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TEST 11
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. Educational television is a contradiction in terms. While a classroom encourages social interaction, television encourages solitude. School is centered on the development of language, but television depends upon constantly changing visual images. And in a classroom, fun is merely a means to an end, but on television it is the end in itself.
Upon
which one of the following assumptions does the author rely in the passage?
(A) The classroom should not be a place where anyone has fun.
(B) Only experiences that closely resemble what takes place in the school environment can be educational.
(C) Television programs reinforce some of the values of the school environment.
(D) Educational television programs are better than most other television programs.（B）
(E) The potential of television as a powerful learning tool has not yet been realized.
2. Switching to “low-yield” cigarettes, those that yield less nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide than regular cigarettes when tested on a standard machine, does not, in general, reduce the incidence of heart attack. This result is surprising, since nicotine and carbon monoxide have been implicated as contributing to heart disease.
Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy?
(A) Smoking low-yield cigarettes has become fashionable, as relatively healthier styles of life have become more popular than those that have been identified as risky.
(B) For those who are themselves smokers, inhaling the smoke of others is not generally a significant factor contributing to an increased risk of heart disease.
(C) Nicotine does not contribute as much as to heart disease as does carbon monoxide.
(D) Carbon monoxide and cigarette tar are not addictive substances.（E）
(E) People who switch from high-yield to low-yield cigarettes often compensate by increasing the number and depth of puffs in order to maintain their accustomed nicotine level.
Questions 3-4
Sally: I cannot study at a university where there is an alcohol problem. So unless something is done about the alcohol problem at this university, I’ll have to transfer to a university where there are no fraternities.
Yolanda: I don’t agree that fraternities are responsible for the alcohol problem at this university. Alcohol problems exist at all universities, including those where there are no fraternities. We all should become more aware of alcohol abuse. It’s not simply a fraternity problem; it’s a cultural problem.
3. Which one of the following is an assumption on which Sally’s argument depends?
(A) Most universities have fraternities.
(B) Nothing will be done about the alcohol problem at Sally’s university.
(C) Alcohol problems are becoming more widespread at universities.
(D) Some fraternity members who drink alcohol beverages are too young to do so legally.（E）
(E) There could be universities that have no alcohol problems.
4. In the conversation, Yolanda does which one of the following?
(A) She argues that if people become more aware of alcohol abuse, fewer people will themselves abuse alcohol.
(B) She makes an overly broad generalization from one university to all universities.
(C) She concludes that because alcohol problems are cultural problems, they cannot be fraternity problems.
(D) She tries to undermine what she supposes to be Sally’s position by pointing out that alcohol problems occur even at universities where there are no fraternities.（D）
(E) She suggests that even if alcohol problems existed only at universities with fraternities, she would still conclude that alcoholism is a cultural rather than a fraternity problem.
5. Some people have questioned why the Homeowners Association is supporting Cooper’s candidacy for mayor. But if the Association wants a mayor who will attract more businesses to the town, Cooper is the only candidate it could support. So, since the Association is supporting Cooper, it must have a goal of attracting more businesses to the town.
The reasoning in the argument is in error because
(A) the reasons the Homeowners Association should want to attract more businesses to the town are not given
(B) the Homeowners Association could be supporting Cooper’s candidacy for reasons unrelated to attracting businesses to the town
(C) other groups besides the Homeowners Association could be supporting Cooper’s candidacy
(D) the Homeowners Association might discover that attracting more businesses to the town would not be in the best interest of its members（B）
(E) Cooper might not have all of the skills that are needed by a mayor who wants to attract businesses to a town
6. Advertisement: Most power hedge trimmers on the market do an adequate job of trimming hedges. But many power hedge trimmers are dangerous to operate and can cause serious injury when used by untrained operators. Bolter Industries’ hedge trimmer has been tested by National Laboratories, the most trusted name in safety testing. So you know, if you buy a Bolter’s, you are buying a power hedge trimmer whose safety is assured.
The answer to which one of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the truth of the conclusion drawn in the advertisement?
(A) Has National Laboratories performed safety tests on other machines made by Bolter Industries?
