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TEST 4
SECTION I
Time 35 minutes 25 Questions
Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages...
1. Something must be done to ease traffic congestion. In traditional small towns, people used to work and shop in the same town in which they lived; but now that stores and workplaces are located far away from residential areas, people cannot avoid traveling long distances each day. Traffic congestion is so heavy on all roads that, even on major highways where the maximum speed limit is 55 miles per hour, the actual speed averages only 35 miles per hour.
Which one of the following proposals is most supported by the statements above?
(A) The maximum speed limit on major highways should be increased.
(B) People who now travel on major highways should be encouraged to travel on secondary roads instead.
(C) Residents of the remaining traditional small towns should be encouraged to move to the suburbs.
(D) Drivers who travel well below the maximum speed limit on major highways should be fined.（E）
(E) New businesses should be encouraged to locate closer to where their workers would live.
2. College professor: College students do not write nearly as well as they used to. Almost all of the paper that my students have done for me this year have been poorly written and ungrammatical.
Which one of the following is the most serious weakness in the argument made by the professor?
(A) It requires confirmation that the change in the professor’s students is representative of a change among college students in general.
(B) It offers no proof to the effect that the professor is an accurate judge of writing ability.
(C) It does not take into account the possibility that the professor is a poor teacher.
(D) It fails to present contrary evidence.（A）
(E) It fails to define its terms sufficiently.
Questions 3-4
Mayor of Plainsville: In order to help the economy of Plainsville, I am using some of our tax revenues to help bring a major highway through the town and thereby attract new business to Plainsville.
Citizens’ group: You must have interests other than our economy in mind. If you were really interested in helping our economy, you would instead allocate the revenues to building a new business park, since it would bring in twice the business that your highway would.
3. The argument by the citizens’ group relies on which one of the following assumptions?
(A) Plainsville presently has no major highways running through it.
(B) The mayor accepts that a new business park would bring in more new business than would the new highway.
(C) The new highway would have no benefits for Plainsville other than attracting new business.
(D) The mayor is required to get approval for all tax revenue allocation plans from the city council.（B）
(E) Plainsville’s economy will not be helped unless a new business park of the sort envisioned by the citizens’ group is built.
4. Which one of the following principles, if accepted, would most help the citizens’ group to justify drawing its conclusion that the mayor has in mind interests other than Plainsville’s economy?
(A) Anyone really pursuing a cause will choose the means that that person believes will advance the cause the farthest.
(B) Any goal that includes helping the economy of a community will require public revenues in order to be achieved.
(C) Anyone planning to use resources collected from a group must consult the members of the group before using the resources.
(D) Any cause worth committing oneself to must include specific goals toward which one can work.（A）
(E) Any cause not pursued by public officials, if it is to be pursued at all, must be pursued by members of the community.
5. Recently, highly skilled workers in Eastern Europe have left jobs in record numbers to emigrate to the West. It is therefore likely that skilled workers who remain in Eastern Europe are in high demand in their home countries.
Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) Eastern European factories prefer to hire workers from their home countries rather than to import workers from abroad.
(B) Major changes in Eastern European economic structures have led to the elimination of many positions previously held by the highly skilled emigrants.
(C) Many Eastern European emigrants need to acquire new skills after finding work in the West.
(D) Eastern European countries plan to train many new workers to replace the highly skilled workers who have emigrated.（B）
(E) Because of the departure of skilled workers from Eastern European countries, many positions are now unfilled.
6. Historian: Alexander the Great should not be judged by appeal to current notions of justice. Alexander, an ancient figure of heroic stature, should be judged by the standards of his own culture. That is, did he live up to his culture’s ideals of leadership? Did Alexander elevate the contemporary standards of justice? Was he, in his day, judged to be a just and wise ruler?
Student: But you cannot tell whether or not Alexander raised the contemporary standards of justice without invoking standards other than those of his own culture.
Which one of the following argumentative strategies does the student use in responding to the historian?
(A) arguing that applying the historian’s principle would require a knowledge of the past that is necessarily inaccessible to current scholarship
(B) attempting to undermine the historian’s principle by showing that some of its consequences are inconsistent with each other
(C) showing that the principle the historian invokes, when applied to Alexander, does not justify the assertion that he was heroic
(D) questioning the historian’s motivation for determining whether a standard of behavior has been raised or lowered（E）
(E) claiming that one of the historian’s criteria for judging Alexander is inconsistent with the principle that the historian has advanced
Questions 7-8
Two paleontologists, Dr Tyson and Dr. Rees, disagree over the interpretation of certain footprints that were left among other footprints in hardened volcanic ash at site G. Dr. Tyson claims they are clearly early hominid footprints since they show human characteristics: a squarish heel and a big toe immediately adjacent to the next toe. However, since the footprints indicate that if hominids made those prints they would have had to walk in an unexpected cross-stepping manner, by placing the left foot to the right of the right foot. Dr. Rees rejects Dr. Tyson’s conclusion.
7. The disagreement between the two paleontologists is over which one of the following?
(A) the relative significance of various aspects of the evidence
(B) the assumption that early hominid footprints are distinguishable from other footprints
(C) the possibility of using the evidence of footprints to determine the gait of the creature that made those footprints
(D) the assumption that evidence from one paleontologic site is enough to support a conclusion（A）
(E) the likelihood that early hominids would have walked upright on two feet
8. Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines Dr. Tyson’s conclusion?
(A) The foot prints showing human characteristics were clearly those of at least two distinct individuals.
(B) Certain species of bears had feet very like human feet, except that the outside toe on each foot was the biggest toe and the innermost toe was the smallest toe.
