55 passages · 317 questions · free
CLAT passages, with the answers
CLAT is a reading test: almost every question hangs off a passage of four to five hundred words. These passages come from the CLATcoach question bank, in the same format, with every answer and explanation on the page.
Each one was read in full and its answer key checked before it was published here.
18 passages
English Language
- Ambedkar and Annihilation of CasteAnnihilation of Caste, the text that Ambedkar prepared as a presidential address to the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal in 1936 and then published…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Animal CognitionFor much of the twentieth century, the dominant view in cognitive science held that complex thought and language were uniquely human…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Biography as a Literary GenreBiography as a literary genre occupies an uncomfortable middle ground between history and fiction. It claims the authority of fact — a…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Democratic BackslidingDemocratic backsliding — the gradual erosion of democratic norms and institutions by leaders who arrived in power through democratic…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Hardin and Ostrom on the CommonsThe concept of the commons — resources shared by a community and managed collectively — has a long history and a surprisingly contentious…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Jane Jacobs and the Life of CitiesCities are not planned — they accumulate. The great urban theorist Jane Jacobs, writing in the 1960s, made this observation against the…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Journalistic ObjectivityThe ideal of journalistic objectivity — the notion that a reporter should present facts without personal opinion, giving equal weight to…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Maps and CartographyMaps are not descriptions of the world. They are arguments about it. Every map makes choices — about what to include and what to omit, what…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Mauss and the GiftIn 1925, the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss published a short essay called The Gift, arguing that the exchange of gifts in traditional…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Memory and the LawMemory, we now understand, is not a recording. It is a reconstruction. Each time we remember an event, we do not retrieve a stored file and…6 questions · 1 min read →
- On TranslationTranslation is not a mechanical operation. It is an act of interpretation. When a translator moves a text from one language to another,…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Attention EconomyThe market for attention is unlike any other market. In an ordinary market, the supplier is paid for what the buyer receives. In the…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Easterlin ParadoxIn 1974, the economist Richard Easterlin published a finding that would generate decades of debate: within a given country at a given time,…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Idea of WildernessThe concept of ‘wilderness’ — land untouched by human activity, existing outside and apart from human civilisation — turns out to be…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Language of the ColoniserWhen the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o announced in 1986 that he would no longer write novels in English, the decision was widely read as…6 questions · 2 min read →
- The Novel and InteriorityThe novel, as a literary form, has always been interested in interiority — in the interior life of characters, in the private feelings that…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Original PositionSuppose you were asked to design the basic institutions of a society — its constitution, its tax system, its rules about who owns what —…6 questions · 2 min read →
- Uncomfortable Science and Karl PopperThe history of science is in many ways the history of uncomfortable ideas — of truths that displaced cherished beliefs and forced humanity…6 questions · 1 min read →
14 passages
Legal Reasoning
- Anticipatory BailAnticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (now Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023)…7 questions · 1 min read →
- Doctrine of Indoor ManagementThe doctrine of indoor management (sometimes called the Turquand rule after the English case Royal British Bank v. Turquand, 1856) protects…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Doctrine of Legitimate ExpectationThe doctrine of legitimate expectation operates in the domain of administrative law. It provides that where a public authority has made a…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Indian Partnership Act, 1932A partnership is defined under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 as the relation between persons who have agreed to share the profits of a…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Law of AgencyThe law of agency governs the relationship between a principal (who authorises another to act on their behalf) and an agent (who acts…7 questions · 1 min read →
- Law of NegligenceThe law of negligence imposes a duty of care upon persons whose conduct may foreseeably harm others. The foundational test was established…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Marks and ConfusionA trade mark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of another. Registration confers on the…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Mistake and Misrepresentation under the Contract ActThe Indian Contract Act, 1872 provides that a contract entered into under a mistake of fact may be void. Section 20 provides that where…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (PCA Act) provides the legal framework for the protection of animals from unnecessary pain…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Section 138, Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 creates a criminal offence of dishonour of a cheque. Where a cheque drawn by a person…5 questions · 1 min read →
