List of top Questions asked in CUET (UG)

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A recent study by researchers from Basel University and Munich Technical University challenges prior beliefs about the influence of different light colours on the human body’s internal clock and sleep-wake rhythm. Unlike a previous study conducted on mice, this one suggests,
that light colour may be less critical for the internal clock than originally thought.
Vision involves a complex process of perceiving various light wavelengths as colours and brightness in the brain. Photoreceptors in the retina convert light into electrical impulses, transmitted to ganglion cells in the retina and to the visual cortex in the brain. Specialised ganglion cells play a significant role in the internal clock, being sensitive to short-wavelength light at around 490 nanometers, perceived as blue. When activated by short-wavelength light, these cells signal “it’s daytime” to the internal clock.
To explore the influence of light colour on the internal clock, the researchers exposed 16 healthy volunteers to blueish or yellowish light stimuli for one hour in late evening with a white light stimulus as a control condition. The light stimuli were designed to selectively activate the colour-sensitive cones in the retina, while maintaining consistent stimulation of the light-sensitive ganglion cells in all conditions. This allowed the researchers to directly check effects of light on the respective cone stimulation and, the colour of the light.
Contrary to the findings in mice, the study suggests that the colour of light, as encoded by the cones, may not significantly influence the human internal clock and sleep-wake rhythm. The current research contradicts the earlier finding that yellowish light had a stronger influence on the internal clock than blueish light. The results, published in “Nature Human Behaviour”, imply that while light intensity and exposure duration remain crucial factors, the colour of light may not play as significant a role in influencing sleep and circadian rhythms as previously believed.

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option:
In the quaint village of Malgudi, nestled between lush green fields and swaying palm trees, lived a man named Raghavan. He was known for his peculiar habit of collecting colourful pebbles from the riverbank every morning. The villagers, initially perplexed by this ritual, soon came to see it as a unique aspect of Raghavan’s character.
One day, as the Sun painted the sky in hues of orange and pink, Raghavan discovered a pebble
unlike any he had seen before. It shimmered with an iridescent glow, casting a magical aura around it. Intrigued, he decided to keep this special pebble in a small wooden box on his windowsill.
As days passed, rumours of the enchanted pebble spread across Malgudi, attracting visitors from neighbouring villages. They sought Raghavan’s wisdom, believing that the mystical pebble held the answers to life’s mysteries. Raghavan, a humble man, shared his insights with those who came, emphasising the beauty of simplicity and the magic within everyday moments.
Raghavan’s neighbour, Murrku, jealous of his success, decided to rob him off the pebble and sell it off to a bidder at a good price. This was important as he would be able to buy the most expensive doll for his daughter Rae on her birthday. He spent days and nights planning for the robbery and was successful in fulfilling his target. But this did not make any difference in Rae’s birthday celebration which had been complete with the simple toy made out of house- hold stuff presented to her by Raghavan. Murrku understood Raghavan’s simple philosophy of life. In the bid to get the most precious gift for his daughter, Murrku had forgotten Rae’s
birthday.

Read the given passage carefully and answer the next five questions.
In many ways it was a major political change, namely, the collapse of the erstwhile socialist world that hastened globalisation and also gave a specific economic and political approach to the economic policies that underpin globalisation. These changes are often termed as neo-liberal economic measures. We have already seen what concrete steps the liberalisation policy took in India. Broadly, these policies reflect a political vision of free enterprise which believes that a free reign to market forces will be both efficient and fair. It is, therefore, critical of both State regulation and State subsidies. The existing process of Globalisation in this sense does have a political vision as much as an economic vision.

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My grandfather, like most Nagas who had come into close contact with Europeans, was convinced that education was the only way to get ahead in life. He aspired for his children the kind of life he had seen being lived by the British administration and missionaries. He sent my mother away to school, first in neighbouring Assam, then as far as Shimla. My mother was encouraged by one of the more educated men in her village who told her that with an education in these new times, she could even become like the Indian lady who spoke before the world : Vijaylaxmi Pandit, who represented India at the UN. My father by dint of his own intelligence and hard work, put himself through the local mission school and college in Shillong. All Nagas of my parents' generation who were able to, chose to get educated in English. For them, it was more than a gateway to upward mobility. In a region where tribes that live no more than 20 kms apart speak completely different languages, it was a medium through which they could communicate amongst themselves and with the world. They became the voice of their people and made English the official state language.