(B) How important to the average buyer of a power hedge trimmer is safety of operation?
(C) What were the results of National Laboratories’ tests of Bolter Industries’ hedge trimmer?
(D) Are there safer ways of trimming a hedge than using a power hedge trimmer?（C）
(E) Does any other power hedge trimmer on the market do a better job of trimming hedges than does Bolter Industries hedge trimmer?
7. Slash-and-burn agriculture involves burning several acres of forest, leaving vegetable ash that provides ample fertilizer for three or four years of bountiful crops. On the cleared land nutrients leach out of the soil, however, and the land becomes too poor to support agriculture. New land is then cleared by burning and the process starts again. Since most farming in the tropics uses this method, forests in this region will eventually be permanently eradicated.
The argument depends on the assumption that
(A) forests in the tropics do not regenerate well enough to restore themselves once they have been cleared by the slash-and-burn method
(B) some other methods of agriculture are not as destructive to the environment in tropical regions as the slash-and-burn method is
(C) forests in the tropics are naturally deficient in nutrients that are needed to support the growth of plants that are not native to those regions
(D) slash-and-burn agriculture is particularly suitable for farming in tropical areas（A）
(E) slash-and-burn agriculture produces a more bountiful crop than do other agriculture methods for the first year
8. Of 2,500 people who survived a first heart attack, those who did not smoke had their first heart attack at a median age of 62. However, of those 2,500, people who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day had their first heart attack at a median age of 51. On the basis of this information, it can be concluded that nonsmokers tend to have a first heart attack eleven years later than do people who smoke two packs of cigarettes a day.
The conclusion is incorrectly drawn from the information given because this information does not include
(A) the relative severity of heart attacks suffered by smokers and nonsmokers
(B) the nature of the different medical treatments that smokers and nonsmokers received after they had survived their first heart attack
(C) how many of the 2,500 people studied suffered a second heart attack
(D) the earliest age at which a person who smoked two packs a day had his or her first heart attack（E）
(E) data on people who did not survive a first heart attack
9. Paleontologists have discovered fossils of centipedes that are 414 million years old. These fossils are at least 20 million years older than the earliest land-dwelling animals previously identified. The paleontologists are confident that these centipedes lived on land, even though the fossilized centipedes were discovered in rock that also contained fossilized remains of animals known to be water-dwelling.
The paleontologists’ view would be LEAST supported by the truth of which one of the following?
(A) The legs of the fossilized centipedes were particularly suited to being a means of locomotion on land.
(B) All of the centipedes that had previously been discovered were land dwellers.
(C) The rock in which the fossilized centipedes were found was formed from mud flats that were occasionally covered by river water.
(D) Fossils of the earliest land-dwelling animals that had previously been identified were found in rock that did not contain fossilized remains of water-dwelling animals.（D）
(E) Fossils of spiders with respiratory systems adapted only to breathing air were found in the same rock as the centipede fossils.
10. Broadcaster: Our radio station has a responsibility to serve the public interest. Hence, when our critics contend that our recent expose of events in the private lives of local celebrities was excessively intrusive, we can only reply that the overwhelming public interest in these matters makes it our responsibility to publicize them.
Which one of the following is a flaw in the broadcaster’s defense of the radio station’s practice?
(A) assuming without argument that there is a right to privacy
(B) ignoring grounds for criticism of the expose aside from intrusion into people’s private lives
(C) intentionally failing to specify what is meant by “excessively intrusive”
(D) confusing legal responsibility with moral obligation（E）
(E) improperly exploiting an ambiguity in the phrase “public interest”
Questions 11-12
The fire that destroyed the Municipal Building started before dawn this morning, and the last fire fighters did not leave until late this afternoon. No one could have been anywhere in the vicinity of a fire like that one and fail to notice it. Thomas must have seen it, whatever he now says to the contrary. He admits that, as usual, he went from his apartment to the library this morning, and there is no way for him to get from his apartment to the library without going past the Municipal Building.
