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TEST 8
SECTION II
Time 35 minutes 24 Questions
Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages...
1. Parent 1: Ten years ago, children in communities like ours did not date until they were thirteen to fifteen years old. Now our nine to eleven year olds are dating. Obviously, children in communities like ours are becoming romantically interested in members of the opposite sex at an earlier age today than they did ten years ago.
Parent 2: I disagree. Our nine to eleven year olds do not want to date, but they feel intense peer pressure to act grown up by dating.
Parent 2, in responding to Parent 1, does which one of the following?
(A) draws a conclusion about a new phenomenon by comparing it to a phenomenon that is known and understood
(B) refutes a generalization about nine- to eleven-year-old children by means of an exceptional case overlooked by Parent 1
(C) assumes that nine- to eleven-year-old children are as interested in dating as thirteen- to fifteen-year-old children
(D) provides an alternative explanation for the changes in children’s dating described by Parent 1（D）
(E) criticizes Parent 1 as a proponent of a claim rather than criticizing the claim itself
2. All cattle ranchers dislike long winters.
All ski resort owners like long winters because long winters mean increased profits.
Some lawyers are cattle ranchers.
Which one
of the following statements, if true, and added to those above, most supports
the conclusion that no ski resort owners are lawyers?
(A) Some cattle ranchers are lawyers.
(B) Some people who dislike long winters are not cattle ranchers.
(C) All lawyers are cattle ranchers.
(D) All people who dislike long winters are cattle ranchers.（C）
(E) All people with increasing profits own ski resorts.
3. Citizen of Mooresville: Mooresville’s current city council is having a ruinous effect on municipal finances. Since a majority of the incumbents are running for reelection, I am going to campaign against all these incumbents in the upcoming city council election. The only incumbent I will support and vote for is the one who represents my own neighborhood, because she has the experience necessary to ensure that our neighborhoods interests are served. If everyone in Mooresville would follow my example, we could substantially change the council’s membership.
Assuming that each citizen of Mooresville is allowed to vote only for a city council representative from his or her own neighborhood, for the council’s membership to be changed substantially, it must be true that
(A) at least some other voters in Mooresville do not make the same exception for their own incumbent in the upcoming election
(B) most of the eligible voters in Mooresville vote in the upcoming election
(C) few of the incumbents on the Mooresville city council have run for reelection in previous elections
(D) all of the seats on the Mooresville city council are filled by incumbents whose terms are expiring（A）
(E) none of the challengers in the upcoming election for seats on Mooresville’s city council are better able to serve the interests of their neighborhoods than were the incumbents
4. Marianna: The problem of drunk driving has been somewhat ameliorated by public education and stricter laws. Additional measures are nevertheless needed. People still drive after drinking, and when they do, the probability is greatly increased that they will cause an accident involving death or serious injury.
David: I think you exaggerate the dangers of driving while drunk. Actually, a driver who is in an automobile accident is slightly less likely to be seriously injured if drunk than if sober.
In
responding to Marianna’s argument, David makes which one of the following errors
of reasoning?
(A) He contradicts himself.
(B) He assumes what he is seeking to establish.
(C) He contradicts Marianna’s conclusion without giving any evidence for his point of view.
(D) He argues against a point that is not one that Marianna was making.（D）
(E) He directs his criticism against the person making the argument rather than directing it against the argument itself.
5. From a magazine article: Self-confidence is a dangerous virtue: it often degenerates into the vice of arrogance. The danger of arrogance is evident to all who care to look. How much more humane the twentieth century would have been without the arrogant self-confidence of a Hitler or a Stalin.
The author attempts to persuade by doing all of the following EXCEPT:
(A) Using extreme cases to evoke an emotional response
(B) Introducing value-laden terms, such as “vice”
(C) Illustrating the danger of arrogance
(D) Appealing to authority to substantiate an assertion（D）
(E) Implying that Hitler’s arrogance arose from self-confidence
6. A study was designed to establish what effect, if any, the long-term operation of offshore oil rigs had on animal life on the bottom of the sea. The study compared the sea-bottom communities near rigs with those located in control sites several miles from any rig and found no significant differences. The researchers concluded that oil rigs had no adverse effect on sea-bottom animals.
Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the researcher’ conclusion?
(A) Commercially important fish depend on sea-bottom animals for much of their food, so a drop in catches of these fish would be evidence of damage to sea-bottom communities.
(B) The discharge of oil from offshore oil rigs typically occurs at the surface of the water, and currents often carry the oil considerable distances before it settles on the ocean floor.
(C) Contamination of the ocean floor from sewage and industrial effluent does not result in the destruction of all sea-bottom animals but instead reduces species diversity as well as density of animal life.
(D) Only part of any oil discharged into the ocean reaches the ocean floor: some oil evaporates, and some remains in the water as suspended drops.（B）
(E) Where the ocean floor consists of soft sediment, contaminating oil persists much longer than where the ocean floor is rocky.
7. Scientists are sometimes said to assume that something is not the case until there is proof that it is the case. Now suppose the question arises whether a given food additive is safe. At that point, it would be neither known to be safe nor known not to be safe. By the characterization above, scientists would assume the additive not to be safe because it has not been proven safe. But they would also assume it to be safe because it has not been proven otherwise. But no scientist could assume without contradiction that a given substance is both safe and not safe: so this characterization of scientists is clearly wrong.
Which one of the following describes the technique of reasoning used above?
(A) A general statement is argued to be false by showing that it has deliberately been formulated to mislead.
