India · National Testing Agency · pg · unverified source
636practice questions written to this syllabus
40subjects
Format
Computer-based MCQ test for MSc admission to central and participating universities; pattern set in each year's bulletin.
Sections
Environmental science domain paper (ecology, chemistry, pollution, resources, management)
Over the years
Used for MSc Environmental Science at central universities. Paper code and syllabus were not re-read. Agricultural universities use ICAR AIEEA-PG instead.
Original questions written to this exam's published syllabus and pattern. Not past papers.
1. Which book, published in 1962, documented the harm of pesticides such as DDT and helped launch the modern environmental movement?
The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Our Common Future by the Brundtland Commission
Answer and working
B. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Carson's Silent Spring (1962) exposed pesticide harm. Our Common Future is the 1987 Brundtland Report; Leopold's book dates from 1949; The Population Bomb from 1968.
Principles of Environmental Science · Scope of environmental science and its links with agriculture
2. Who coined the term 'ecosystem' in 1935?
Charles Elton
Arthur Tansley
Eugene Odum
Ernst Haeckel
Answer and working
B. Arthur Tansley
Tansley introduced 'ecosystem' in 1935; Haeckel coined 'ecology' in 1866; Odum and Elton developed ecosystem and community concepts later.
Ecology & Ecosystem Science · Levels of ecological organisation; autecology and synecology
3. A water sample contains 40 mg/L of calcium (Ca²⁺, atomic mass 40). What is this expressed as mg/L as CaCO3?
40 mg/L as CaCO3
100 mg/L as CaCO3
200 mg/L as CaCO3
50 mg/L as CaCO3
Answer and working
B. 100 mg/L as CaCO3
Equivalent weight of Ca²⁺ = 40/2 = 20; mg/L as CaCO3 = 40 × 50/20 = 100. 40 forgets conversion; 50 uses the CaCO3 equivalent weight alone; 200 uses the molar mass of CaCO3 over 20.
Environmental Chemistry · Chemical bonding, concentration units, activity and ionic strength
4. Which group of organisms is acellular and replicates only inside host cells?
Viruses
Bacteria
Fungi
Protozoa
Answer and working
A. Viruses
Viruses lack cells and metabolism of their own; bacteria, fungi and protozoa are cellular.
Environmental Microbiology · Prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms; classification and diversity
5. The Great Oxidation Event, when oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere, occurred about:
240 million years ago
24,000 years ago
2.4 billion years ago
4.5 billion years ago
Answer and working
C. 2.4 billion years ago
Cyanobacterial photosynthesis eventually outpaced oxygen sinks such as reduced iron.
Earth Systems & Environmental Geoscience · Origin and evolution of the earth and its spheres
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