11. The main conclusion of the argument is that
(A) Thomas was in the vicinity of the fire this morning
(B) Thomas claimed not to have seen the fire
(C) Thomas saw the fire this morning
(D) Thomas went directly from his apartment to the library this morning（C）
(E) Thomas went by the Municipal Building this morning
12. The argument employs which one of the following reasoning techniques?
(A) presenting several different pieces of evidence each of which by itself would allow the conclusion to be properly drawn
(B) establishing that one thing occurred by showing that another thing occurred and that this second thing was enough to ensure the occurrence of the first thing
(C) justifying a claim that a view held by someone else is false by explaining why that view, despite its falsity, is a tempting one for that person to hold under the circumstances
(D) relying on evidence that a certain kind of event has regularly occurred in the past as a basis for concluding that an event of that kind occurred in the present case（B）
(E) drawing a general conclusion about what is possible in a certain kind of situation on the basis of firsthand experience with one such situation
13. Editorial: In rejecting the plan proposed by parliament to reform the electoral process, the president clearly acted in the best interests of the nation. Anyone who thinks otherwise should remember that the president made this decision knowing it would be met with fierce opposition at home and widespread disapproval abroad. All citizens who place the nation’s well-being above narrow partisan interests will applaud this courageous action.
The reasoning in the editorial is in error because
(A) it confused a quality that is merely desirable in a political leader with a quality that is essential to effective political decision-making
(B) it fails to distinguish between evidence concerning the courage required to make a certain decision and evidence concerning the wisdom of making that decision
(C) it ignores the likelihood that many citizens have no narrow partisan interest in the proposed election reform plan
(D) it overlooks the possibility that there was strong opposition to the parliament’s plan among members of the president’s own party（B）
(E) it depends on the unwarranted assumption that any plan proposed by a parliament will necessarily serve only narrow partisan interests
14. Once consumers recognize that a period of inflation has begun, there is generally an increase in consumer spending. This increase can be readily explained by consumers’ desire not to postpone purchases that will surely increase in price. But during protracted periods of inflation, consumers eventually begin to put off making even routine purchases, despite the fact that consumers continue to expect price to rise and despite the fact that salaries also rise during inflationary periods.
Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the apparent inconsistency in consumer behavior described above?
(A) During times of inflation consumers save more money than they do in noninflationary periods.
(B) There is usually a lag between the leading economic indicators first signaling the onset of an inflationary period and consumers’ recognition of its onset.
(C) No generalization that describes human behavior will be true of every type of human behavior.
(D) If significant numbers of consumers are unable to make purchases, prices will eventually fall but salaries will not be directly affected.（E）
(E) Consumers’ purchasing power decreases during periods of protracted inflation since salaries do not keep pace with prices.
Questions 15-16
A favored theory to explain the extinction of dinosaurs, together with many other species, has been the globally catastrophic collision of a large asteroid with the Earth. Supporting evidence is an extraterrestrial chemical element in a layer of dust found worldwide at a geological level laid down contemporaneously with the supported event. A new competing theory contends that any asteroid impact was irrelevant, because it was massive volcanic activity that caused the extinctions by putting enough dust into the atmosphere to cool the planet. The Decean region of India contains extensive volcanic flows that occurred within the same time period as the supposed asteroid impact and the extinctions.
15. The new theory assumes that
(A) the massive volcanic activity was not caused by the impact of an asteroid
(B) no individual dinosaurs survived the impact of the asteroid, if it occurred
(C) the extinctions took place over a longer time period than they would have if caused by the impact of an asteroid
(D) other volcanic eruptions were not occurring at the same time as those in the Decean region（A）
(E) it is not possible to determine which would have occurred first, the volcanic flows in the Decean region or the supposed impact of an asteroid
16. Which one of the following, if true, most of strongly indicates that the asteroid-impact theory is at least incomplete, if not false?
(A) Large concentrations of dinosaur nests with fossil eggs found in Alberta indicate that at least some species of dinosaurs congregated in large groups during some part of their lives.
(B) Dinosaur remains indicate that some species of dinosaur could have migrated in herds over wide ranges, so that they could have traveled to escape the local effects of certain catastrophes.