Although Harappa was the first site to be discovered, it was badly destroyed by brick robbers. As early as 1875, Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, often called the father of Indian archaeology, noted that the amount of bricks taken from the ancient site was enough to lay bricks for ”about 100 miles” of the railway line between Lahore and Multan. Thus, many of the ancient structures at the site were damaged. In contrast, Mohenjodaro was far better preserved.

Shah Jahan pursued sound fiscal policies and accumulated enough money to indulge his pas sion for building. Building activity in the monarchical cultures, as in the case of earlier rulers, was the most visible and tangible sign of dynastic power, wealth, and prestige. In the case of Muslim rulers, it was also considered an act of piety. In 1648, the court, army, and household moved from Agra to the newly completed imperial capital, Shahjahanabad. It was a new addi tion to the old residential city of Delhi, with the Red Fort, Jama Masjid, a tree-lined esplanade with Chandni Chowk.

Women’s sports, both amateur and professional, have existed throughout the world for centuries in all varieties of sports. There is a rich record of sports participation of women in India. In the days of Mahabharata, Shakuntala, Madhuri, Kunti all chose physical activties as recreation. As time passed, Indian women were deprived of participation in sports for a number of reasons, despite having the potential and talent. They were put on the back seat, and were not allowed to participate in sports. However, female participation and popularity in sports increased dramatically in the last quarter of the 20th century, reflecting changes that emphasize gender parity. Although the level of participation and performance can still be improved, women’s participation in sports is generally accepted and promoted today. Although women have shown a dramatic rise in sports participation, there is still a large disparity in participation rates between women and men. These disparities continue to hinder equality in sports. Many institutions and programs still remain conservative and do not contribute to gender equity in sports. Some research in the physical domain lists constraints like heavy limbs, pear-shaped body structure and postural deformities like flat foot, knock knees etc., and physiological constraints including low level of RBCs, smaller heart and lung, high fat percentage, menstrual disorders, etc. as reasons for women’s non-participation in sports. There are certain psychological constraints like low self-confidence and self-esteem, higher level of stress and anxiety and social causes like lack of support or positive reinforcement from the family and the male dominated social structure that affect women’s participation in sports. Religious and economic factors also play a negative role that affect women’s participation in sports.

In the beginning of the annual academic planning for the school, a physical education committee meeting was held which included the school principal, teachers and students, almuni and parents. The agenda of the discussion was to plan for a comprehensive program for physical education and sports for all age groups and prepare a schedule of events along with recommendations for various sub-committees to conduct sports events. The team released the schedule of the events to be conducted in the current academic year. As per the interest and capabilities of students and teachers, various sub-committees were recommended. The sub-committee consisting of house-teachers and students provided feedback about concerns regarding draws and fixtures in intramural school tournament where the best teams competed against each other in the initial round itself. The students also felt that sometimes the teams were not cohesive and did not display sportsman-like behaviour on or off the field. They felt such situations were unseemly and could be avoided through a systematic process. There was also a need to increase the coordination among the committees with more defined roles and responsibilities of each member. To provide exposure to the potential atheletes and for talent development, a proposal was put forward for hosting a state-level inter-school competition at the school. To this end, the committees would need human resources, technical support and financial assistance. A new feature to the annual physical education programme, was the conducting of a mass run for crowd funding.

Read the following passage and answer the next five questions based on it.
Transition Series Elements:

Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn

Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd

La Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg

In any transition series, as we move from left to right the d-orbitals are progressively filled and their properties vary accordingly.

f-block Elements:

Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu

Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr

The above are the two series of f-block elements in which the chemical properties won’t change much. The 5f-series elements are radioactive in nature and mostly are artificially synthesized in laboratories and thus much is not known about their chemical properties.

