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TEST 10
30 Minutes 20 Questions
1. In 1985 in the country of Alissia, farmers brought to market a broccoli crop that was one-and-a-half times as large as the 1985 broccoli crop in its neighbor country, Barbera. Yet total quantities of broccoli available for sale to consumers in Alissia were smaller than were total quantities in Barbera in 1985.
Which of the following, if true, in 1985, contributes most to an explanation of why there was less broccoli available for sale to consumers in Alissia than in Barbera?
(A) Barbera’s farmers produced much more cabbage than did Alissia’s farmers.
(B) Barbera’s farmers produced fewer heads of broccoli per acre than did Alissia’s farmers.
(C) Alissia exported a much higher proportion of its broccoli crop than did Barbera.
(D) Broccoli was much more popular among consumers in Alissia than in Barbera.（C）
(E) Alissia had more land suitable for growing broccoli than did Barbera.
2. A manufacturer of men’s dress socks sought to increase profits by increasing sales. The size of its customer pool was remaining steady, with the average customer buying twelve pairs of dress socks per year. The company’s plan was to increase the number of promotional discount-sale periods to one every six months.
Which of the following, if it is a realistic possibility, casts the most serious doubt on the viability of the company’s plan?
(A) New manufacturing capacity would not be required if the company were to increase the number of pairs of socks sold.
(B) Inventory stocks of merchandise ready for sale would be high preceding the increase in the number of discount-sale periods.
(C) The manufacturer’s competitors would match its discounts during sale periods, and its customers would learn to wait for those times to make their purchases.
(D) New styles and colors would increase customers’ consciousness of fashion in dress socks, but the customers’ requirements for older styles and colors would not be reduced.（C）
(E) The cost of the manufacturer’s raw materials would remain steady, and its customers would have more disposable income.
3. Previous studies have indicated that eating chocolate increases the likelihood of getting heart disease. However, a new, more reliable study has indicated that eating chocolate does not increase the likelihood of getting heart disease. When the results of the new study become known, consumption of chocolate will undoubtedly increase.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the conclusion above is based?
(A) Most people who eat a great deal of chocolate will not get heart disease.
(B) Although they believe that eating chocolate increases the likelihood of getting heart disease, some people still eat as much chocolate as they want.
(C) People who have heard that eating chocolate increases the likelihood of getting heart disease do not believe it.
(D) There are people who currently eat as much chocolate as they want because they have not heard that eating chocolate increases the likelihood of getting heart disease.（E）
(E) There are people who currently limit their consumption of chocolate only because they believe that eating chocolate increases the likelihood of getting heart disease.
4. The fossil record shows that the climate of North America warmed and dried at the end of the Pleistocene period. Most of the species of large mammals then living on the continent became extinct, but the smaller mammalian species survived.
Which of the following, if true, provides the best basis for an explanation of the contrast described above between species of large mammals and species of small mammals?
(A) Individual large mammals can, in general, travel further than small mammals and so are more able to migrate in search of a hospitable environment.
(B) The same pattern of comparative success in smaller, as opposed to larger, species that is observed in mammals is also found in bird species of the same period.
(C) The fossil record from the end of Pleistocene period is as clear for small mammals as it is for large mammals.
(D) Larger mammals have greater food and space requirements than smaller mammals and are thus less able to withstand environmental change.（D）
(E) Many more of the species of larger mammals than of the species of smaller mammals living in North America in that period had originated in climates that were warmer than was that of North America before the end of the Pleistocene period.
5. Bonuses at DSR Industries cannot be awarded unless profits exceed a ten percent return on stockholders’ investments in the company. Higher profits mean higher bonuses. Therefore, bonuses in a year of general economic recession will be considerably lower than bonuses in a year of peak profits at DSR.