(B) A statement is argued to be false by showing that taking it to be true leads to implausible consequences.
(C) A statement is shown to be false by showing that it directly contradicts a second statement that is taken to be true.
(D) A general statement is shown to be uninformative by showing that there are as many specific instances in which it is false as there are instances in which it is true.（B）
(E) A statement is shown to be uninformative by showing that it supports no independently testable inferences.
8. During the 1980s the homicide rate in Britain rose by 50 percent. The weapon used usually was a knife. Potentially lethal knives are sold openly and legally in many shops. Most homicide deaths occur as a result of unpremeditated assaults within the family. Even if these are increasing, they would probably not result in deaths if it were not for the prevalence of such knives. Thus the blame lies with the permissiveness of the government that allows such lethal weapons to be sold.
Which one of the following is the strongest criticism of the argument above?
(A) There are other means besides knives, such as guns or poison, that can be used to accomplish homicide by a person who intends to cause the death of another.
(B) It is impossible to know how many unpremeditated assaults occur within the family, since many are not reported to the authorities.
(C) Knives are used in other homicides besides those that result from unpremeditated assaults within the family.
(D) The argument assumes without justification that the knives used to commit homicide are generally purchased as part of a deliberate plan to commit murder or to inflict grievous harm on a family member.（E）
(E) If the potentially lethal knives referred to are ordinary household knives, such knives were common before the rise in the homicide rate; but if they are weaponry, such knives are not generally available in households.
9. Nutritionist: Vitamins synthesized by chemists are exactly the same as vitamins that occur naturally in foods. Therefore, it is a waste of money to pay extra for brands of vitamin pills that are advertised as made of higher-quality ingredients or more natural ingredients than other brands are.
The nutritionist’s advice is based on which one of the following assumptions?
(A) It is a waste of money for people to supplement their diets with vitamin pills.
(B) Brands of vitamin pills made of natural ingredients always cost more money than brands that contain synthesized vitamins.
(C) All brands of vitamin pills contain some synthesized vitamins.
(D) Some producers of vitamin pills are guilty of false advertising.（E）
(E) There is no nonvitamin ingredient in vitamin pills whose quality makes one brand worth more money than another brand.
10. Most people are indignant at the suggestion that they are not reliable authorities about their real wants. Such self-knowledge, however, is not the easiest kind of knowledge to acquire. Indeed, acquiring it often requires hard and even potentially risky work. To avoid such effort, people unconsciously convince themselves that they want what society says they should want.
The main point of the argument is that
(A) acquiring self-knowledge can be risky
(B) knowledge of what one really wants is not as desirable as it is usually thought to be
(C) people cannot really want what they should want
(D) people usually avoid making difficult decisions（E）
(E) people are not necessarily reliable authorities about what they really want
11. Since 1945 pesticide use in the United Stares has increased tenfold despite an overall stability in number of acres planted. During the same period, crop loss from insects has approximately doubled, from about seven to thirteen percent.
Which one of the following, if true, contributes most to explaining the paradoxical findings above?
(A) Extension agents employed by state governments to advise farmers have recently advocated using smaller amounts of pesticide, though in past years they promoted heavy pesticide use.
(B) While pesticide-resistant strains of insects were developing, crop rotation, which for insects disrupts a stable food supply, was gradually abandoned because farmers’ eligibility to receive government crop subsidies depended on continuing to plant the same crop.
(C) Since 1970 the pesticides most lethal to people have generally been replaced by less-lethal chemicals that are equally effective against insects and have a less-damaging effect on the fish in streams fed by water that runs off from treated agricultural fields.
(D) Because farmers’ decisions about how much land to plant are governed by their expectations about crop prices at harvest time, the amount of pesticide they apply also depends in part on expected crop prices.（B）
(E) Although some pesticides can be removed from foodstuffs through washing, others are taken up into the edible portion of plants, and consumers have begun to boycott foods containing pesticides that cannot be washed off.
12. In discussing the pros and cons of monetary union among several European nations, some politicians have claimed that living standards in the countries concerned would first have to converge if monetary union is not to lead to economic chaos. This claim is plainly false, as is demonstrated by the fact that living standards diverge widely between regions within countries that nevertheless have stable economies.
In attempting to refute the politicians’ claim, the author does which one of the following?
(A) argues that those making the claim are mistaken about a temporal relationship that has been observed
(B) presents an earlier instance of the action being considered in which the predicted consequences did not occur
(C) argues that the feared consequence would occur regardless of what course of action was followed
(D) gives an example of a state of affairs, assumed to be relevantly similar, in which the allegedly incompatible elements coexist（D）
(E) points out that if an implicit recommendation is followed, the claim can be neither shown to be true nor shown to be false
13. Because some student demonstrations protesting his scheduled appearance have resulted in violence, the president of the Imperialist Society has been prevented from speaking about politics on campus by the dean of student affairs. Yet to deny anyone the unrestricted freedom to speak is to threaten everyone’s right to free expression. Hence the dean’s decision has threatened everyone’s right to free expression.
The pattern of reasoning displayed above is most closely paralleled in which one of the following?
(A) Dr. Pacheco saved a child’s life by performing emergency surgery. But surgery rarely involves any risk to the surgeon. Therefore, if an act is not heroic unless it requires the actor to take some risk, Dr. Pacheco’s surgery was not heroic.
(B) Because anyone who performs an act of heroism acts altruistically rather than selfishly, a society that rewards heroism encourages altruism rather than pure self-interest.