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Particulars	₹
Revenue from Operations	8,75,000
Creditors	90,000
Bills Receivable	48,000
Bills Payable	52,000
Purchases	4,20,000
Trade Debtors	59,000

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G, K and B were partners running a partnership for last 10 years, sharing profit and loss in the ratio of 5 : 3 : 2. Post Covid, their firm was affected badly and started incurring losses. On 31st March, 2023 they all decided to dissolve the firm due to continuous losses. Their capital balances were ₹ 4,00,000, ₹ 3,00,000 and ₹ 2,00,000 respectively. Firm had liabilities ₹ 80,000, Cash balance ₹ 40,000, other Sundry Assets ₹ 8,50,000 and P&L A/c constituted the rest. Assets realised at 80% and liabilities were paid in full. There was unrecorded liability of ₹ 50,000 which was settled at ₹ 40,000. Realisation expenses amounted to ₹ 30,000, being paid by G on behalf of the firm.

In our quest to increase agricultural production during the last five decades or so, we almost totally neglected the use of compost and completely switched over to chemical fertilizers. The result is that large tracts of productive land have been adversely affected, water bodies including ground water system have suffered due to chemical contamination and demand for irrigation has been going up year after year. Farmers, in large numbers all over the country, have again started using compost made from organic wastes of different types. In certain parts of the country, cattle are maintained only because they produce dung which is an important fertilizer and soil conditioner.
Earthworms can convert organic matter into compost faster than the normal composting process. This process is now being widely used. Indirectly, the civic authorities are benefitted too as they have to dispose reduced quantity of waste.

India had an independent economy before the advent of the British rule. Though agriculture was the main source of livelihood for most people, yet, the country’s economy was characterised by various kinds of manufacturing activities. India was particularly well known for its handicraft industries in the fields of cotton and silk textiles, metal and precious stone works etc. These products enjoyed a worldwide market based on the reputation of the fine quality of material used and the high standards of craftsmanship seen in all imports from India. The economic policies pursued by the colonial government in India were concerned more with the protection and promotion of the economic interests of their home country than with the development of the Indian economy. Such policies brought about a fundamental change in the structure of the Indian economy — transforming the country into a supplier of raw materials and consumer of finished industrial products from Britain. Obviously, the colonial government never made any sincere attempt to estimate India’s national and per capita income. Some individual attempts which were made to measure such incomes yielded conflicting and inconsistent results. Among the notable estimators — Dadabhai Naoroji, William Digby, Findlay Shirras, V.K.R.V. Rao and R.C. Desai — it was Rao, whose estimates during the colonial period were considered very significant. However, most studies did find that the country’s growth of aggregate real output during the first half of the twentieth century was less than two per cent coupled with a meagre half per cent growth in per capita output per year.

Read the given passage and answer the six questions that follow.
When I was in my late teens and still undecided about which language I should write in, he told me that the language one is born into, one’s mother tongue, can be the only possible medium of creative expression. For most of his life, my father, Sripat Rai, had been a Hindi editor and critic. Off and on, he translated writings into English from Hindi. He was fond of saying that a failed writer becomes a critic. The weight of his literary expectation came, eventually, to rest on me. He seemed happy that I was showing an inclination for writing. ‘‘She will go far,’’ he told my mother after reading the first story that I sent him from Melbourne. My father’s pronouncement on the mother tongue stayed with me when I later started writing fiction in Hindi. Another thing that I barely acknowledged even to myself was that I felt something like shame whenever I thought of writing in English. It seemed wrong for a granddaughter of Premchand even to be thinking so. Our family had a certain linguistic pride. I knew that Premchand was famous, but I had not at that time realised the extent of his popularity. The fact that I was the granddaughter of Premchand, followed me everywhere. Everyone had a story to tell about their personal engagement with his fiction — the shopkeeper, the long time cook in my father’s Delhi house, a tea vendor, etc. The list was long, for there was practically no one who had not read something by him that had moved them. However, it was this very ubiquity, the reverence and love that he inspired in people, that made of him something too large for me to comprehend in the early years of my life. It led also to the strange feeling that, without having read him and just by being related to him, I had somehow inhaled his writing. The reading happened much later.

