introduce it. S6 then illustrates proportion with portentous events, some obvious at once and others hidden. QPSR wrongly puts P before proportion has been mentioned.