(C) In order to rescue a drowning child, Isabel jumped into a freezing river. Such acts of heroism performed to save the life of one enrich the lives of all. Hence, Isabel’s action enriched the lives of all.
(D) Fire fighters are often expected to perform heroically under harsh conditions. But no one is ever required to act heroically. Hence, fire fighters are often expected to perform actions they are not required to perform.（C）
(E) Acts of extreme generosity are usually above and beyond the call of duty. Therefore, most acts of extreme generosity are heroic, since all actions that are above and beyond the call of duty are heroic.
14. Professor: Members of most species are able to communicate with other members of the same species, but it is not true that all communication can be called “language.” The human communication system unquestionably qualifies as language. In fact, using language is a trait without which we would not be human.
Student: I understand that communication by itself is not language, but how do you know that the highly evolved communication systems of songbirds, dolphins, honeybees, and apes, for example, are not languages?
The student has interpreted the professor’s remarks to mean that
(A) different species can have similar defining traits
(B) every human trait except using language is shared by at least one other species
(C) not all languages are used to communicate
(D) using language is a trait humans do not share with any other species（D）
(E) humans cannot communicate with members of other species
Questions 15-16
Environmentalist: An increased number of oil spills and the consequent damage to the environment indicate the need for stricter safety standards for the oil industry. Since the industry refuses to take action, it is the national government that must regulate industry safety standards. In particular, the government has to at least require oil companies to put double hulls on their tankers and to assume financial responsibility for accidents.
Industry representative: The industry alone should be responsible for devising safety standards because of its expertise in handling oil and its understanding of the cost entailed. Implementing the double-hull proposal is not currently feasible because it creates new safety issues. Furthermore, the cost would be burdensome to the industry and consumers.
15. Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument of the environmentalist depends?
(A) The only effective sources of increased stringency in safety standards for oil tankers are action by the industry itself or national government regulation.
(B) The requirement of two hulls on oil tankers, although initially costly, will save money over time by reducing cleanup costs.
(C) The oil industry’s aging fleet of tankers must either be repaired or else replaced.
(D) Government safety regulations are developed in a process of negotiation with industry leaders and independent experts.（A）
(E) Environmental concerns outweigh all financial considerations when developing safety standards.
16. Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the industry representative’s position against the environmentalist’s position?
(A) Recently a double-hulled tanker loaded with oil was punctured when it ran aground, but no oil was released.
(B) Proposed government regulation would mandate the creation of regional response teams within the Coast Guard to respond to oil spills and coordinate cleanup activities.
(C) Proposed legislation requires that new tankers have double hulls but that existing tankers either be refitted with double hulls in the next 20 years or else be retired.
(D) Fumes can become trapped between the two hull layers of double-hulled tankers, and the risk of explosions that could rupture the tankers hull is thereby increased.（D）
(E) From now on, the oil industry will be required by recent legislation to finance a newly established oil-spill cleanup fund.
17. Biographer: Arnold’s belief that every offer of assistance on the part of his colleagues was a disguised attempt to make him look inadequate and that no expression of congratulations on his promotion should be taken at face value may seem irrational. In fact, this belief was a consequence of his early experiences with an admired older sister who always made fun of his ambitions and achievements. In light of this explanation, therefore, Arnold’s stubborn belief that his colleagues were duplicitous emerges as clearly justified.
The flawed reasoning in the biographer’s argument is most similar to that in which one of the following?
(A) The fact that top executives generally have much larger vocabularies than do their subordinates explains why Sheldon’s belief, instilled in him during his childhood, that developing a large vocabulary is the way to get to the top in the world of business is completely justified.
(B) Emily suspected that apples are unhealthy ever since she almost choked to death while eating an apple when she was a child. Now, evidence that apples treated with certain pesticides can be health hazards shows that Emily’s long-held belief is fully justified.
(C) As a child. Joan was severely punished whenever she played with her father’s prize Siamese cat. Therefore, since this information makes her present belief that cats are not good pets completely understandable, that belief is justified.
(D) Studies show that when usually well-behaved children become irritable, they often exhibit symptoms of viral infections the next day. The suspicion, still held by many adults, that misbehavior must always be paid for is thus both explained and justified.（C）
(E) Sumayia’s father and mother were both concert pianists, and as a child, Sumayia knew several other people trying to make careers as musicians. Thus Sumayia’s opinion that her friend Anthony lacks the drive to be a successful pianist is undoubtedly justified.
18. The television documentary went beyond the save-the-wildlife pieties of some of those remote from East Africa and showed that in a country pressed for food, the elephant is a pest, and an intelligent pest at that. There appears to be no way to protect East African farms from the voracious foraging of night-raiding elephant herds. Clearly this example illustrates that______
Which one of the following most logically completes the paragraph?
(A) the preservation of wildlife may endanger human welfare
(B) it is time to remove elephants from the list of endangered species
(C) television documentaries are incapable of doing more than reiterating accepted pieties
(D) farmers and agricultural agents should work closely with wildlife conservationists before taking measures to control elephants（A）
(E) it is unfair that people in any country should have to endure food shortages
Questions 19-20
Oxygen-18 is a heavier-than-normal isotope of oxygen. In a rain cloud, water molecules containing oxygen-18 are rarer than water molecules containing normal oxygen. But in rainfall, a higher proportion of all water molecules containing oxygen-18 than of all water molecules containing ordinary oxygen descends to earth. Consequently, scientists were surprised when measurements along the entire route of rain clouds’ passage from above the Atlantic Ocean, the site of their original formation, across the Amazon forests, where it rains almost daily, showed that the oxygen-18 content of each of the clouds remained fairly constant.