(C) Footprints shaped like a human’s that do not show a cross-stepping pattern exist at site M, which is a mile away from site G, and the two sets of footprints are contemporaneous.
(D) When the moist volcanic ash became sealed under additional layers of ash before hardening, some details of some of the footprints were erased.（B）
(E) Most of the other footprints at site G were of animals with hooves.
9. It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease of cattle invariably deadly to them, can be transmitted directly from one infected animal to another at all stages of the infection. If it can be, there is now a reservoir of infected cattle incubating the disease. There are no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals before the animals show overt symptoms. Therefore, if such direct transmission occurs, the disease cannot be eradicated by______
Which one of the following best completes the argument?
(A) removing from the herd and destroying any diseased animal as soon as it shows the typical symptoms of advanced BSE
(B) developing a drug that kills the agent that cause BSE, and then treating with that drug all cattle that might have the disease
(C) destroying all cattle in areas where BSE occurs and raising cattle only in areas to which BSE is known not to have spread
(D) developing a vaccine that confers lifelong immunity against BSE and giving it to all cattle, destroying in due course all those animals for which the vaccine protection came too late（A）
(E) developing a diagnostic test that does identify any infected animal and destroying all animals found to be infected
10. Auto industry executive: Statistics show that cars that were built smaller after 1977 to make them more fuel-efficient had a higher incidence of accident-related fatalities than did their earlier larger counterparts. For this reason we oppose recent guidelines that would require us to produce cars with higher fuel efficiency.
Which of the following, if true, would constitute the strongest objection to the executive’s argument?
(A) Even after 1977, large automobiles were frequently involved in accidents that caused death or serious injury.
(B) Although fatalities in accidents involving small cars have increased since 1977, the number of accidents has decreased.
(C) New computerized fuel systems can enable large cars to meet fuel efficiency standards established by the recent guidelines.
(D) Modern technology can make small cars more fuel-efficient today than at any other time in their production history.（C）
(E) Fuel efficiency in models of large cars rose immediately after 1977 but has been declining ever since.
11. No one who lacks knowledge of a subject is competent to pass judgment on that subject. Since political know-how is a matter, not of adhering to technical rules, but of insight and style learned through apprenticeship and experience, only seasoned politicians are competent to judge whether a particular political policy is fair to all.
A major weakness of the argument is that it
(A) relies on a generalization about the characteristic that makes someone competent to pass judgment
(B) fails to give specific examples to illustrate how political know-how can be acquired
(C) uses the term “apprenticeship” to describe what is seldom a formalized relationship
(D) equates political know-how with understanding the social implications of political policies（D）
(E) assumes that when inexperienced politicians set policy they are guided by the advice of more experienced politicians
12. Impact craters caused by meteorites smashing into Earth have been found all around the globe, but they have been found in the greatest density in geologically stable regions. This relatively greater abundance of securely identified crater in geologically stable regions must be explained by the lower rates of destructive geophysical processes in those regions.
The conclusion is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?
(A) A meteorite that strikes exactly the same spot as an earlier meteorite will obliterate all traces of the earlier impact.
(B) Rates of destructive geophysical processes within any given region vary markedly throughout geological time.
(C) The rate at which the Earth is struck by meteorites has greatly increased in geologically recent times.
(D) Actual meteorite impacts have been scattered fairly evenly over the Earth’s surface in the course of Earth’s geological history.（D）
(E) The Earth’s geologically stable regions have been studied more intensively by geologists than have its less stable regions.
13. That the policy of nuclear deterrence has worked thus far is unquestionable. Since the end of the Second World War, the very fact that there were nuclear armaments in existence has kept major powers from using nuclear weapons, for fear of starting a worldwide nuclear exchange that would make the land of the power initiating it uninhabitable. The proof is that a third world war between superpowers has not happened.
Which one of the following, if true, indicates a flaw in the argument?
(A) Maintaining a high level of nuclear armaments represents a significant drain on a country’s economy.
(B) From what has happened in the past, it is impossible to infer with certainty what will happen in the future, so an accident could still trigger a third world war between superpowers.
(C) Continuing to produce nuclear weapons beyond the minimum needed for deterrence increases the likelihood of a nuclear accident.
(D) The major powers have engaged in many smaller-scale military operations since the end of the Second World War, while refraining from a nuclear confrontation.（E）
(E) It cannot be known whether it was nuclear deterrence that worked, or some other factor, such as a recognition of the economic value of remaining at peace.
14. A survey of alumni of the class of 1960 at Aurora University yielded puzzling results. When asked to indicate their academic rank, half of the respondents reported that they were in the top quarter of the graduating class in 1960.
Which one of the following most helps account for the apparent contradiction above?
(A) A disproportionately large number of high-ranking alumni responded to the survey.
(B) Few, if any, respondents were mistaken about their class rank.
(C) Not all the alumni who were actually in the top quarter responded to the survey.
(D) Almost all of the alumni who graduated in 1960 responded to the survey.（A）
(E) Academic rank at Aurora University was based on a number of considerations in addition to average grades.
15. M: It is almost impossible to find a person between the ages of 85 an 90 who primarily uses the left hand.
Q: Seventy to ninety years ago, however, children were punished for using their left hands to eat or to write and were forced to use their right hands.
Q’s response serves to counter any use by M of the evidence about 85 to 90 year olds in supports of which one of the following hypotheses?
(A) Being born right-handed confers a survival advantage.
(B) Societal attitudes toward handedness differ at different times.
(C) Forcing a person to switch from a preferred hand is harmless.
