UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — America spends £2,900 millions yearly on motors

Q1. The moving assembly-line method of mass production in the early 20th-century US automobile industry was first operationalised at the manufacturing plant of which one of the following companies?

  • A. Ford Motor Company
  • B. General Motors Corporation
  • C. Chrysler Corporation
  • D. Studebaker Corporation

Q2. Which of the following are correctly identified as industries or developments associated with the Second Industrial Revolution?

  1. A large-scale electrical industry driven by breakthroughs in electricity
  2. The petroleum industry
  3. The steel industry
  4. The spinning jenny
  • A. 1, 2 and 3
  • B. 1, 2 and 4
  • C. 2, 3 and 4
  • D. 1, 3 and 4

Q3. The first successful powered flight (1903), a landmark achievement of the Second Industrial Revolution era, was carried out by which one of the following?

  • A. The Wright brothers
  • B. Henry Ford
  • C. Thomas Edison
  • D. Karl Benz

Q4. By how many percentage points did the US Federal Reserve raise the discount rate in August 1929, on the eve of the stock market crash?

  • A. 1
  • B. 2
  • C. 3
  • D. 5

Q5. Which one of the following best defines a 'gold standard' as a monetary system?

  • A. A system in which a currency's value is fixed to a set quantity of gold into which it is freely convertible
  • B. A system in which the money supply is determined solely by the volume of foreign trade
  • C. A system in which currency notes are backed entirely by government bonds
  • D. A system in which exchange rates float freely against all other currencies

Q6. Britain's 1925 return to the pre-war gold parity, defining the pound sterling as equal to 123.274 grains of gold, was adopted under which one of the following as Chancellor of the Exchequer?

  • A. Winston Churchill
  • B. John Maynard Keynes
  • C. Ramsay MacDonald
  • D. Stanley Baldwin

Q7. Which of the following are correctly identified as features of The Hindu newspaper?

  1. It is an English-language daily.
  2. It is published by the Hindu Group of Publications (Kasturi & Sons).
  3. Under British rule it advocated independence in a moderate vein.
  4. It was established as a daily newspaper in 1878.
  • A. 1, 2 and 3
  • B. 2, 3 and 4
  • C. 1, 2 and 4
  • D. 1, 3 and 4

Q8. Indian auto-component exports to the United States reached approximately how many billion US dollars in FY25?

  • A. $6.2 billion
  • B. $12.5 billion
  • C. $2.5 billion
  • D. $18 billion