19. Which one of the following statements, if true, best helps to resolve the conflict between scientists’ expectations, based on the known behavior of oxygen-18, and the result of their measurements of the rain clouds’ oxygen-18 content?
(A) Rain clouds above tropical forests are poorer in oxygen-18 than rain clouds above unforested regions.
(B) Like the oceans, tropical rain forests can create or replenish rain clouds in the atmosphere above them.
(C) The amount of rainfall over the Amazon rain forests is exactly the same as the amount of rain originally collected in the clouds formed above the Atlantic Ocean.
(D) The amount of rain recycled back into the atmosphere from the leaves of forest vegetation is exactly the same as the amount of rain in river runoffs that is not recycled into the atmosphere.（B）
(E) Oxygen-18 is not a good indicator of the effect of tropical rain forests on the atmosphere above them.
20. Which one of the following inferences about an individual rain cloud is supported by the passage?
(A) Once it is formed over the Atlantic, the rain cloud contains more ordinary oxygen than oxygen-18.
(B) Once it has passed over the Amazon, the rain cloud contains a greater-than-normal percentage of oxygen-18.
(C) The clouds rainfall contains more oxygen-18 than ordinary oxygen.
(D) During a rainfall, the cloud must surrender the same percentage of its ordinary oxygen as of its oxygen-18.（A）
(E) During a rainfall, the cloud must surrender more of its oxygen-l8 than it retains.
21. It is very difficult to prove today that a painting done two or three hundred years ago, especially one without a signature or with a questionably authentic signature, is indubitably the work of this or that particular artist. This fact gives the traditional attribution of a disputed painting special weight, since that attribution carries the presumption of historical continuity. Consequently, an art historian arguing for a deattribution will generally convince other art historians only if he or she can persuasively argue for a specific reattribution.
Which one
of the following, if true, most strongly supports the position that the
traditional attribution of a disputed painting should not have special
weight?
(A) Art dealers have always been led by economic self-interest to attribute any unsigned paintings of merit to recognized masters rather than to obscure artists.
(B) When a painting is originally created, there are invariably at least some eyewitnesses who see the artist at work, and thus questions of correct attribution cannot arise at that time.
(C) There are not always clearly discernible differences between the occasional inferior work produced by a master and the very best work produced by a lesser talent.
(D) Attribution can shape perception inasmuch as certain features that would count as marks of greatness in a master’s work would be counted as signs of inferior artistry if a work were attributed to a minor artist.（A）
(E) Even though some masters had specialists assist them with certain detail work, such as depicting lace, the resulting works are properly attributed to the masters alone.
22. Much of the best scientific research of today shows that many of the results of earlier scientific work that was regarded in its time as good are in fact mistaken. Yet despite the fact that scientists are above all concerned to discover the truth, it is valuable for today’s scientists to study firsthand accounts of earlier scientific work.
Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?
(A) Many firsthand accounts of earlier, flawed scientific work are not generally known to be mistaken.
(B) Lessons in scientific methodology can be learned by seeing how earlier scientific work was carried out, sometimes especially when the results of that work are known to be incorrect.
(C) Scientists can make valuable contributions to the scientific work of their time even if the results of their work will later be shown to be mistaken.
(D) There are many scientists today who are not thoroughly familiar with earlier scientific research.（B）
(E) Some of the better scientific research of today does not directly address earlier scientific work.
23. Teachers are effective only when they help their students become independent learners. Yet not until teachers have the power to make decisions in their own classrooms can they enable their students to make their own decisions. Students’ capability to make their own decisions is essential to their becoming independent learners. Therefore, if teachers are to be effective, they must have the power to make decisions in their own classrooms.
According
to the argument, each of the following could be true of teachers who have
enabled their students to make their own decisions EXCEPT:
(A) Their students have not become independent learners.
(B) They are not effective teachers.
(C) They are effective teachers.
(D) They have the power to make decisions in their own classrooms.（E）
(E) They do not have the power to make decisions.
24. Dr. Ruiz: Dr. Smith has expressed outspoken antismoking views in public. Even though Dr. Smith is otherwise qualified, clearly she cannot be included on a panel that examines the danger of secondhand cigarette smoke. As an organizer of the panel, I want to ensure that the panel examines the issue in an unbiased manner before coming to any conclusion.
Which one of the following, if true, provides the strongest basis for countering Dr. Ruiz’ argument that Dr. Smith should not be included on the panel?
(A) A panel composed of qualified people with strong but conflicting views on a particular topic is more likely to reach an unbiased conclusion than a panel composed of people who have kept their views, if any, private.
(B) People who hold strong views on a particular topic tend to accept new evidence on that topic only if it supports their views.
(C) A panel that includes one qualified person with publicly known strong views on a particular topic is more likely to have lively discussions than a panel that includes only people with no well-defined views on that topic.
(D) People who have expressed strong views in public on a particular topic are better at raising funds to support their case than are people who have never expressed strong views in public.（A）
(E) People who have well-defined strong views on a particular topic prior to joining a panel are often able to impose their views on panel members who are not committed at the outset to any conclusion.
SECTION IV
Time 35 minutes 25 Questions
Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages...
1. Biotechnology companies say that voluntary guideline for their industry are sufficient to ensure that no harm will result when a genetically altered organism is released into the environment. It is foolish, however, to rely on assurances from producers of genetically altered organisms that their products will not be harmful. Therefore, a biotechnology company should be required to apply to an independent regulatory board composed of scientists outside the biotechnology industry for the right to sell newly created organisms.