(D) Handedness is a product of both genetic predisposition and social pressures.（A）
(E) Physical habits learned in school often persist in old age.
16. The seventeenth-century physicist Sir Isaac Newton is remembered chiefly for his treaties on motion and gravity. But Newton also conducted experiments secretly for many years based on the arcane theories of alchemy, trying unsuccessfully to transmute common metals into gold and produce rejuvenating elixirs. If the alchemists of the seventeenth century had published the results of their experiments, chemistry in the eighteenth century would have been more advanced than it actually was.
Which one of the following assumptions would allow the conclusion concerning eighteenth-century chemistry to be properly drawn?
(A) Scientific progress is retarded by the reluctance of historians to acknowledge the failures of some of the great scientists.
(B) Advances in science are hastened when reports of experiments, whether successful or not, are available for review by other scientists.
(C) Newton’s work on motion and gravity would not have gained wide acceptance if the results of his work in alchemy had also been make public.
(D) Increasing specialization within the sciences makes it difficult for scientists in one field to understand the principles of other fields.（B）
(E) The seventeenth-century alchemists could have achieved their goals only if their experiments had been subjected to public scrutiny.
17. Sedimentary rock hardens within the earth’s crust as layers of matter accumulate and the pressure of the layers above converts the layers below into rock. One particular layer of sedimentary rock that contains an unusual amount of the element iridium has been presented as support for a theory that a meteorite collided with the earth some sixty million years ago. Meteorites are rich in iridium compared to the earth’s crust, and geologists theorize that a meteorite’s collision with the earth raised a huge cloud of iridium-laden dust. The dust, they say, eventually settled to earth where it combined with other matter, and as new layers accumulated above it, it formed a layer of iridium-rich rock.
Which one of the following, if true, would counter the claim that the iridium-rich layer described in the passage is evidence for the meteorite collision theory?
(A) The huge dust cloud described in the passage would have blocked the transmission of sunlight and lowered the earth’s temperature.
(B) A layer of sedimentary rock takes millions of years to harden.
(C) Layers of sedimentary rock are used to determine the dates of prehistoric events whether or not they contain iridium.
(D) Sixty million years ago there was a surge in volcanic activity in which the matter spewed from the volcanoes formed huge iridium-rich dust clouds.（D）
(E) The iridium deposit occurred at about the same time that many animal species became extinct and some scientists have theorized that mass dinosaur extinctions were caused by a meteorite collision.
18. Mary, a veterinary student, has been assigned an experiment in mammalian physiology that would require her to take a healthy, anesthetized dog and subject it to a drastic blood loss in order to observe the physiological consequences of shock. The dog would neither regain consciousness nor survive the experiment. Mary decides not to do this assignment.
Mary’s decision most closely accords with which one of the following principles?
(A) All other things being equal, gratuitously causing any animal to suffer pain is unjustified.
(B) Taking the life of an animal is not justifiable unless doing so would immediately assist in saving several animal lives or in protecting the health of a person.
(C) The only sufficient justification for experimenting on animals is that future animal suffering is thereby prevented.
(D) Practicing veterinarians have a professional obligation to strive to prevent the unnecessary death of an animal except in cases of severely ill or injured animals whose prospects for recovery are dim.（B）
(E) No one is ever justified in acting with the sole intention of causing the death of a living thing, be it animal or human.
19. A tree’s age can be determined by counting the annual growth rings in its trunk. Each ring represents one year, and the ring’s thickness reveals the relative amount of rainfall that year. Archaeologists successfully used annual rings to determine the relative ages of ancient tombs at Pazyryk. Each tomb was constructed from freshly cut logs, and the tombs builders were constrained by tradition to use only logs from trees growing in the sacred Pazyryk Valley.
Which one of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the archaeologists’ success in using annual rings to establish the relative ages of the tombs at the Pazyryk site?
(A) The Pazyryk tombs were all robbed during ancient times, but breakage of the tombs seals allowed the seepage of water, which soon froze permanently, thereby preserving the tombs’ remaining artifacts.
(B) The Pazyryk Valley, surrounded by extremely high mountains, has a distinctive yearly pattern of rainfall, and so trees growing in the Pazyryk Valley have annual rings that are quite distinct from trees growing in nearby valleys.
(C) Each log in the Pazyryk tombs has among its rings a distinctive sequence of twelve annual rings representing six drought years followed by three rainy years and three more drought years.
(D) The archaeologists determined that the youngest tree used in any of the tombs was 90 years old and that the oldest tree was 450 years old.（C）
(E) All of the Pazyryk tombs contained cultural artifacts that can be dated to roughly 2300 years ago.
20. Experienced gardeners advise against planting snap peas after late April because peas do not develop properly in warm weather. This year, however, the weather was unusually cool into late June, and therefore the fact that these snap peas were planted in mid-May is unlikely to result in crop failure despite the experts’ warnings.
The pattern of reasoning displayed above is most closely paralleled in which one of the following?
(A) According to many gardening authorities, tomatoes should not be planted near dill because doing so is likely to affect their taste adversely; however, since these tomatoes were grown near dill and taste fine, there is clearly no reason to pay much attention to the so-called experts’ advice.
(B) Since African violets do not thrive in direct sunlight, it is said that in this region these plants should be placed in windows facing north rather than south; however, since these south-facing windows are well shaded by evergreen trees, the African violets placed in them are likely to grow satisfactorily.
(C) Where flowers are to be planted under shade trees, gardening experts often advise using impatiens since impatiens does well in conditions of shade; however, it is unlikely to do well under maple trees since maple tree roots are so near the surface that they absorb all available moisture.
