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TEST 19
25 Minutes 16 Questions
1. A publisher is now providing university professors with the option of ordering custom textbooks for their courses. The professors can edit out those chapters of a book they are not interested in and add material of their own choosing.
The widespread use of the option mentioned above is LEAST likely to contribute to fulfilling which of the following educational objectives?
(A) Coverage of material relevant to a particular student body’s specific needs
(B) Offering advanced elective courses that pursue in-depth investigation of selected topics in a field
(C) Ensuring that students nationwide engaged in a specific course of study are uniformly exposed to a basic set of readings
(D) Making the textbooks used in university courses more satisfactory from the individual teacher’s point of view（C）
(E) Keeping students’ interest in a course by offering lively, well-written reading assignments
2. Mechanicorp’s newest product costs so little to make that it appears doubtful the company will be able to sell it without increasing the markup the company usually allows for profit: potential clients would simply not believe that something so inexpensive would really work. Yet Mechanicorp’s reputation is built on fair prices incorporating only modest profit margins.
The statements above, if true, most strongly support which of the following?
(A) Mechanicorp will encounter difficulties in trying to set a price for its newest product that will promote sales without threatening to compromise the company’s reputation.
(B) Mechanicorp achieves large annual profits, despite small profits per unit sold, by means of a high volume of sales.
(C) Mechanicorp made a significant computational error in calculating the production costs for its newest product.
(D) Mechanicorp’s newest product is intended to perform tasks that can be performed by other devices costing less to manufacture.（A）
(E) Mechanicorp’s production processes are designed with the same ingenuity as are the products that the company makes.
3. Companies in the country of Kollontay can sell semiconductors in the country of Valdivia at a price that is below the cost to Valdivian companies of producing them. To help those Valdivian companies, the Valdivian legislature plans to set a minimum selling price in Valdivia for semiconductors manufactured in Kollontay that is ten percent greater than the average production costs for companies in Valdivia.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously threatens the success of the plan?
(A) The annual rate of inflation in Kollontay is expected to exceed ten percent within the next year.
(B) Valdivia is not the only country where companies in Kollontay currently sell semiconductors.
(C) Some Valdivian companies that sell semiconductors have announced that they plan to decrease their price for semiconductors.
(D) The government of Kollontay will also set a minimum price for selling semiconductors in that country.（E）
(E) Emerging companies in countries other than Kollontay will still be able to sell semiconductors in Valdivia at a price below the cost to Valdivian companies to manufacture them.
4. An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth. Rather, it heats water on clothes, thereby saving electricity and protecting delicate fibers by operating at a lower temperature. Microwaves are waves that usually heat metal objects, but developers of a microwave dryer are perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects such as hairpins from heating up and burning clothes.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly indicates that the process, when perfected, will be insufficient to make the dryer readily marketable?
(A) Metal snap fasteners on clothes that are commonly put into drying machines are about the same thickness as most hairpins.
(B) Many clothes that are currently placed into mechanical dryers are not placed there along with hairpins or other thin metal objects.
(C) The experimental microwave dryer uses more electricity than future, improved models would be expected to use.
(D) Drying clothes with the process would not cause more shrinkage than the currently used mechanical drying process causes.（E）
(E) Many clothes that are frequently machine-dried by prospective customers incorporate thick metal parts such as decorative brass studs or buttons.
5. Airplane manufacturer: I object to your characterization of our X-387 jets as dangerous. No X-387 in commercial use has ever crashed or even had a serious malfunction.
Airline regulator: The problem with the X-387 is not that it, itself, malfunctions, but that it creates a turbulence in its wake that can create hazardous conditions for aircraft in its vicinity.
The airline regulator responds to the manufacturer by doing which of the following?
(A) Characterizing the manufacturer’s assertion as stemming from subjective interest rather than from objective evaluation of the facts
(B) Drawing attention to the fact that the manufacturer’s interpretation of the word “dangerous” is too narrow
(C) Invoking evidence that the manufacturer has explicitly dismissed as irrelevant to the point at issue
(D) Citing statistical evidence that refutes the manufacturer’s claim（B）
(E) Casting doubt on the extent of the manufacturer’s knowledge of the number of recent airline disasters
6. Damaged nerves in the spinal cord do not regenerate themselves naturally, nor even under the spur of nerve-growth stimulants. The reason, recently discovered, is the presence of nerve-growth inhibitors in the spinal cord. Antibodies that deactivate those inhibitors have now been developed. Clearly, then, nerve repair will be a standard medical procedure in the foreseeable future.
Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the accuracy of the prediction above?
(A) Prevention of the regeneration of damaged nerves is merely a by-product of the main function in the human body of the substances inhibiting nerve growth.
(B) Certain nerve-growth stimulants have similar chemical structures to those of the antibodies against nerve-growth inhibitors.
(C) Nerves in the brain are similar to nerves in the spinal cord in their inability to regenerate themselves naturally.
(D) Researchers have been able to stimulate the growth of nerves not located in the spinal cord by using only nerve-growth stimulants.（A）
(E) Deactivating the substances inhibiting nerve growth for an extended period would require a steady supply of antibodies.
7. The human body secretes more pain-blocking hormones late at night than during the day. Consequently, surgical patients operated on at night need less anesthesia. Since larger amounts of anesthesia pose greater risks for patients, the risks of surgery could be reduced if operations routinely took place at night.
Which of the following, if true, argues most strongly against the view that surgical risks could be reduced by scheduling operations at night?
(A) Energy costs in hospitals are generally lower at night than they are during the day.
(B) More babies are born between midnight and seven o’clock in the morning than at any other time.
(C) Over the course of a year, people’s biological rhythms shift slightly in response to changes in the amounts of daylight to which the people are exposed.
(D) Nurses and medical technicians are generally paid more per hour when they work during the night than when they work during the day.（E）
(E) Manual dexterity and mental alertness are lower in the late night than they are during the day, even in people accustomed to working at night.
Questions 8-9
Walter: A copy of an artwork should be worth exactly what the original is worth if the two works are visually indistinguishable. After all, if the two works are visually indistinguishable, they have all the same qualities, and if they have all the same qualities, their prices should be equal.
Marissa: How little you understand art! Even if someone could make a perfect copy that is visually indistinguishable from the original, the copy would have a different history and hence not have all the same qualities as the original.
8. Which of the following is a point at issue between Walter and Marissa?
(A) Whether a copy of an artwork could ever be visually indistinguishable from the original
(B) Whether the reproduction of a work of art is ever worth more than the original is worth
(C) Whether a copy of a work of art is ever mistaken for the original
(D) Whether a copy of a work of art could have all the same qualities as the original（D）
(E) Whether originality is the only valuable attribute that a work of art can possess
9. Marissa uses which of the following techniques in attempting to refute Walter’s argument?
(A) Attacking his assumption that the price of an artwork indicates its worth
(B) Raising a point that would undermine one of the claims on which his conclusion is based
(C) Questioning his claim that a perfect copy of a work of art would be visually indistinguishable from the original
(D) Giving reason to believe that Walter is unable to judge the quality of a work of art because of his inadequate understanding of the history of art（B）
(E) Proposing alternative criteria for determining whether two works of art are visually indistinguishable
10. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)—a noninvasive diagnostic procedure—can be used to identify blockages in the coronary arteries. In contrast to angiograms—the invasive procedure customarily used—MRI’s pose no risk to patients. Thus, to guarantee patient safety in the attempt to diagnose arterial blockages, MRI’s should replace angiograms in all attempts at diagnosing coronary blockages.
Which of the following, if true, would most support the recommendation above?
(A) Angiograms can be used to diagnose conditions other than blockages in arteries.
(B) MRI’s were designed primarily in order to diagnose blockages in the coronary arteries.
(C) Angiograms reveal more information about the nature of a blockage than an MRI can.
(D) An MRI is just as likely as an angiogram to identify an arterial blockage.（D）
(E) Some patients for whom an angiogram presents no risk are unwilling to undergo an MRI.
11. Naturally occurring chemicals cannot be newly patented once their structures have been published. Before a naturally occurring chemical compound can be used as a drug, however, it must be put through the same rigorous testing program as any synthetic compound, culminating in a published report detailing the chemical’s structure and observed effects.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true on the basis of them?
(A) Any naturally occurring chemical can be reproduced synthetically once its structure is known.
(B) Synthetically produced chemical compounds cannot be patented unless their chemical structures are made public.