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Free will is the ability to decide and act free from any influence of past events or environment. It implies complete freedom to make any choice absolutely. We clearly don't have free will. Our decisions and actions are never divorced from our past.
We have a conditioned mind. Our memories, past impressions and experiences bias and shape our thoughts and actions in the present. It is our karmic imprint. Not just what we are born with, but also what we accumulate while living. We can consider it as the result of our genetic code, upbringing and environment. It's our backstory.
The only way to experience free will is to get rid of all such conditioning; to neutralise our karmic imprint; to be independent of our psychological coding. That’s possible only if we can purify our mind by letting go of all our ego, attachments and fixed beliefs. Then we can reside in the truth of our being.
The above is an exacting definition of free will. What we commonly mean by free will is that we have a choice in most situations like, who you choose to marry, what profession you pursue or how you react to someone’s aggression. Sounds reasonable. But here’s the catch. Our ability to make that choice too is significantly restricted, dictated by our predispositions. 
This applies even to our ability to bring about change within ourselves. Despite a strong resolve to be calmer, kinder or less anxious, our ability to manifest that change depends, partly on our emotional and mental wiring. That’s why some people succeed in such efforts more than the others. 
If you wish to expand the scope of your agency, explore ways to engage in sustained inner work, deepen your self-awareness, examine and reform your conditioned beliefs. But then, I wonder if your inclination to embark on that journey too depends on your current karmic coding.

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Coffee’s genetic make-up is no trivial concern; 10 million tonnes of the crop were grown and sold in 2022–23. The coffee that we drink comes from two species: Coffea Canephora, which is also known as Robusta and Coffea Arabica, known as Arabica. In many cases, beans from the two species are blended to make a brew. But the beans of single species are also roasted and sold. Overall, Arabica beans represent around 56% of all coffee sold.
The above is an exacting definition of free will. What we commonly mean by free will is that we have a choice in most situations like, who you choose to marry, what profession you pursue or how you react to someone’s aggression. Sounds reasonable. But here’s the catch. Our ability to make that choice too is significantly restricted, dictated by our predispositions.
Most genetic variation in living organisms comes from hybridization with other species. However, this is a relatively rare event for Coffea Arabica because it has more than two copies of each chromosome — a phenomenon called polyploidy. Coffea Canephora has two copies of each chromosome, but Coffea Arabica contains multiple copies. This makes it much more difficult for Arabica to interbreed with other species.
As a result, Coffea Arabica’s main source of single nucleotide variation is mutation, which occurs at a steady rate over time. However, the species is also relatively young, having formed as a hybrid of Robusta and Coffea Eugenioides — another coffee species that is not widely cultivated — within the past 50,000 years. From that single plant, which has basically no variation, you create the whole species, and then the variation is only the novel mutations that have occurred since that event.
Despite this, there is substantial variation in the physical characteristics of the Arabica coffee plant, including different flavour profiles in the beans and variations in disease resistance, says emeritus geneticist Juan Medrano at the UC Davis Coffee Center at the University of California, Davis. “We’re always talking about low variability at the DNA level, but there is variability at the structural level, at the chromosomal level, at the level of deletions … and insertions,” Medrano says.

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On a chilly winter evening, nothing warms you up better than a cup of hot cocoa. Chocolate was first consumed in liquid form by the Olmec people of northwestern Central America around 1500 BCE. It was even enjoyed by the Aztec Emperor Montezuma, and the Aztec word for it (xocolatl, pronounced shoh-kwah-tl) evolved into the English word Chocolate.
But the Aztecs didn’t serve their cocoa hot. And since sugar had not yet arrived from Europe, back then, the drink was often flavoured with peppers and spices. It may not have been quite as indulgent as today’s version, but it was more palatable if you believed, as the Aztecs did, that chocolate was a gift from the Gods and had healing properties.
After the Spanish arrived in the Americas in the 1500s, liquid chocolate made its way across the pond, where wealthy Europeans added sugar and drank it warm. In Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage, author Bertram Gordon says hot chocolate became ‘‘the beverage of the aristocracy,’’ as sugar was still a luxury.
Soon enough, though, hot choclate caught on with the masses. Chocolate houses — a cross between cafes and casinos — started popping up around 17th-century Europe. In these lively places, hot chocolate was poured from gilded pots into elegant cups (for a posh experience, one can still find it today at the famed Parisian tearoom Angelina’s, which is also in New York City). But by the end of the 18th century, chocolate houses had mostly died off, partly because the cost of chocolate was much higher than that of coffee or tea.
Taking a tour of international cups of cocoa, Italians serve it like a thick pudding. Colombians serve it with a dollop of soft cheese while Mexicans punch it up with vanilla, chilli powder and cinnamon. And Filipinos serve it with mango chunks.