The conclusion above depends on the assumption that
(A) the firm will have relatively low profits in recession years
(B) the amount represented by a ten percent return on stockholders’ investments in the company will increase from year to year
(C) profits rarely exceed a ten percent return on stockholders’ investments in the company
(D) profits in excess of a ten percent return on stockholders’ investments in the company are all distributed in the form of bonuses（A）
(E) bonuses at DSR never drop to zero
Questions 6-7 are based on the following.
Suitable habitats for gray wolves have greatly diminished in area. In spite of this fact, the most sensible course would be to refrain from reestablishing gray wolves in places where previously they have been hunted out of existence. Striving to bring back these animals to places where they will only face lethal human hostility is immoral.
6. The argument above depends on
(A) an appeal to an authority
(B) a belief that gray wolves are dangerous to human beings and livestock
(C) an assumption that two events that occur together must be causally connected
(D) an assumption that the future will be like the past（D）
(E) a threat of violence against those persons presenting the opposing view
7. The argument above would be most significantly weakened if which of the following were true?
(A) Effective laws against the hunting of gray wolves have been enacted.
(B) Ranchers, farmers, and hunters still have an ingrained bias against gray wolves.
(C) By the 1930’s bounty hunters had exterminated most of the gray wolves in the United States.
(D) Programs for increasing the gray wolf population are not aided by federal laws that require the licensing of hunters of certain predators.（A）
(E) Suggested programs for increasing the gray wolf population have been criticized by environmentalists and biologists.
8. For the safety-conscious Swedish market, a United States manufacturer of desktop computers developed a special display screen that produces a much weaker electromagnetic field surrounding the user than do ordinary screens. Despite an advantage in this respect over its competitors, the manufacturer is introducing the screen into the United States market without advertising it as a safety improvement.
Which of the following, if true, provides a rationale for the manufacturer’s approach to advertising the screen in the United States?
(A) Many more desktop computers are sold each year in the United States market than are sold in the Swedish market.
(B) The manufacturer does not want its competitors to become aware of the means by which the company has achieved this advance in technology.
(C) Most business and scientific purchasers of desktop computers expect to replace such equipment eventually as better technology becomes available on the market.
(D) An emphasis on the comparative safety of the new screen would call into question the safety of the many screens the manufacturer has already sold in the United States.（D）
(E) Concern has been expressed in the United States over the health effects of the large electromagnetic fields surrounding electric power lines.
9. In the suburbs surrounding Middletown, there is an average of 2.4 automobiles per family, and thus very few suburban residents use public buses. The suburban communities, therefore, would derive little benefit from continuing to subsidize the portion of Middletown’s public bus system that serves the suburbs.
Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The real-estate tax rate in Middletown is higher than it is in the suburbs.
(B) Last year voters in the suburban communities defeated by a narrow margin a bill designed to increase subsidies for public bus routes.
(C) Many suburban shops can attract enough employees to remain in business only because subsidized public transportation from Middletown is available.
(D) Public buses operated with less than a 35 percent occupancy rate produce more pollution per passenger mile than would the operation of private automobiles for each passenger.（C）
(E) Most voters in Middletown’s suburban communities are unwilling to continue subsidies for public buses next year if ridership on those buses drops below current levels.
10. Any tax relief received by the solar industry would not benefit the homeowner who installs a solar-energy system. Even though homeowners would pay a lower price for solar-energy system installations because of this tax relief, with the government paying the balance, government revenues come from the public.
The argument above is based on which of the following assumptions?
(A) The tax relief would cause the homeowner to lose, through taxes or reduced government benefits or both, an amount at least equal to the reduction in the price of that homeowner’s solar-energy system installation.
(B) The tax relief that would be received by solar-energy industries would not be offered at the same time as any tax relief for other industries.
(C) Advertisements of the solar-energy industry, by failing to identify the source of government revenues explicitly to the public, mask the advantage the industry receives from the public.
(D) Homeowners generally believe that they benefit from any tax relief offered to the solar-energy industry.（A）
(E) Tax relief would encourage solar industries to sell solar-energy systems at higher prices.