(D) Most seeds tend to germinate at much higher rates when planted in warm soil than when planted in cold soil; spinach seeds, however, are unlikely to germinate properly if the soil is too warm, and therefore experts advise that spinach should be planted earlier than most vegetables.（B）
(E) House plants generally grow best in pots slightly larger than their existing root systems, so the usual advice is to repot when roots first reach the sides of the pot; this rule should no be followed with amaryllis plants, however, because they are likely to do best with tightly compressed roots.
21. Whenever a major political scandal erupts before an election and voters blame the scandal on all parties about equally, virtually all incumbents, from whatever party, seeking reelection are returned to office. However, when voters blame such a scandal on only one party, incumbents from that party are likely to be defeated by challengers from other parties. The proportion of incumbents who seek reelection is high and remarkably constant from election to election.
If the voters’ reactions are guided by a principle, which one of the following principles would best account for the contrast in reactions described above?
(A) Whenever one incumbent is responsible for one major political scandal and another incumbent is responsible for another, the consequences for the two incumbents should be the same.
(B) When a major political scandal is blamed on incumbents from all parties, that judgment is more accurate than any judgment that incumbents from only on party are to blame.
(C) Incumbents who are rightly blamed for a major political scandal should not seek reelection, but if they do, they should not be returned to office.
(D) Major political scandals can practically always be blamed on incumbents, but whether those incumbents should be voted out of office depends on who their challengers are.（E）
(E) When major political scandals are less the responsibility of individual incumbents than of the parties to which they belong, whatever party was responsible must be penalized when possible.
22. Once people habitually engaged in conversation: now the television competes for their attention. When the television is on, communication between family members stops. Where there is no communication, family ties become frayed and eventually snap. Therefore, the only solution is to get rid of the television.
Which one of the following is most closely parallel in its reasoning to the flawed reasoning in the argument above?
(A) Once friendships thrived on shared leisure time. But contemporary economic pressures minimize the amount of free time people have and thus jeopardize many friendships.
(B) Once people listened to the radio while pursuing other activities. Now they passively watch television. Therefore, radio was less distracting for most people than television is.
(C) Once sports enthusiasts regularly engaged in sports, but now they watch spectator sports when they could be getting physical exercise. Without physical exercise, health deteriorates. Therefore, the only remedy is to eliminate spectator sports.
(D) Once people were willing to tailor their day to the constraints of a bus or train schedule: now they are spoiled by the private car. The only solution is for government to offer financial incentives to encourage the use of public transportation.（C）
(E) Once people did their shopping in urban retail districts, where they combined their shopping with other errands. Now many people shop in suburban malls, where they concentrate on shopping exclusively. Therefore, shopping has become a leisure time activity.
23. In essence, all rent-control policies involve specifying a maximum rent that a landlord may charge for a dwelling. The rationale for controlling rents is to protect tenants in situations where limited supply will cause rents to rise sharply in the face of increased demand. However, although rent control may help some tenants in the short run, it affects the rental-housing market adversely in the long run because landlords become reluctant to maintain the quality of their existing properties and even more reluctant to have additional rental-housing units built.
Which one of the following, if true, best explains the landlords’ reluctance described above?
(A) Tenants prefer low-quality accommodations with rent control to high-quality accommodations without it.
(B) Rent control makes it very difficult for landlords to achieve reasonable returns on any investments in maintenance or in new construction.
(C) Rent control is a common practice even though it does nothing to alleviate shortages in rental housing.
(D) Rent control is generally introduced for political reasons and it takes political action to have it lifted again.（B）
(E) Tenants prefer rent control to the alternative of receiving direct government subsidies toward rents they cannot afford.
24. Certain minor peculiarities of language are used unconsciously by poets. If such peculiarities appear in the works of more than one poet, they are likely to reflect the language in common use during the poets’ time. However, if they appear in the work of only one poet, they are likely to be personal idiosyncrasies. As such, they can provide a kind of “fingerprint” that allows scholars, by comparing a poem of previously unknown authorship to the work of a particular known poet, to identify the poem as the work of that poet.
For which one of the following reasons can the test described above never provide conclusive proof of the authorship of any poem?
(A) The labor of analyzing peculiarities of language both in the work of a known poet and in a poem of unknown authorship would not be undertaken unless other evidence already suggested that the poem of unknown authorship was written by the known poet.
(B) A peculiarity of language that might be used as an identifying mark is likely to be widely scattered in the work of a poet, so that a single poem not known to have been written by that poet might not include that peculiarity.
(C) A peculiarity of language in a poem of unknown authorship could be evidence either that the poem was written by the one author known to use that peculiarity or that the peculiarity was not unique to that author.
(D) Minor peculiarities of language contribute far less to the literary effect of any poem than such factors as poetic form, subject matter, and deliberately chosen wording.（C）
(E) A poet’s use of some peculiarities of language might have been unconscious in some poems and conscious in other poems, and the two uses would be indistinguishable to scholars at a later date.
25. Because of the recent transformation of the market. Quore, Inc., must increase productivity, 10 percent over the course of the next two years, or it will certainly go bankrupt. In fact, however, Quore’s production structure is such that if a 10 percent productivity increase is possible, then a 20 percent increase is attainable.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following must on the basis of them also be true?
(A) It is only Quore’s production structure that makes it possible for Quore to survive the transformation of the market.
(B) Quore will not go bankrupt if it achieves a productivity increase of 20 percent over the next two years.
(C) If the market had not been transformed, Quore would have required no productivity increase in order to avoid bankruptcy.