Which one of the following principles, if accepted, most strongly justifies drawing the conclusion above?
(A) Voluntary guidelines are sufficient to regulate activities that pose little danger to the environment.
(B) People who engage in an activity and have a financial stake in that activity should not be the sole regulators of that activity.
(C) Methods that result in harm to the environment must sometimes be used in order to avoid even greater harm.
(D) A company is obligated to ensure the effectiveness of its products but not their environmental safety.（B）
(E) Issues of environmental protection are so important that they should not be left to scientific experts.
2. Zoo director: The city is in a financial crisis and must reduce its spending. Nevertheless, at least one reduction measure in next year’s budget, cutting City Zoos funding in half, is false economy. The zoo’s current budget equals less than 1 percent of the city’s deficit, so withdrawing support from the zoo does little to help the city’s financial situation. Furthermore, the zoo, which must close if its budget is cut, attracts tourists and tax dollars to the city. Finally, the zoo adds immeasurably to the city’s cultural climate and thus makes the city an attractive place for business to locate.
Which one of the following is the main conclusion of the zoo director’s argument?
(A) Reducing spending is the only means the city has of responding to the current financial crisis.
(B) It would be false economy for the city to cut the zoo’s budget in half.
(C) City Zoo’s budget is only a very small portion of the city’s entire budget.
(D) The zoo will be forced to close if its budget is cut.（B）
(E) The city’s educational and cultural climate will be irreparably damaged if the zoo is forced to close.
3. A cat will not be affectionate toward people unless it is handled when it is a kitten. Since the cat that Paula plans to give to her friend was handled when it was a kitten, that cat will be affectionate toward people.
The flawed reasoning in the argument above most closely parallels that in which one of the following?
(A) Tulip bulbs will not produce flowers unless they are chilled for two months. Since the tulip bulbs in the clay pot were not chilled for two months, these bulbs will not produce flowers.
(B) Beets do not grow well unless the soil in which they are grown contains trace amounts of boron. Since the beets in this plot are growing well, the soil in the plot must contain trace amounts of boron.
(C) Fruit trees will not produce much fruit unless they are pruned properly. That the fruit trees at the local orchard produce a large amount of fruit proves that they have been pruned properly.
(D) Cranberries will not thrive unless they are grown in bogs. Since the cranberries in this area are not grown in bogs, these cranberries will not thrive.（E）
(E) Crass seeds will not germinate well unless they are pressed firmly into the ground. The grass seeds sown in this yard were pressed firmly into the ground, so they will germinate well.
4. Until recently, anthropologists generally agreed that higher primates originated about 30 million years ago in the Al Fayyum region of Egypt. However, a 40-million-year old fossilized fragment of a lower jawbone discovered in Burma (now called Myanmar) in 1978 was used to support the theory that the earliest higher primates originated in Burma. However, the claim is premature, for______
Which one or the following, if rue, is the most logical completion of the paragraph above?
(A) there are no more primate species in Burma than there are in Egypt
(B) several anthropologists, using different dating methods, independently confirmed the estimated age of the jawbone fragment
(C) higher primates cannot be identified solely by their lower jawbones
(D) several prominent anthropologists do not believe that higher primates could have originated in either Egypt or Burma（C）
(E) other archaeological expeditions in Burma have unearthed higher-primate fossilized bone fragments that are clearly older than 40 million years
5. The ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic anxieties and utopian fantasies. It is not surprising that both reactions have consistently proven to be misplaced. After all, the precise time when a century happens to end cannot have any special significance, since the Gregorian calendar, though widely used, is only one among many that people have devised.
Which one of the following, if true, could be substituted for the reason cited above while still preserving the force of the argument?
(A) It is logically impossible for both reactions to be correct at the same time.
(B) What is a utopian fantasy to one group of people may well be, for another group of people, a realization of their worst fears.
(C) The number system based on the number ten, in the absence of which one hundred years would not have the appearance of being a significant period of time, is by no means the only one that people have created.
(D) The firm expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen can make people behave in a manner that makes it less likely that something extraordinary will happen.（C）
(E) Since a century far exceeds the normal human life span, people do not live long enough to learn from mistakes that they themselves made one hundred years before.
6. People who listen to certain recordings of music are in danger of being unduly influenced by spoken messages that have been recorded backwards on the records or tapes.
A
consequence of the view above is that
(A) the spoken messages must be louder than the music on the recordings
(B) backwards messages can be added to a recording while still preserving all of the musical qualities of the recorded performance
(C) the recordings on which such messages appear are chosen for this purpose either because they are especially popular or because they introduce a trancelike state
(D) if such messages must be comprehended to exert influence, then people must be able to comprehend spoken messages recorded backwards（D）
(E) when people listen to recorded music, they pay full attention to the music as it plays
7. Advertisement: Over 80 percent of the people who test-drive a Zenith car end up buying one. So be warned: you should not test-drive a Zenith unless you are prepared to buy one, because if you so much as drive a Zenith around the block, there is a better than 80 percent chance you will choose to buy it.
If the advertisement is interpreted as implying that the quality of the car is unusually impressive, which one of the following, if true, most clearly casts doubt on that implication?
(A) Test-drives of Zenith cars are, according to Zenith sales personnel, generally more extensive than a drive around the block and encounter varied driving conditions.