(C) Legends from many cultures, such as the Greek legend that Cadmus raised an army by sowing dragons’ teeth in the ground, show that various accident peoples worldwide were familiar with the fossils of dinosaurs.
(D) In the Gobi desert in China, where now only small animals can eke out an existence, fossil dinosaur skeletons 27 feet long were found in circumstances indicating that the climate there was as dry when the dinosaurs lived as it is now.（E）
(E) The fossil record in Montano from below the layer of extraterrestrial dust shows a diminution over time in dinosaur species from 35 to 13, and dinosaur teeth found above the dust layer show a diminution in species from 13 to 5.
17. A contract, whether expressed or unexpressed, exists when two parties engage with each other for the reciprocal transfer of benefits. Thus, in accepting support from public funds, an artist creates at least an unexpressed contract between himself or herself and the public, and the public can rightly expect to benefit from the artist’s work.
Which one of the following most accurately describes an error in reasoning in the passage?
(A) attempting to justify a rule of conduct on the grounds that it confers benefits on all of the parties involved
(B) concluding that a definition is fully applicable to a situation when it is known only that the situation conforms partially to that definition
(C) speaking only in a abstract terms about matters that involve contingencies and that must be judged on a case-by-case basis
(D) confusing the type of mental or emotional activity in which an individual can engage with the mental or emotional states that can characterize groups of individuals（B）
(E) treating an issue that requires resolution through political processes as if it were merely a matter of opinion
18. People cannot be morally responsible for things over which they have no control. Therefore, they should not be held morally responsible for any inevitable consequences of such things, either. Determining whether adults have any control over the treatment they are receiving can be difficult. Hence in some cases it can be difficult to know whether adults bear any moral responsibility for the way they are treated. Everyone, however, sometimes acts in ways that are an inevitable consequence of treatment received as an infant and infants clearly cannot control, and so are not morally responsible for, the treatment they receive.
Anyone making the claims above would be logically committed to which one of the following further claims?
(A) An infant should never be held morally responsible for an action that infant has performed.
(B) There are certain commonly performed actions for which no one performing those actions should ever be held morally responsible.
(C) Adults who claim that they have no control over the treatment they are receiving should often be held at least partially responsible for being so treated.
(D) If a given action is within a certain person’s control that person should be held morally.（E）
(E) No adult should be held morally responsible for every action he or she performs.
19. Fares on the city-run public buses in Greenville are subsidized by city tax revenues, but among the beneficiaries of the low fares are many people who commute from outside the city to jobs in Greenville. Some city councilors argue that city taxes should be used primarily to benefit the people who pay them, and therefore that bus fares should be raised enough to cover the cost of the service.
Each of the following, if true, would weaken the argument advanced by the city councilors EXCEPT:
(A) Many businesses whose presence in the city is beneficial to the city’s taxpayers would relocate outside the city if public-transit fare were more expensive.
(B) By providing commuters with economic incentives to drive to work, higher transit fares would worsen air pollution in Greenville and increase the cost of maintaining the city’s streets.
(C) Increasing transit fares would disadvantage those residents of the city whose low incomes make them exempt from city taxes, and all city councilors agree that these residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services.
(D) Voters in the city, many of whom benefit from the low transit fares, are strongly opposed to increasing local taxes.（D）
(E) People who work in Greenville and earn wages above the nationally mandated minimum all pay the city wage tax of 5 percent.
20. Government official: Clearly, censorship exists if we, as citizens, are not allowed to communicate what we are ready to communicate at our own expense or if other citizens are not permitted access to our communications at their own expense. Public unwillingness to provide funds for certain kinds of scientific, scholarly, or artistic activities cannot, therefore, be described as censorship.
The flawed reasoning in the government official’s argument is most parallel to that in which one of the following?
(A) All actions that cause unnecessary harm to others are unjust: so if a just action causes harm to others, that action must be necessary.
(B) Since there is more to good manners than simply using polite forms of address, it is not possible to say on first meeting a person whether or not that person has good manners.
(C) Acrophobia, usually defined as a morbid fear of heights, can also mean a morbid fear of sharp objects. Since both fears have the same origin.