(D) Because of the transformation of the market, Quore will achieve a productivity increase of 10 percent over the next two years.（E）
(E) If a 20 percent productivity increase is unattainable for Quore, then it must go bankrupt.
SECTION III
Time 35 minutes 25 Questions
Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages...
1. Terry: If you want to get a decent job, you should go to college.
Mark: That is not true. There are other reasons to go to college than wanting to get a good job.
Mark’s response shows that he interpreted Terry’s remarks to mean that
(A) college is one of many places to get trained for a job
(B) decent jobs are obtained only by persons who have gone to college
(C) wanting to get a decent job is the only reason for going to college
(D) training for decent jobs is available only at colleges（C）
(E) all people who want decent jobs go to college
2. Several studies have shown that hospitals are not all equally successful: patients are much more likely to die in some of them than in others. Since the hospitals in the studies had approximately equal per-patient funding, differences in the quality of care provided by hospital staff are probably responsible for the differences in mortality rates.
Which one of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The staff in some of the hospitals studied had earned more advanced degrees, on average, than the staff in the other hospitals.
(B) Patient populations vary substantially in average severity of illness from hospital to hospital.
(C) The average number of years that staff members stay on at a given job varies considerably from one hospital to another.
(D) Approximately the same surgical procedures were performed in each of the hospitals covered in the studies.（B）
(E) Mortality rates for hospital patients do not vary considerably from one region of the country to anther.
Questions 3-4
The United States government generally tries to protect valuable natural resources. But one resource has been ignored for too long. In the United States, each bushel of corn produced might result in the loss of as much as two bushels of topsoil. Moreover, in the last 100 years, the topsoil in many states, which once was about fourteen inches thick, has been eroded to only six or eight inches. Nonetheless, federal expenditures for nationwide soil conservation programs have remained at ridiculously low levels. Total federal expenditures for nationwide soil conservation programs have been less than the allocations of some individual states.
3. Which one of the following best expresses the main point of the argument?
(A) Corn is not a cost-effective product and substitutes should be found where possible.
(B) A layer of topsoil only six to eight inches thick cannot support the continued cultivation of corn.
(C) Soil conservation is a responsibility of the federal government, not the states.
(D) The federal government’s expenditures for soil conservation in the various states have been inequitable.（E）
(E) The federal government should spend much more on soil conservation than it has been spending.
4. In stating the argument, the author does which one of the following?
(A) makes a detailed statistical projection of future topsoil loss
(B) makes a generalization about total reduction in topsoil depth in all states
(C) assumes that the United States government does not place a high value on its natural resources
(D) refrains from using slanted language concerning the level of federal expenditures（E）
(E) compares state expenditures with federal expenditures
5. Animals with a certain behavioral disorder have unusually high level of aluminum in their brain tissue. Since a silicon-based compound binds to aluminum and prevents it from affecting the brain tissue. Animals can be cured of the disorder by being treated with the compound.
The argument is based on which one of the following assumptions?
(A) Animals with the disorder have unusually high but invariable levels of aluminum in their brain tissue.
(B) Aluminum is the cause of the disorder rather than merely an effect of it.
(C) Introducing the compound into the brain tissue has no side effects.
(D) The amount of the compound needed to neutralize the aluminum in an animal’s brain tissue varies depending upon the species.（B）
(E) Aluminum is never present in normal brain tissue.
6. As air-breathing mammals, whales must once have lived on land and needed hind limbs capable of supporting the mammals’ weight. Whales have the bare remnants of a pelvis. If animals have a pelvis, we expect them to have hind limbs. A newly discovered fossilized whale skeleton has very fragile hind limbs that could not have supported the animal’s weight on land. This skeleton had a partial pelvis.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following, if also true, would most strongly support the conclusion that the fragile hind limbs are remnants of limbs that land-dwelling whales once had?
(A) Whale bones older than the fossilized hind limbs confirm that ancient whales had full pelvises.
(B) No skeletons of ancient whales with intact hind limbs capable of supporting the mammals’ weight have ever been found.
(C) Scientists are uncertain whether the apparently nonfunctioning limbs of other early mammals derived from once-functioning limbs of their ancestors.
(D) Other large-bodied mammals like seals and sea lions maneuver on beaches and rocky coasts without fully functioning hind limbs.（A）
(E) Some smaller sea-dwelling mammals, such as modern dolphins, have no visible indications of hind limbs.
7. The stated goal of the government’s funding program for the arts is to encourage the creation of works of artistic excellence. Senator Beton claims, however, that a government-funded artwork can never reflect the independent artistic conscience of the artist because artists, like anyone else who accepts financial support, will inevitably try to please those who control the distribution of that support. Senator Beton concludes that government funding of the arts not only is a burden on taxpayers but also cannot lead to the creation of works of true artistic excellence.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which Senator Beton’s argument is based?
(A) Most taxpayers have little or no interest in the creation of works of true artistic excellence.
(B) Government funding of the arts is more generous than other financial support most artists receive.
(C) Distribution of government funds for the arts is based on a broad agreement as to what constitutes artistic excellence.
(D) Once an artist has produced works of true artistic excellence, he or she will never accept government funding.（E）
(E) A contemporary work of art that does not reflect the independent artistic conscience of the artist cannot be a work of true artistic excellence.
8. Older United States automobiles have been identified as contributing disproportionately to global air pollution. The requirement in many jurisdictions that automobiles pass emission-control inspections has had the effect of taking many such automobiles out of service in the United States, as they fail inspection and their owners opt to buy newer automobiles. Thus the burden of pollution such older United States automobiles contribute to the global atmosphere will be gradually reduced over the next decade.
Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) It is impossible to separate the air of one country or jurisdiction from that of others.
(B) When automobiles that are now new become older, they will, because of a design change, cause less air pollution than older automobiles do now.
(C) There is a thriving market for used older Untied States automobiles that are exported to regions that have no emission-control regulations.
(D) The number of jurisdictions in the United States requiring automobiles to pass emission-control inspections is no longer increasing.（C）
(E) Even if all the older automobiles in the United States were retired from service, air pollution from United States automobiles could still increase if the total number of automobiles in use should increase significantly.
9. The journalistic practice of fabricating remarks after an interview and printing them within quotation marks, as if they were the interviewee’s own words, has been decried as a form of unfair misrepresentation. However, people’s actual spoken remarks rarely convey their ideas as clearly as does a distillation of those ideas crafted, after an interview, by a skilled writer. Therefore, since this practice avoids the more serious misrepresentation that would occur if people’s exact words were quoted but their ideas only partially expressed, it is entirely defensible.
Which one of the following is a questionable technique used in the argument?
(A) answering an exaggerated charge by undermining the personal authority of those who made that charge
(B) claiming that the prestige of a profession provides ample grounds for dismissing criticisms of that profession
(C) offering as an adequate defense of a practice an observation that discredits only one of several possible alternatives to that practice
(D) concluding that a practice is right on the grounds that it is necessary（C）
(E) using the opponent’s admission that a practice is sometimes appropriate as conclusive proof that that practice is never inappropriate
10. The reforms to improve the quality of public education that have been initiated on the part of suppliers of public education have been insufficient. Therefore, reforms must be demanded by consumers. Parents should be given government vouchers with which to pay for their children’s education and should be allowed to choose the schools at which the vouchers will be spent. To attract students, academically underachieving schools will be forced to improve their academic offerings.
The argument assumes that
(A) in selecting schools parents would tend to prefer a reasonable level of academic quality to greater sports opportunities or more convenient location
(B) improvement in the academic offerings of schools will be enforced by the discipline of the job market in which graduating students compete
(C) there is a single best way to educate students
(D) children are able to recognize which schools are better and would influence their parents’ decisions（A）
(E) schools would each improve all of their academic offerings and would not tend to specialize in one particular field to the exclusion of others
11. Professor Smith published a paper arguing that a chemical found in minute quantities in most drinking water had an adverse effect on the human nervous system. Existing scientific theory held that no such effect was possible because there was no neural mechanism for bringing it about. Several papers by well-known scientists in the field followed, unanimously purporting to prove Professor Smith wrong. This clearly shows that the scientific establishment was threatened by Professor Smith’s work and conspired to discredit it.
Which one of the following is the central flaw in the argument given by the author of the passage?
(A) The author passes over the possibility that Professor Smith had much to gain should Professor Smith’s discovery have found general acceptance.
(B) The author fails to mention whether or not Professor Smith knew that the existence of the alleged new effect was incompatible with established scientific theory.
(C) The author fails to show why the other scientists could not have been presenting evidence in order to establish the truth of the matter.
(D) The author neglects to clarify what his or her relationship to Professor Smith is.（C）
(E) The author fails to indicate what, if any, effect the publication of Professor Smith’s paper had on the public’s confidence in the safety of most drinking water.
12. The number of North American children who are obese—that is, who have more body fat than do 85 percent of North American children their age—is steadily increasing, according to four major studies conducted over the past 15 years.
If the finding reported above is correct, it can be properly concluded that
(A) when four major studies all produce similar results, those studies must be accurate
(B) North American children have been progressively less physically active over the past 15 years
(C) the number of North American children who are not obese increased over the past 15 years
(D) over the past 15 years, the number of North American children who are underweight has declined（C）
(E) the incidence of obesity in North American children tends to increase as the children grow older
13. Economist: Money, no matter what its form and in almost every culture in which it has been used, derives its value from its scarcity, whether real or perceived.
Anthropologist: But cowrie shells formed the major currency in the Solomon Island economy of the Kwara’ae, and unlimited numbers of these shells washed up daily on the beaches to which the kwara’ae had access.
Which one of the following, if true, about the Kwara’ae, best serves to resolve the apparently conflicting positions cited above?
(A) During festivals they exchanged strings of cowrie-shell money with each other as part of a traditional ritual that honored their elders.
(B) They considered porpoise teeth valuable, and these were generally threaded on strings to be worn as jewelry.
(C) The shells used as money by men were not always from the same species of cowrie as those used as money by women.
(D) They accepted as money only cowrie shells that were polished and carved by a neighboring people, and such shell preparation required both time and skilled labor.（D）
(E) After Western traders brought money in the form of precious-metal coins to the Solomon Islands, Cowrie-shell money continued to be used as one of the major media of exchange for both goods and services.
14. School superintendent: It is a sad fact that, until now, entry into the academically best high school in our district has been restricted to the children of people who were wealthy enough to pay the high tuition. Parents who were previously denied the option of sending their children to this school now have this option, since I am replacing the tuition requirement with a requirement that allows only those who live in the neighborhood of the school to attend.