(B) Usually dealers have enough Zenith models in stock that prospective purchasers are able to test-drive the exact model that they are considering for purchase.
(C) Those who take test-drives in cars are, in overwhelming proportions, people who have already decided to buy the model driven unless some fault should become evident.
(D) Almost 90 percent of the people who purchase a car do not do so on the day they take a first test-drive but do so after another test-drive.（C）
(E) In some Zenith cars, a minor part has broken within the first year, and Zenith dealers have issued notices to owners that the dealers will replace the part with a redesigned one at no cost to owners.
8. In Malsenia sales of classical records are soaring. The buyers responsible for this boom are quite new to classical music and were drawn to it either by classical scores from television commercials or by theme tunes introducing major sports events on television. Audiences at classical concerts, however, are continually shrinking in Malsenia. It can be concluded from this that the new Malsenian converts to classical music, having initially experienced this music as recorded music, are most comfortable with classical music as recorded music and really have no desire to hear live performances.
The
argument assumes which one of the following?
(A) To sell well in Malsenia, a classical record must include at least one piece familiar from television.
(B) At least some of the new Malsenian buyers of classical records have available to them the option of attending classical concerts.
(C) The number of classical concerts performed in Malsenia has not decreased in response to smaller audiences.
(D) The classical records available in Malsenia are, for the most part, not recordings of actual public concerts.（C）
(E) Classical concerts in Malsenia are not limited to music that is readily available on recordings.
9. Brain scans of people exposed to certain neurotoxins reveal brain damage identical to that found in people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. This fact shows not only that these neurotoxins cause this type of brain damage, but also that the brain damage itself causes Parkinson’s disease. Thus brain scans can be used to determine who is likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.
The
argument contains which one of the following reasoning errors?
(A) It fails to establish that other methods that can be used to diagnose Parkinson’s disease are less accurate than brain scans.
(B) It overestimates the importance of early diagnosis in determining appropriate treatments for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
(C) It mistakes a correlation between the type of brain damage described and Parkinson’s disease for a causal relation between the two.
(D) It assumes that people would want to know as early as possible whether they were likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.（B）
(E) It neglects to specify how the information provided by brain scans could be used either in treating Parkinson’s disease or in monitoring the progression of the disease.
10. Almost all of the books published in the past 150 years were printed on acidic paper. Unfortunately, every kind of acidic paper gradually destroys itself due to its very acidity. This process of deterioration can be slowed if the books are stored in a cool, dry environment. Techniques, which are now being developed, to deacidify books will probably be applied only to books with historical significance.
If all of the statements in the passage above are true, which one of the following must also be true?
(A) If a book was published in the past 150 years and is historically insignificant, it will probably deteriorate completely.
(B) Almost all of the books published in the past 150 years will gradually destroy themselves.
(C) Almost all of the books that gradually deteriorate are made of acidic paper.
(D) If a book is of historical significance and was printed before 150 years ago, it will be deacidified.（A）
(E) Books published on acidic paper in 1900 should now all be at about the same state of deterioration.
11. Civil libertarian: The categorical prohibition of any nonviolent means of expression inevitably poisons a society’s intellectual atmosphere. Therefore, those advocating censorship of all potentially offensive art are pursuing a course that is harmful to society.
Censorship advocate: You’re wrong, because many people are in agreement about what constitutes potentially offensive art.
The censorship advocate’s rebuttal is flawed because it
(A) attempts to extract a general rule from a specific case
(B) extracts an erroneous principle from a commonly held belief
(C) attacks the civil libertarians character instead of the argument
(D) relies on an irrelevant reason for rejecting the civil libertarian’s argument（D）
(E) uses hyperbolic inflammatory language that obscures the issue at hand
12. Although most species of nondomestic mammals in Australia are marsupials, over 100 species—including seals, bats, and mice—are not marsupials but placentals. It is clear, however, that these placentals are not native to this island continent: all nonhuman placentals except the dingo, a dog introduced by the first humans that settled Australia, are animals whose ancestors could swim long distances, fly, or float on driftwood.
The conclusion above is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?
(A) Some marsupials now found in Australia might not be native to that continent, but rather might have been introduced to Australia by some other means.
(B) Humans who settled Australia probably introduced many of the placental mammal species now present on that Continent.
(C) The only Australian placentals that could be native to Australia would be animals whose ancestors could not have reached Australia from elsewhere.
(D) No marsupials now found in Australia can swim long distances, fly, or float on driftwood.（C）
(E) Seals, bats, and mice are typically found only in areas where there are no native marsupials.
13. I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by United States manufacturers.
II. The average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by United States manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers.
Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?
(A) Reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair.
(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States.
(C) Damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the United States or in Japan.
(D) Room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the United States than in Japan.（A）
(E) Japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do United States manufacturers.
14. In 1980 there was growing concern that the protective ozone layer over the Antarctic might be decreasing and thereby allowing so much harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth that polar marine life would be damaged. Some government officials dismissed these concerns, since statistics indicated that global atmospheric ozone levels remained constant.
The relevance of the evidence cited by the government officials in support of their position would be most seriously undermined if it were true that
(A) most species of plant and animal life flourish in warm climates rather than in the polar regions
(B) decreases in the amount of atmospheric Ozone over the Antarctic ice cap tend to be seasonal rather than constant
(C) decreases in the amount of atmospheric ozone were of little concern before l980
(D) quantities of atmospheric ozone shifted away from the polar caps, correspondingly increasing ozone levels in other regions（D）
(E) even where the amount of atmospheric ozone is normal, some ultraviolet light reaches the Earth’s surface
15. Goodbody, Inc., is in the process of finding tenants for its newly completed Parrot Quay commercial development, which will make available hundreds of thousands of square feet of new office space on what was formerly derelict property outside the financial center of the city. Surprisingly enough, the coming recession, though it will hurt most of the city’s businesses, should help Goodbody to find tenants.