(D) There is no doubt that a deed is heroic if the doer risks his or her own life to benefit another person. Thus an action is not heroic if only thing it endangers is the reputation of the doer.（D）
(E) Perception of beauty in an object is determined by past and present influences on the mind of the beholder. Thus on object can be called beautiful, since not everyone will see beauty in it.
21. The Japanese haiku is defined as a poem of three lines with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. English poets tend to ignore this fact. Disregarding syllable count, they generally call any three-line English poem with a “haiku feel” a haiku. This demonstrates that English poets have little respect for foreign traditions, even those from which some of their own poetry derives.
The
reasoning is flawed because it
(A) confuses matters of objective fact with matters of subjective feeling
(B) draws a conclusion that is broader in scope than is warranted by the evidence advanced
(C) relies on stereotypes instead of presenting evidence
(D) overlooks the possibility that the case it cites is not unique（B）
(E) fails to acknowledge that ignoring something implies a negative judgment about that thing
Questions 22-23
No one knows what purposes, if any, dreams serve, although there are a number of hypotheses. According to one hypothesis, dreams are produced when the brain is erasing “parasitic connections” (meaningless, accidental associations between ideas), which accumulate during the day and which would otherwise clog up our memories. Interestingly, the only mammal that does not have rapid eye movement sleep, in which we humans typically have our most vivid dreams, is the spiny anteater, which has been seen as anomalous in that it has a very large brain relative to the animal’s size. This fact provides some confirmation for the parasitic-connection hypothesis, since the hypothesis predicts that for an animal that did not dream to have an effective memory that animal would need extra memory space for the parasitic connections.
22. The parasitic-connection hypothesis, if true, most strongly supports which one of the following?
(A) The animals with the smallest brains spend the most time sleeping.
(B) Immediately after a person awakens from normal sleep, her or his memory contains virtually no accidental associations between ideas.
(C) When a mammal that would normally dream is prevented from dreaming, the functioning of its memory will be impaired.
(D) Insofar as a person’s description of a dream involves meaningful associations between ideas, it is an inaccurate description.（C）
(E) All animals other than the spiny anteater dream.
23. The reasoning in the argument most closely conforms to which one of the following principles?
(A) Facts about one species of animal can provide confirmation for hypothesis about all species that are similar in all relevant respects to the particular species in question.
(B) A hypothesis from which several predictions can be drawn as logical conclusions is confirmed only when the majority of these predictions turn out to be true.
(C) A hypothesis about the purpose of an action or object is confirmed when it is shown that the hypothesized purpose is achieved with the help of the action or object and could not be achieved without that action or object.
(D) A hypothesis is partially confirmed whenever a prediction derived from that hypothesis provides an explanation for an otherwise unexplained set of facts.（D）
(E) When several competing hypotheses exist, one of them is confirmed only when it makes a correct prediction that its rivals fail to make.
24. The body of anyone infected by virus X will, after a week, produce antibodies to fight the virus; the antibodies will increase in number for the next year or so. There is now a test that reliably indicates how many antibodies are present in a person’s body. If positive, this test can be used during the first year of infection to estimate to within a month how long that person has had the virus.
Which one
of the following conclusions is best supported by the statements above?
(A) Antibodies increase in number only until they have defeated the virus.
(B) Without the test for antibodies, there is no way of establishing whether a person has virus X.
(C) Antibodies are produced only for viral infections that cannot be fought by any other body defenses.
(D) If a person remains infected by virus X indefinitely, there is no limit to the number of antibodies that can be present in the person’s body.（E）
(E) Anyone infected by virus X will for a time fail to exhibit infection if tested by the antibody test.
25. Large inequalities in wealth always threaten the viability of true democracy, since wealth is the basis of political power, and true democracy depends on the equal distribution of political power among all citizens.
The reasoning in which one of the following arguments most closely parallels the reasoning in the argument above?
(A) Consumer culture and an emphasis on technological innovation are a dangerous combination, since together they are uncontrollable and lead to irrational excess.