11. Less than 50 percent of a certain tropical country’s wildlands remains intact. Efforts are under way to restore biological diversity in that country by restoring some destroyed wild habitats and extending some relatively intact portions of forests. However, opponents argue that these efforts are not needed because there is still plenty of wildland left.
Which of the following, if true, most significantly weakens the argument of the opponents of conservation efforts?
(A) As much, if not more, effort is required to restore a wild habitat as to preserve an intact habitat.
(B) The opponents of restoration efforts are, for the most part, members of the wealthier classes in their own villages and cities.
(C) Existing conservation laws have been very effective in preserving biological diversity within the wildlands that remain intact.
(D) For many tropical species native to that country, the tropical wildlands that are still relatively intact do not provide appropriate habitats for reproduction.（D）
(E) If a suitable population of plants and animals is introduced and is permitted to disperse and grow, tropical habitats can most certainly be restored.
12. A study comparing a group of chronically depressed individuals with an otherwise matched group of individuals free from depression found significantly more disorders of the immune system among the depressed group. According to the researchers, these results strongly support the hypothesis that mental states influence the body’s vulnerability to infection.
Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the researchers’ interpretation of their findings?
(A) The researchers’ view does little more than echo a familiar theme in folklore and literature.
(B) Chronically depressed individuals are no less careful than others to avoid exposure to infections.
(C) Disorders of the immune system cause many of those individuals who have them to become chronically depressed.
(D) Individuals who have previously been free from depression can become depressed quite suddenly.（C）
(E) A high frequency of infections can stem from an unusually high level of exposure rather than from any disorder of the immune system.
13. Exports of United States wood pulp will rise considerably during this year. The reason for the rise is that the falling value of the dollar will make it cheaper for paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe to buy American wood pulp than to get it from any other source.
Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above?
(A) Factory output of paper products in Japan and Western Europe will increase sharply during this year.
(B) The quality of the wood pulp produced in the United States would be adequate for the purposes of Japanese and Western European paper manufacturers.
(C) Paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe would prefer to use wood pulp produced in the United States if cost were not a factor.
(D) Demand for paper products made in Japan and Western Europe will not increase sharply during this year.（B）
(E) Production of wood pulp by United States companies will not increase sharply during this year.
14. A company’s personnel director surveyed employees about their satisfaction with the company’s system for awarding employee performance ratings. The survey data indicated that employees who received high ratings were very satisfied with the system. The personnel director concluded from these data that the company’s best-performing employees liked the system.
The personnel director’s conclusion assumes which of the following?
(A) No other performance rating system is as good as the current system.
(B) The company’s best-performing employees received high ratings.
(C) Employees who received low ratings were dissatisfied with the system.
(D) Employees who receive high ratings from a performance-rating system will like that system.（B）
(E) The company’s best-performing employees were motivated to perform well by the knowledge that they would receive performance ratings.
15. In Argonia the average rate drivers pay for car accident insurance is regulated to allow insurance companies to make a reasonable profit. Under the regulations, the rate any individual driver pays never depends on the actual distance driven by that driver each year. Therefore, Argonians who drive less than average partially subsidize the insurance of those who drive more than average.
The conclusion above would be properly drawn if it were also true that in Argonia
(A) the average accident insurance rate for all drivers rises whenever a substantial number of new drivers buy insurance
(B) the average cost to insurance companies of insuring drivers who drive less than the annual average is less than the average cost of insuring drivers who drive more than the annual average
(C) the lower the age of a driver, the higher the insurance rate paid by that driver
(D) insurance company profits would rise substantially if drivers were classified in terms of the actual number of miles they drive each year（B）
(E) drivers who have caused insurance companies to pay costly claims generally pay insurance rates that are equal to or lower than those paid by other drivers
16. In the 1970’s there was an oversupply of college graduates. The oversupply caused the average annual income of college graduates to fall to a level only 18 percent greater than that of workers with only high school diplomas. By the late 1980’s the average annual income of college graduates was 43 percent higher than that of workers with only high school diplomas, even though between the 1970’s and the late 1980’s the supply of college graduates did not decrease.