Which one of the following, if true, does most to help resolve the apparent paradox?
(A) Businesses forced to economize by the recession will want to take advantage of the lower rents available outside the financial center.
(B) Public transportation links the financial center with the area around Parrot Quay.
(C) The area in which the Parrot Quay development is located became derelict after the heavy industry that used to be there closed down in a previous recession.
(D) Many of Goodbody’s other properties are in financial center and will become vacant if the recession is severe enough to force Goodbody’s tenants out of business.（A）
(E) The recession is likely to have the most severe effect not on service industries, which require a lot of office space, but on manufacturers.
Questions 16-17
Dr. Kim: Electronic fetal monitors, now routinely used in hospital delivery rooms to check fetal heartbeat, are more intrusive than ordinary stethoscopes and do no more to improve the chances that a healthy baby will be born. Therefore, the additional cost of electronic monitoring is unjustified and such monitoring should be discontinued.
Dr. Anders: I disagree. Although you and I know that both methods are capable of providing the same information, electronic monitoring has been well worth the cost. Doctors now know the warning signs they need to listen for with stethoscopes, but only because of what was learned from using electronic monitors.
16. Which one of the following principles, if accepted, would provide the most support for Dr. Kim’s contention that the use of electronic fetal monitors should be discontinued?
(A) Hospitals should discontinue the routine use of a monitoring method whenever an alternative method that provides more information becomes available.
(B) Monitoring procedures should be routinely used in delivery rooms only if they provide information of a kind that is potentially useful in ensuring that a healthy baby will be born.
(C) When two methods available to hospitals provide the same kind of information, the more intrusive method should not be used.
(D) When the use of a medical device has enabled doctors to learn something that improves the chances that babies will be born healthy, that device is well worth its cost.（C）
(E) Routinely used medical procedures should be reevaluated periodically to be sure that these procedures provide reliable information.
17. As a reply to Dr. Kim’s argument, Dr. Anders’ response is inadequate because it
(A) misses the point at issue
(B) assumes what it sets out to prove
(C) confuses high cost with high quality
(D) overestimates the importance of technology to modem medicine（A）
(E) overlooks the fact that a procedure can be extensively used without being the best procedure available
18. Professor Hartley’s new book on moral philosophy contains numerous passages that can be found verbatim in an earlier published work by Hartley’s colleague, Professor Lawrence. Therefore in view of the fact that these passages were unattributed in Hartley’s book, Hartley has been dishonest in not acknowledging the intellectual debt owed to Lawrence.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument is based?
(A) Hartley could not have written the new book without the passages in question.
(B) While writing the new book, Hartley had access to the manuscript of Lawrence s book.
(C) A book on moral philosophy should contain only material representing the author’s own convictions.
(D) Lawrence did not get the ideas in the passages in Question or did not get their formulations originally from Hartley.（D）
(E) Hartley considered the passages in question to be the best possible expressions of the ideas they contain.
19. People who receive unsolicited advice from someone whose advantage would be served if that advice is taken should regard the proffered advice with skepticism unless there is good reason to think that their interests substantially coincide with those of the advice giver in the circumstance in question.
This
principle, if accepted, would justify which one of the following judgments?
(A) After learning by chance that Harriet is looking for a secure investment for her retirement savings, Floyd writes to her recommending the R&M Company as an especially secure investment. But since Floyd is the sole owner of R&M, Harrier should reject his advice out of hand and invest the savings elsewhere.
(B) While shopping for a refrigerator, Ramon is approached by a salesperson who, on the basis of her personal experience, warns him against the least expensive model. However, the salesperson’s commission increases with the price of the refrigerator sold, so Ramon should not reject the least expensive model on the salesperson’s advice alone.
(C) Mario wants to bring pastry to Yvette’s party, and when he consults her Yvette suggests that he bring his favorite chocolate fudge brownies from the local bakery. However, since Yvette also prefers those brownies to any other pastry, Mario would be wise to check with others before following her recommendation.
(D) Sara overhears Ron talking about a course he will be teaching and interrupts to recommend a textbook for his course. However, even though Sara and Ron each wrote a chapter of’ this textbook, since the book’s editor is a personal friend of Sara’s, Ron should investigate further before deciding whether it is the best textbook for his course.（B）
(E) Mel is buying fish for soup. Joel, who owns the fish market where Mel is a regular and valued customer, suggests a much less expensive fish than the fish Mel herself prefers. Since if Mel follows Joel’s advice, Joel will make less profit on the sale than he would have otherwise, Mel should follow his recommendation.
20. Last year the county park system failed to generate enough revenue to cover its costs. Any business should be closed if it is unprofitable, but county parks are not businesses. Therefore, the fact that county parks are unprofitable does not by itself justify closing them.
The pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most closely paralleled in which one of the following?
(A) A prime-time television series should be canceled if it fails to attract a large audience, but the small audience attracted by the documentary series is not sufficient reason to cancel it, since it does not air during prime time.
(B) Although companies that manufacture and market automobiles in the United States must meet stringent air-quality standards, the OKESA company should be exempt from these standards since it manufactures bicycles in addition to automobiles.