(B) If Sara went to the bookstore every time her pocket was full, Sara would never have enough money to cover her living expenses, since books are her love and they are getting very expensive.
(C) It is very difficult to write a successful science fiction novel that is set in the past, since historical fiction depends on historical accuracy, whereas science fiction does not.
(D) Honesty is important in maintaining friendships. But sometimes honesty can lead to arguments, so it is difficult to predict the effect a particular honesty act will have on a friendship.（E）
(E) Repeated encroachments on one’s leisure time by a demanding job interfere with the requirements of good health. The reason is that good health depends on regular moderate exercise, but adequate leisure time is essential to regular exercise.
SECTION IV
Time 35 minutes 25 Questions
Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages...
Questions 1-2
A physician who is too thorough in conducting a medical checkup is likely to subject the patient to the discomfort and expense of unnecessary tests. One who is not thorough enough is likely to miss some serious problem and therefore give the patient a false sense of security. It is difficult for physicians to judge exactly how thorough they should be. Therefore, it is generally unwise for patients to have medical checkups when they do not feel ill.
1. Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument in the passage?
(A) Some serious diseases in their early stages have symptoms that physicians can readily detect.
(B) Under the pressure of reduced reimbursements, physicians have been reducing the average amount of time they spend on each medical checkup.
(C) Patients not medically trained are unable to judge foe themselves what degree of thoroughness is appropriate for physicians in conducting medical checkups.
(D) Many people are financially unable to afford regular medical checkups.（A）
(E) Some physicians sometimes exercise exactly the right degree of thoroughness in performing a medical checkup.
2. Which one of the following, if true, would provide the most support for the conclusion in the passage?
(A) Not all medical tests entail significant discomfort.
(B) Sometimes unnecessary medical tests cause healthy people to become ill.
(C) Some patients refuse to accept a physician’s assurance that the patient is healthy.
(D) The more complete the series of tests performed in a medical checkup, the more likely it is that a rare disease, if present, will be discovered.（B）
(E) Physicians can eliminate the need to order certain tests by carefully questioning patients and rejecting some possibilities on that basis.
3. People often pronounce a word differently when asked to read written material aloud than when speaking spontaneously. These differences may cause problems for those who develop computers that recognize speech. Usually the developers “train” the computers by using samples of written material read by the people who will be using the compute.
The
observations above provide most evidence for the conclusion that
(A) It will be impossible to develop computers that decode spontaneous speech.
(B) When reading written material, people who have different accents pronounce the same word in the same way as one another.
(C) Computers may be less reliable in decoding spontaneous speech than in decoding samples that have been read aloud.
(D) A “trained” computer never correctly decodes the spontaneous speech of a person whose voice sample was used to train it.（C）
(E) Computers are now able to interpret oral speech without error.
4. One of the requirements for admission to the Lunnville Roller Skating Club is a high degree of skill in roller skating. The club president has expressed concern that the club may have discriminated against qualified women in its admissions this year. Yet half of the applicants admitted to the club this year were women. This proves that there was no discrimination against qualified women applicants in the club’s admissions this year.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the conclusion of the argument depends?
(A) Only a few applicants were found to be qualified and were admitted to the club this year.
(B) No more than half of all the roller skaters in Lunnville are women.
(C) No more than half of all the roller skaters in Lunnville are men.
(D) This year no more than half of the applicants who met all the qualifications for admission to the club were women.（D）
(E) This year no more than half of the members of the club’s committee that makes decisions about applicants’ qualifications were men.
5. When girls are educated in single-sex secondary schools, they tend to do better academically than girls who attend mixed-sex schools. Since Alice achieved higher grades than any other woman in her first year at the university, she was probably educated at a single-sex school.
Which one of the following most closely parallels the flawed reasoning used in the argument above?
(A) When students have individual tutoring in math, they usually get good grades on their final exams. Celia had individual tutoring in math so she will probably get a good grade.
(B) When babies are taught to swim, they have more than the average number of ear infections as they grow up. Janice has more ear infections than any other person at the local swimming club, so she probably was taught to swim when she was a baby.