Which of the following, if true, in the late 1980’s, best reconciles the apparent discrepancy described above?
(A) The economy slowed, thus creating a decreased demand for college graduates.
(B) The quality of high school education improved.
(C) Compared to the 1970’s, a greater number of high schools offered vocational guidance programs for their students.
(D) The proportion of the population with at least a college-level education increased.（E）
(E) There was for the first time in 20 years an oversupply of job seekers with only high school diplomas.
17. Working shorter workweeks causes managers to feel less stress than does working longer workweeks. In addition, greater perceived control over one’s work life reduces stress levels. It can be concluded, therefore, that shorter workweeks cause managers to feel they have more control over their work life.
The argument made above uses which of the following questionable techniques?
(A) Associating two conditions as cause and effect on the basis of their being causally associated with the same phenomenon
(B) Taking for granted that two factors that have a certain effect individually produce that effect more strongly when both act together
(C) Assuming what it sets out to prove
(D) Using an irrelevant point in order to draw a conclusion（A）
(E) Basing a conclusion on preconceived views about the needs of managers
18. There are fundamentally two possible changes in an economy that will each cause inflation unless other compensating changes also occur. These changes are either reductions in the supply of goods and services or increases in demand. In a prebanking economy the quantity of money available, and hence the level of demand, is equivalent to the quantity of gold available.
If the statements above are true, then it is also true that in a prebanking economy
(A) any inflation is the result of reductions in the supply of goods and services
(B) if other factors in the economy are unchanged, increasing the quantity of gold available will lead to inflation
(C) if there is a reduction in the quantity of gold available, then, other things being equal, inflation must result
(D) the quantity of goods and services purchasable by a given amount of gold is constant（B）
(E) whatever changes in demand occur, there will be compensating changes in the supply of goods and services
19. Industrialists from the country Distopia were accused of promoting the Distopian intervention in the Arcadian civil war merely to insure that the industrialists’ facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits during the war. Yet this cannot be the motive since, as the Distopians foresaw, Distopia’s federal expenses for the intervention were eight billion dollars, whereas, during the war, profits from the Distopian industrialists’ facilities in Arcadia totaled only four billion dollars.
Which of
the following, if true, exposes a serious flaw in the argument made in the
second sentence above?
(A) During the Arcadian war, many Distopian industrialists with facilities located in Arcadia experienced a significant rise in productivity in their facilities located in Distopia.
(B) The largest proportion of Distopia’s federal expenses is borne by those who receive no significant industrial profits.
(C) Most Distopian industrialists’ facilities located in Arcadia are expected to maintain the level of profits they achieved during the war.
(D) Distopian industrialists’ facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits before the events that triggered the civil war.（B）
(E) Many Distopians expressed concern over the suffering that Arcadians underwent during the civil war.
20. In the United States, injuries to passengers involved in automobile accidents are typically more severe than in Europe, where laws require a different kind of safety belt. It is clear from this that the United States needs to adopt more stringent standards for safety belt design to protect automobile passengers better.
Each of the following, if true, weakens the argument above EXCEPT:
(A) Europeans are more likely to wear safety belts than are people in the United States.
(B) Unlike United States drivers, European drivers receive training in how best to react in the event of an accident to minimize injuries to themselves and to their passengers.
(C) Cars built for the European market tend to have more sturdy construction than do cars built for the United States market.
(D) Automobile passengers in the United States have a greater statistical chance of being involved in an accident than do passengers in Europe.（D）
(E) States that have recently begun requiring the European safety belt have experienced no reduction in the average severity of injuries suffered by passengers in automobile accidents.
TEST 10
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1. C |
2. C |
3. E |
4. D |
5. A |
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6. D |
7. A |
8. D |
9. C |
10. A |
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11. D |
12. C |
13. B |
14. B |
15. B |
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16. E |
17. A |
18. B |
19. B |
20. D |
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