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Advertising Trends
Like most areas of marketing, advertising is changing rapidly. New forms of media available are blurring the distinction between different avenues. Convergence of different media is giving rise to an advertising convergence. The convergence of television and the internet opens many potential opportunities for marketers to target customers in ways not available with traditional television advertising. Even the print is merging into the web. However, these new media forms have limited reach as they are technology-intensive and not affordable for everyone. The Internet has become the new hub for the ICE age [Information, Communication, Entertainment]. Podcasting, Audio-Podcasting, Video-RSS Feeds, Networked Gaming—may offer themselves as major outlets for advertising in the near future. The game of old plus new goes on, and marketers must stay informed of new developments and understand how their customers are using these in ways that may offer advertising opportunities.

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Public Broadcasting in India
Public broadcasting has gone through multiple changes in India since the age of its inception.Radio broadcasting began here in early 1920s. Later, in 1936, the All India Radio started its operation. Lionel Fielden was instrumental in developing the radio programming on AIR.Television broadcasting started in the late 1950s. Earlier, television was a part of AIR but by 1970, television centres were opened in various parts of the country other than Delhi. In 1976, Doordarshan, which was working under All India Radio, became an independent and separate department. Between August 1975 and July 1976, an experiment called the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was conducted. Under this programme, the Indian government used the American satellite ATS-6 to broadcast educational programmes to several villages of six states in India. Community TV sets were distributed and educational programmes were broadcast. Entertainment was also a part of these programmes in the form of dance, music, drama, folk songs, etc. In the 1990s, television and radio were brought together under Prasar Bharati.

Which of the following statements are true ?
(A) Quantitative tools control the extent of money supply by changing the CRR.
(B) There are two types of open market operations – outright and upright.
(C) A fall in the bank rate can decrease the money supply.
(D) Selling of a bond by RBI leads to reduction in quantity of reserves.
(E) The RBI can influence money supply by changing the rate at which it gives loan to the commercial
banks.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :

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India was amongst the first countries in the world to initiate action plans and pro-grammes at a national level to attain total reproductive health as a social goal. These programmes called ‘family planning’ were initiated in 1951 and were periodically assessed over the past decades. Improved programmes covering wider reproduction-related areas are currently in operation. Creating awareness among the people about various reproduction-related aspects and providing facilities and support for building up a reproductively healthy society are the major tasks under these programmes.

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Does the number of species in a community really matter to the functioning of the ecosystem? This is a question for which ecologists have not been able to give a definitive answer. For many decades, ecologists believed that communities with more species generally tend to be more stable than those with less species. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) (2004), the total number of plant and animal species described so far is more than1.5 million.

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Agricultural runoff, sewage, and industrial effluents are major causes of the deterioration of water quality in lakes and ponds. Productivity of lakes and ponds (for example, algal bloom and phytoplankton bloom) increases manifold due to agricultural runoff as well as due to excess inputs of nutrients including limiting nutrients, but this continuous increased productivity leads to the death of lakes and ponds. The dissolved oxygen BOD, temperature, turbidity, and salinity are important parameters of water quality in a lake and change naturally on a day and night basis as well as a seasonal basis. However, anthropogenic inputs change these parameters abruptly and adversely impact the water quality of the lakes. As a result, water in lakes and ponds does not remain fit for human consumption as well as for livestock. Immediate attention and affirmative actions are needed to protect lakes and ponds in our environment.

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Species interaction and productivity are two important components of any given ecosystem. In an ecosystem, interspecific interactions arise from the interaction of populations of two different species. Such interactions could be beneficial to both species, harmfulto both species, beneficial to one and harmful to the other, or vice-versa. There are also cases where only one species is harmed or benefitted, while the other remains unaffected. On the other hand, the productivity of an ecosystem starts with photosynthesis by green plants and is measured as the amount of biomass produced over a period of time. Such biomass becomes available for consumption to heterotrophs.