The superintendent’s claim about the effect of replacing the tuition requirement relies on the assumption that
(A) the residents of the school’s neighborhood tend to be wealthy
(B) people other than those wealthy enough to have paid the old tuition are able to live in the neighborhood of the school
(C) people less wealthy than those who were able to pay the old tuition are in the majority in the district
(D) there are no high schools in the district other than the one referred to by the superintendent（B）
(E) there are many people not wealthy enough to have paid the old tuition who wish to have their children attend the school
15. The Scorpio Miser with its special high-efficiency engine costs more to buy than the standard Scorpio sports car. At current fuel prices, a buyer choosing the Miser would have to drive it 60,000 miles to make up the difference in purchase price through savings on fuel. It follows that, if fuel prices fell, it would take fewer miles to reach the break-even point.
Which one of the following arguments contains an error of reasoning similar to that in the argument above?
(A) The true annual rate of earnings on an interest-bearing account is the annual rate of interest less the annual rate of inflation. Consequently, if the rate of inflation drips, the rate of interest can be reduced by an equal amount without there being a change in the true rate of earnings.
(B) For retail food stores, the Polar freezer, unlike the Arctic freezer, provides a consistent temperature that allows the store to carry premium frozen foods. Thus, if electricity rates fell, a lower volume of premium-food sales could justify choosing the Polar freezer.
(C) With the Roadmaker, a crew can repave a mile of decayed road in less time than with the competing model, which is, however, much less expensive. Reduced staffing levels made possible by the Roadmaker eventually compensate for its higher price. Therefore, the Roadmaker is especially advantageous where average wages are low.
(D) The improve strain the Northland apple tree bears fruit younger and lives longer than the standard strain. The standard strain does grow larger at maturity, but to allow for this, standard trees must be spaced farther apart. Therefore, new plantings should all be of the improved strain.（C）
(E) Stocks pay dividends, which vary from year to year depending on profits made. Bonds pay interest, which remains constant from year to year. Therefore, since the interest earned on bonds does not decrease when economic conditions decline, investors interested in a reliable income should choose bonds.
16. Approximately 7.6 million women who earn incomes have preschool-age children, and approximately 6.4 million women are the sole income earners’ for their families. These figures indicate that there are comparatively few income-earning women who have preschool-age children but are not the sole income earners for their families.
A major flaw in the reasoning is that it
(A) relies in figures that are too imprecise to support the conclusion drawn
(B) overlooks the possibility that there is little or no overlap between the two populations of women cited
(C) fails to indicate whether the difference between the two figures cited will tend to remain stable over time
(D) ignores the possibility, that families with preschool-age children might also have older children（B）
(E) provides no information on families in which men are the sole income earners
17. Being articulate has been equated with having a large vocabulary. Actually, however, people with large vocabularies have no incentive for, and tend not to engage in, the kind of creative linguistic self-expression that is required when no available words seem adequate. Thus a large vocabulary is a hindrance to using language in a truly articulate way.
Which one of the following is an assumption made in the argument?
(A) When people are truly articulate, they have the capacity to express themselves in situations in which their vocabularies seem inadequate.
(B) People who are able to express themselves creatively in new situations have little incentive to acquire large vocabularies.
(C) The most articulate people are people who have large vocabularies but also are able to express themselves creatively when the situation demands it.
(D) In educating people’ to be more articulate, it would be futile to try to increase the size of their vocabularies.（A）
(E) In unfamiliar situations, even people with large Vocabularies often do not have specifically suitable words available.
Questions 18-19
Dr. Schilling: Those who advocate replacing my country’s private health insurance system with nationalized health insurance because of the rising costs of medical care fail to consider the high human costs that consumers pay in countries with nationalized insurance: access to high-technology medicine is restricted. Kidney transplants and open-heart surgery—familiar life-saving procedures—are rationed. People are denied their right to treatments they want and need.
Dr. Laforte: Your country’s reliance on private health insurance denies access even to basic, conventional medicine to the many people who cannot afford adequate health coverage. With nationalized insurance, rich and poor have equal access to life-saving medical procedures. And people’s right to decent medical treatment regardless of income is not violated.
18. Dr. Schilling’s and Dr. Laforte’s statements provide the most support for holding that they would disagree about the truth of which one of the following?
(A) People’s rights are violated less when they are denied an available medical treatment they need because they lack the means to pay for it than when they are denied such treatment on noneconomic grounds.
(B) Where health insurance is provided by private insurance companies, people who are wealthy generally receive better health care than do people who are unable to afford health insurance.
(C) In countries that rely primarily on private health insurance to pay for medical costs, most people who would benefit from a kidney transplant receive one.
(D) In countries with nationalized health insurance, no one who needs a familiar medical treatment in order to stay alive is denied that treatment.（A）
(E) Anyone who wants a particular medical treatment has a right to receive that treatment.
19. In responding to Dr. Schillihng, Dr. Laforte employs which one of the following argumentative strategies?
(A) showing that the objections raised by Dr. Schilling have no bearing on the question of which of the two systems under consideration is the superior system
(B) calling into question Dr. Schilling’s status as an authority on the issue of whether consumers’ access to medical treatments is restricted in countries with nationalized health insurance
(C) producing counterexamples to Dr. Schilling’s claims that nationalized health insurance schemes extract high human costs from consumers
(D) demonstrating that Dr. Schilling’s reasoning is persuasive only because of his ambiguous use of the key word “consumer”（E）
(E) showing that the force of Dr. Schilling’s criticism depends on construing the key notion of access in a particular limited way
20. A certain viral infection is widespread among children, and about 30 percent of children infected with the virus develop middle ear infections. Antibiotics, although effective in treating bacterial infections, have no effect on the virus. Yet when middle ear infections in children infected with the virus are treated with antibiotics, the ear infections often clear up.
Which one of the following most helps to explain the success of the treatments with antibiotics?
(A) Although some types of antibiotics fail to clear up certain infections, other types of antibiotics might provide effective treatment for those infections.