(C) Although the province did not specifically intend to prohibit betting on horse races when it passed a law prohibiting gambling, such betting should be regarded as being prohibited because it is a form of gambling.
(D) Even though cockatiels are not, strictly speaking, members of the parrot family, they should be fed the same diet as most parrots since the cockatiel’s dietary needs are so similar to those of parrots.（A）
(E) Since minors are not subject to the same criminal laws as are adults, they should not be subject to the same sorts of punishments as those that apply to adults.
21. Jane: Professor Harper’s ideas for modifying the design of guitars are of no value because there is no general agreement among musicians as to what a guitar should sound like and, consequently, no widely accepted basis for evaluating the merits of a guitar’s sound.
Mark: What’s more, Harper’s ideas have had enough time to be adopted if they really resulted in superior sound. It took only ten years for the Torres design for guitars to be almost universally adopted because of the improvement it makes in tonal quality.
Which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between Jane’s argument and Mark’s argument?
(A) Mark’s argument shows how a weakness in Jane’s argument can be overcome.
(B) Mark’s argument has a premise in common with Jane’s argument.
(C) Mark and Jane use similar techniques to argue for different conclusions.
(D) Mark’s argument restates Jane’s argument in other terms.（E）
(E) Mark’s argument and Jane’s argument are based on conflicting suppositions.
Questions 22-23
Doctors in Britain have long suspected that patients who wear tinted eyeglasses are abnormally prone to depression and hypochondria. Psychological tests given there to hospital patients admitted for physical complaints like heart pain and digestive distress confirmed such a relationship. Perhaps people whose relationship to the world is psychologically painful choose such glasses to reduce visual stimulation, which is perceived as irritating. At any rate, it can be concluded that when such glasses are worn, it is because the wearer has a tendency to be depressed or hypochondriacal.
22. The argument assumes which one of the following?
(A) Depression is not caused in some cases by an organic condition of the body.
(B) Wearers do not think of the tinted glasses as a means of distancing themselves from ocher people.
(C) Depression can have many causes, including actual conditions about which it is reasonable for anyone to be depressed.
(D) For hypochondriacs wearing tinted glasses, the glasses serve as a visual signal to others that the wearer’s health is delicate.（E）
(E) The tinting does not dim light to the eye enough to depress the wearer’s mood substantially.
23. Each of the following, if true, weakens the argument EXCEPT:
(A) Some people wear tinted glasses not because they choose to do so but because a medical condition of their eyes forces them to do so.
(B) Even a depressed or hypochondriacal person can have valid medical complaints, so a doctor should perform all the usual objective tests in diagnosing such persons.
(C) The confirmatory tests were not done for places such as western North America where the usual quality of light differs from that prevailing in Britain.
(D) Fashions with respect to wearing tinted glasses differ in different parts of the world.（B）
(E) At the hospitals where the tests were given, patients who were admitted for conditions less ambiguous than heart pain or digestive distress did not show the relationship between tinted glasses and depression or hypochondria.
24. The only fossilized bones of large prey found in and around settlements of early humans bear teeth marks of nonhuman predators on areas of the skeleton that had the most meal, and cut marks made by humans on the areas that had the least meat. The predators that hunted large prey invariably are the meatiest parts of the carcasses, leaving uneaten remains behind.
If the information above is true, it provides the most support for which one of the following?
(A) Early humans were predators of small prey, not of large prey.
(B) Early humans ate fruits and edible roots as well as meat.
(C) Early humans would have been more effective hunters of large prey if they had hunted in large groups rather than individually.
(D) Early humans were not hunters of large prey but scavenged the uneaten remains of prey killed by other predators.（D）
(E) Early humans were nomadic, and their settlements followed the migratory patterns of predators of large prey.
25. George: A well-known educator claims that children who are read to when they are very young are more likely to enjoy reading when they grow up than are children who were not read to. But this claim is clearly false. My cousin Emory was regularly read to as a child and as an adult he seldom reads for pleasure, whereas no one read to me and reading is now my favorite form of relaxation.
Ursula: You and Emory prove nothing in this case. Your experience is enough to refute the claim that all avid adult readers were read to as children, but what the educator said about reading to children is not that sort of claim.
Which one of the following describes a flaw in Georges reasoning?
(A) He treats his own experience and the experiences of other members of his own family as though they have more weight as evidence than do the experiences of other people.
(B) He does not distinguish between the quality and the quantity of the books that adults read to Emory when Emory was a child.
(C) He overlooks the well-known fact that not all reading is equally relaxing.
(D) He fails to establish that the claim made by this particular educator accurately reflects the position held by the majority of educators.（E）
(E) He attempts to refute a general claim by reference to nonconforming cases, although the claim is consistent with the occurrence of such cases.
TEST 8
SECTION II
|
1. D |
2. C |
3. A |
4. D |
5. D |
|
6. B |
7. B |
8. E |
9. E |
10. E |
|
11. B |
12. D |
13. C |
14. D |
15. A |
|
16. D |
17. C |
18. A |
19. B |
20. A |
|
21. A |
22. B |
23. E |
24. A |
25.
|
SECTION IV
|
1. B |
2. B |
3. E |
4. C |
5. C |
|
6. D |
7. C |
8. C |
9. B |
10. A |
|
11. D |
12. C |
13. A |
14. D |
15. A |
|
16. C |
17. A |
18. D |
19. B |
20. A |
|
21. E |
22. E |
23. B |
24. D |
25. E |
Where's My Stuff? |
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