(C) When children study music at an early age, they later tend to appreciate a wide variety of music, so the talent of future musicians is best fostered at an early age.
(D) When children practice their piano scales for half an hour each day, they usually pass their piano exams. Sally practices scales for less than half an hour each day, so she will probably fail her piano exam.（B）
(E) When children have parents who help them with their homework, they usually do well in school. Therefore, having help with homework is probably the cause of high academic achievement.
6. In the past century, North America has shifted its main energy source first from wood to coal, then from coal to oil and natural gas. With each transition, the newly dominant fuel has had less carbon and more hydrogen than its predecessor had. It is logical to conclude that in the future the main energy source will be pure hydrogen.
Which one of the following expresses a general principle that could underlie the argument?
(A) If series of transitions from one state of a system to another state of that system is allowed to continue without interference, the initial state of the series will eventually recur.
(B) If each of two desirable attributes belongs to a useful substance, then the most useful form of that substance will have those two attributes in equal amounts.
(C) If the second stage of a process has been completed more quickly than the first stage, the third stage of that process will be completed more quickly than the second stage.
(D) If each step in a series of changes involves a decrease of one attribute of the thing undergoing the change and an increase of another, the series will terminate with the first attribute eliminated and only the second attribute present.（D）
(E) If one substance is better for a certain purpose than another substance is, then the best substance for that purpose is one that includes among its attributes all of the attributes of the first substance and none of the attributes of the second substance.
Questions 7-8
X: Since many chemicals useful for agriculture and medicine derive from rare or endangered plant species, it is likely that many plant species that are now extinct could have provide us with substances that would have been a boon to humanity. Therefore, if we want to ensure that chemicals from plants are available for use in the future, we must make more serious efforts to preserve for all time our natural resource.
Y: But living things are not our “resources.” Yours is a selfish approach to conservation. We should rather strive to preserve living species because they deserve to survive, not because of the good they can do us.
7. Which one of the following is an issue about which X and Y disagree?
(A) Whether the benefits humans derive from exploring non-human species provides a good reason for preserving non-human species.
(B) Whether the cost of preserving plant species outweighs the cost of artificially synthesizing chemicals that could otherwise be derived from those species.
(C) Whether it is prudent to conserve natural resources.
(D) Whether humans should make efforts to prevent the extinction of living species.（A）
(E) Whether all non-human species are equally valuable as natural resources.
8. X’s argument relies on which one of the following assumptions?
(A) Medicine would now be more advanced than it is if there had been a serious conservation policy in the past.
(B) All living things exist to serve humankind.
(C) The use of rare and endangered plant species as a source for chemicals will not itself render those species extinct.
(D) The only way to persuade people to preserve natural resources is to convince them that it is in their interest to do so.（C）
(E) Few, if any, plant species have been saved from extinction through human efforts.
9. There is relatively little room for growth in the overall carpet market, which is tied to the size of the population. Most who purchase carpet do so only once or twice, first in their twenties or thirties, and then perhaps again in their fifties or sixties. Thus as the population ages, companies producing carpet will be able to gain market share in the carpet market only through purchasing competitors, and not through more aggressive marketing.
Which one of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the conclusion above?
(A) Most of the major carpet producers market other floor coverings as well.
(B) Most established carpet producers market several different brand names and varieties, and there is no remaining niche in the market for new brands to fill.
(C) Two of the three mergers in the industry’s last ten years led to a decline in profits and revenues for the newly merged companies.
(D) Price reductions, achieved by cost-cutting in production, by some of the dominant firms in the carpet market are causing other producers to leave the market altogether.（D）
(E) The carpet market is unlike most markets in that consumers are becoming increasingly resistant to new patterns and styles.
10. Decision makers tend to have distinctive styles. One such style is for the decision maker to seek the widest possible input from advisers and to explore alternatives while making up his or her mind. In fact, decision makers of this sort will often argue vigorously for a particular idea, emphasizing its strong points and downplaying its weaknesses, not because they actually believe in the idea but because they want to see if their real reservations about it are idiosyncratic or are held independently by their advisers.