(C) If proven no less effective, naturally occurring chemicals are to be preferred to synthetic compounds for use in drugs.
(D) Once a naturally occurring compound has been approved for use as a drug, it can no longer be newly patented.（D）
(E) A naturally occurring chemical cannot be patented unless its effectiveness as a drug has been rigorously established.
12. A public-service advertisement advises that people who have consumed alcohol should not drive until they can do so safely. In a hospital study, however, subjects questioned immediately after they consumed alcohol underestimated the time necessary to regain their driving ability. This result indicates that many people who drink before driving will have difficulty following the advertisement’s advice.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the argument above?
(A) Many people, if they plan to drink alcohol, make arrangements beforehand for a nondrinker to drive them home.
(B) The subjects in the hospital study generally rated their abilities more conservatively than would people drinking alcohol outside a hospital setting.
(C) Some people refrain from drinking if they will have to drive to get home afterward.
(D) The subjects in the hospital study were also questioned about the time necessary to regain abilities that do not play an important role in driving safely.（B）
(E) Awareness of the public-service advertisement is higher among the general population than it was among the subjects in the hospital study.
13. Investigator: XYZ Coins has misled its clients by promoting some coins as “extremely rare” when in fact those coins are relatively common and readily available.
XYZ agent: That is ridiculous. XYZ Coins is one of the largest coin dealers in the world. We authenticate the coins we sell through a nationally recognized firm and operate a licensed coin dealership.
The XYZ agent’s reply is most vulnerable to the criticism that it
(A) exaggerates the investigator’s a claims in order to make them appear absurd
(B) accuses the investigator of bias but presents no evidence to support that accusation
(C) fails to establish that other coin dealers do not also authenticate the coins those dealers sell
(D) lists strengths of XYZ Coins while failing to address the investigator’s charge（D）
(E) provides no definition for the inherently vague phrase “extremely rare”
14. Both Writewell and Express provide round-the-clock telephone assistance to any customer who uses their word-processing software. Since customers only call the hot lines when they find the software difficult to use, and the Writewell hot line receives four times as many calls as the Express hot line, Writewell’s word-processing software must be more difficult to use than Express’s.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?
(A) Calls to the Express hot line are almost twice as long, on average, as are calls to the Writewell hot line.
(B) Express has three times the number of word-processing software customers that Writewell has.
(C) Express receives twice as many letters of complaint about its word-processing software as Writewell receives about its word-processing software.
(D) The number of calls received by each of the two hot lines has been gradually increasing.（B）
(E) The Writewell hot-line number is more widely publicized than the Express hot-line number.
15. Over the last century, paleontologists have used small differences between fossil specimens to classify triceratops into sixteen species. This classification is unjustified, however, since the specimens used to distinguish eleven of the species come from animals that lived in the same area at the same time.
Which of the following, if true, would enable the conclusion of the argument to be properly drawn?
(A) Not every species that lived in a given area is preserved as a fossil.
(B) At least one individual of every true species of triceratops has been discovered as a fossil specimen.
(C) No geographical area ever supports more than three similar species at the same time.
(D) In many species, individuals display quite marked variation.（C）
(E) Differences between fossil specimens of triceratops that came from the same area are no less distinctive than differences between specimens that came from different areas.
16. Many consumers are concerned about the ecological effects of wasteful packaging. This concern probably explains why stores have been quick to stock new cleaning products that have been produced in a concentrated form. The concentrated form is packaged in smaller containers that use less plastic and require less transportation space.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the explanation offered above?
(A) Few consumers believe that containers of concentrated cleaning products are merely small packages of regular cleaning products.
(B) The containers in which concentrated cleaning products are packaged are no harder to recycle than those in which regular cleaning products are packaged.
(C) Those concentrated cleaning products that are intended to be used diluted have clear instructions for dilution printed on their labels.
(D) The smaller containers of concentrated cleaning products enable supermarkets and drugstores to increase their revenues from a given shelf space.（D）
(E) Consumer pressure has led to the elimination of wasteful cardboard packaging that was used for compact discs.
TEST 19
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1. C |
2. A |
3. E |
4. E |
5. B |
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6. A |
7. E |
8. D |
9. B |
10. D |
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11. D |
12. B |
13. D |
14. B |
15. C |
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16. D |
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18.
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19.
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20.
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