- The Domestic Violence Act, 2005The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) provides civil remedies to women who have suffered or are likely to suffer…5 questions · 1 min read →
- The Intermediary's ShieldAn intermediary is a person who, on behalf of another, receives, stores or transmits an electronic record, or provides any service with…5 questions · 1 min read →
- The Public Trust DoctrineThe doctrine of public trust holds that certain natural resources — historically air, water, and seashore — are held by the state in trust…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Vicarious LiabilityVicarious liability is a form of strict liability under which a person is held responsible for the wrongful act of another, by virtue of…5 questions · 1 min read →
16 passages
Logical Reasoning
- Affirmative ActionAffirmative action policies — those that take race, caste, gender, or other identity characteristics into account in decisions about…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Agricultural MonoculturesAgricultural monocultures — the practice of cultivating a single crop species over large areas — dominate global food production. The…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Behavioural Economics and the NudgeBehavioural economics emerged from the insight that human beings are not the purely rational agents that classical economics assumed.…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Coral Reef DegradationCoral reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean floor but support approximately 25 percent of all marine species. They are among the…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Correlation, Causation, and the Post Hoc FallacyOne of the most common errors in reasoning is the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy — Latin for ‘after this, therefore because of this.’…6 questions · 1 min read →
- India's Small CitiesUrbanisation in India is accelerating, but the nature of that urbanisation is frequently mischaracterised in policy discussions. The…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Organ Donation SystemsOrgan transplantation saves tens of thousands of lives annually worldwide, but the supply of transplantable organs falls far short of…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Plastic PollutionPlastic pollution has become one of the most pervasive environmental problems of the modern era. Global plastic production reached…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Sleep and Cognitive PerformanceSleep has long been treated in industrialised societies as a residual activity — what remains after work, commuting, childcare, and leisure…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Small Loans, Large QuestionsThe case for microfinance was originally put in strong terms. The poor were said to be entrepreneurial but capital-starved; lend them small…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Eight-Floor BuildingEight people — Anand, Bhavna, Chirag, Deepa, Eshan, Farida, Gaurav and Hina — live on eight different floors of the same building, numbered…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Gig Economy in IndiaThe gig economy — work arrangements mediated through digital platforms, in which individuals work on discrete tasks or projects rather than…6 questions · 1 min read →
- The Informal Economy in IndiaThe informal economy in India encompasses all economic activity that is not regulated, taxed, or monitored by the government. By most…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Vaccines and Herd ImmunityThe history of vaccination is, in miniature, the history of medicine's relationship with the public. Edward Jenner's observation in the…6 questions · 1 min read →
- What the Test MeasuresA school system that wants to know whether its students are learning must measure something, and what it can measure most cheaply is…6 questions · 1 min read →
- Why AI Language Models HallucinateArtificial intelligence systems that generate text — large language models (LLMs) — are trained on vast datasets of text scraped from the…6 questions · 1 min read →
7 passages
Current Affairs and GK
- AIRAWAT and the IndiaAI MissionAIRAWAT (AI Research, Analytics and Knowledge Assimilation Platform) is India's national AI computing infrastructure, deployed under the…5 questions · 1 min read →
- Digital India ActIndia's proposed Digital India Act (DIA) — intended to replace the Information Technology Act, 2000 — was under consultation in 2023 and…6 questions · 1 min read →
- G20 New Delhi SummitIndia hosted the G20 Leaders' Summit in New Delhi on September 9–10, 2023, under the presidency theme 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — One Earth,…6 questions · 1 min read →
- India Semiconductor MissionIndia launched the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) in December 2021 as part of a broader effort to develop a domestic semiconductor…6 questions · 1 min read →
- India-China Border RelationsAfter years of military standoff, India and China reached an agreement in October 2024 on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual…6 questions · 1 min read →
- National Monetisation PipelineThe National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), launched in August 2021, is a framework for leasing core infrastructure assets of the Central…5 questions · 1 min read →
- PM Vishwakarma YojanaThe PM Vishwakarma Yojana, launched on September 17, 2023 — the birth anniversary of Vishwakarma, the deity of craftsmen — is a Central…5 questions · 1 min read →