(B) Children infected with the virus are particularly susceptible to bacteria that infect the middle ear.
(C) Many children who develop middle ear infections are not infected with the virus.
(D) Most viral infections are more difficult to treat than are most bacterial infections.（B）
(E) Among children not infected with the virus, fewer than 30 percent develop middle ear infections.
21. Naturalist: For decades we have known that the tuatara, a New Zealand reptile, has been approaching extinction on the South Island. But since South Island tuatara were thought to be of the same species as North Island tuatara there was no need to protect them. But new research indicates that the South Island tuatara are a distinct species, found only in that location. Because it is now known that if the South Island tuatara are lost an entire species will thereby be lost, human beings are now obliged to prevent their extinction, even if it means killing many of their unendangered natural predators.
Which one of the following principles most helps to justify the naturalists’ argumentation?
(A) In order to maximize the number of living things on Earth, steps should be taken to preserve all local populations of animals.
(B) When an animal is in danger of dying, there is an obligation to help save its life, if doing so would not interfere with the health or well-being of other animals or people.
(C) The threat of local extinction imposes no obligation to try to prevent that extinction, whereas the threat of global extinction does impose such an obligation.
(D) Human activities that either intentionally or unintentionally threaten the survival of an animal species ought to be curtailed.（C）
(E) Species that are found in only one circumscribed geographical region ought to be given more care and attention than are other species because they are more vulnerable to extinction.
22. Nursing schools cannot attract a greater number of able applicants than they currently do unless the problems of low wages and high-stress working conditions in the nursing profession are solved. If the pool of able applicants to nursing school does not increase beyond the current level, either the profession will have to lower its entrance standards, or there will soon be an acute shortage of nurses. It is not certain, however, that lowering entrance standards will avert a shortage. It is clear that with either a shortage of nurses or lowered entrance standards of the profession, the current high quality of health care cannot be maintained.
Which one of the following can be property inferred from the passage?
(A) If the nursing profession solves the problems of low wages and high-stress working conditions, it will attract able applicants in greater numbers than it currently does.
(B) The nursing profession will have to lower its entrance standards if the pool of able applicants to nursing school does not increase beyond the current level.
(C) If the nursing profession solves the problems of low wages and high-stress working conditions, high quality health care will be maintained.
(D) If the nursing profession fails to solve the problems of low wages and high-stress working conditions, there will soon be an acute shortage of nurses.（E）
(E) The current high quality of health care will not be maintained if the problems of low wages and high-stress working conditions in the nursing profession are not solved.
Questions 23-24
There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. It takes three minutes to pop corn in the microwave, compared to seven minutes to pop corn conventionally. Yet by weight, microwave popcorn typically costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn. Judging by the popularity of microwave popcorn, many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience.
23. If the statements in the passage are true. Which one of the following must also be true?
(A) No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.
(B) There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product.
(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.
(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.（D）
(E) Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.
24. Which one of the following statements, if true, would call into question the conclusion in the passage?
(A) More than 50 percent of popcorn purchasers buy conventional popcorn rather than microwave popcorn.
(B) Most people who prefer microwave popcorn do so because it is less fattening than popcorn that is popped conventionally in oil.
(C) The price of microwave popcorn reflects its packaging more than it reflects the quality of the popcorn contained in the package.
(D) The ratio of unpopped kernels to popped kernels is generally the same whether popcorn is popped in a microwave or conventionally in oil.（B）
(E) Because microwave popcorn contains additives not contained in conventional popcorn, microwave popcorn weighs more than an equal volume of conventional popcorn.
25. Situation: In the island nation of Bezun, the government taxes gasoline heavily in order to induce people not to drive. It uses the revenue from the gasoline tax to subsidize electricity in order to reduce prices charged for electricity.
Analysis: The greater the success achieved in meeting the first of these objectives, the less will be the success achieved in meeting the second.
The analysis provided for the situation above would be most appropriate in which one of the following situations?
(A) A library charges a late fee in order to induce borrowers to return books promptly. The library uses revenue from the late fee to send reminders to tardy borrowers in order to reduce the incidence of overdue books.
(B) A mail-order store imposes a stiff surcharge for overnight delivery in order to limit use of this option. The store uses revenue from the surcharge to pay the extra expenses it incurs for providing the overnight delivery service.
(C) The park management charges an admission fee so that a park’s users will contribute to the park’s upkeep. In order to keep admission fees low, the management does mot finance any new projects from them.
(D) A restaurant adds a service charge in order to spare customers the trouble of individual tips. The service charge is then shared among the restaurant’s workers in order to augment their low hourly wages.（E）
(E) The highway administration charges a toll for crossing a bridge in order to get motorists to use other routes. It uses the revenue from that toll to generate a reserve fund in order to be able one day to build a new bridge.
TEST 4
SECTION I
|
1. E |
2. A |
3. B |
4. A |
5. B |
|
6. E |
7. A |
8. B |
9. A |
10. C |
|
11. D |
12. D |
13. E |
14. A |
15. A |
|
16. B |
17. D |
18. B |
19. C |
20. B |
|
21. E |
22. C |
23. B |
24. C |
25. E |
SECTION III
|
1. C |
2. B |
3. E |
4. E |
5. B |
|
6. A |
7. E |
8. C |
9. C |
10. A |
|
11. C |
12. C |
13. D |
14. B |
15. C |
|
16. B |
17. A |
18. A |
19. E |
20. B |
|
21. C |
22. E |
23. D |
24. B |
25. E |
Where's My Stuff? |
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