Which one
of the following is most strongly supported by the statement above?
(A) If certain decision makers’ statements are quoted accurately and at length; the content of the quote could nonetheless be greatly at variance with the decision eventually make.
(B) Certain decision makers do not know which ideas they do not really believe in until after they have presented a variety of ideas to their advisers.
(C) If certain decision makers dismiss an idea out of hand, it must be because its weaknesses are more pronounced than any strong points it may have.
(D) Certain decision makers proceed in a way that makes it likely that they will frequently decide in favor of ideas in which they do not believe.（A）
(E) If certain decision makers’ advisers know the actual beliefs of those they advise, those advisers will give better advice than they would if they did not know those beliefs.
Questions 11-12
The foreign minister of Zeria announced today that her country was severing diplomatic relations with Nandalo because of Nandalo’s flagrant violations of human rights. But Zeria continues to maintain diplomatic relations with many countries that the minister knows to have far worse human-rights records than Nandalo does. Therefore, despite the foreign minister’s claim, this latest diplomatic move cannot be explained exclusively by Zeria’s commitment to upholding human rights.
11. Which one of the following, if true, provides the most support for the argument in the passage?
(A) The country that currently buys most of Zeria’s exports recently suggested that it might severely restrict its imports from Zeria unless Zeria broke off Diplomatic relations with Nandalo.
(B) Two weeks after the Zerian minister’s announcement, several other countries cited human-rights violations as a reason for severing diplomatic relations with Nandalo.
(C) More countries have expressed concern over reported human-rights violations in Nandalo than have expressed concern over human-rights violations in Zeria.
(D) Nandalo has considered accusing Zeria of violating the human rights of Nandalo citizens living in Zeria.（A）
(E) The opposition party in Zeria has long advocated severing trade relations with countries that systematically violate human rights but has opposed severing diplomatic relations.
12. The argumentative structure of which one of the following most closely parallels that of the argument in the passage?
(A) Henry’s parents insist that he eat breakfast before leaving for school because not doing so would be bad for his health. But his parents themselves almost never eat breakfast, so their insistence cannot be completely explained by their concern for his health.
(B) Professor Walsh says that only typed term papers will be accepted because most handwriting is difficult to read. But since she lectures from handwritten notes, her policy cannot be exclusively explained by any difficulty she has with handwritten material.
(C) James claims that he stole only because he was hungry. But although hunger could account for stealing if food could not be readily obtained in any other way, in this case food was otherwise readily available, and so James theft cannot be completely explained by his hunger.
(D) Armand declined Helen’s invitation to dinner on the grounds that socializing with coworkers is imprudent. But since Armand went to a movie with another coworker, Maria, that same evening, his expressed concern for prudence cannot fully explain his refusal.（D）
(E) It is often asserted that there are fewer good teachers than there used to be because teachers’ salaries have reached a new low. But teachers have always been poorly paid, so low salaries cannot fully explain this perceived decline in the effectiveness of teachers.
13. Few politicians will support legislation that conflicts with their own self-interest. A case in point is August Frenson, who throughout his eight terms in office consistently opposed measures limiting the advantage incumbents enjoy over their challengers. Therefore, if such measures are to be enacted, they must result from direct popular vote rather from legislative action.
The case of August Frenson plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
(A) It provides evidence, the falsity of which would guarantee the falsity of the author’s conclusion.
(B) It is cited as an example illustrating the generalization that is invoked.
(C) It gives essential background information concerning a measure being advocated.
(D) It demonstrates the extent to which incumbents have the advantage over challengers.（B）
(E) It gives an example of the limits of direct popular vote.
14. In a learning experiment a researcher ran rats through a maze. Some of the rats were blind, others deaf, others lacked a sense of smell, and others had no sensory deficiencies: yet all the rats learned the task in much the same amount of time. Of the senses other than sight, hearing, and smell, only kinesthesia had not previously been shown to be irrelevant to maze-learning. The researcher concluded on the basis of these facts that kinesthesia, the sensation of bodily movement, is sufficient for maze-learning.
The researcher’s reasoning is most vulnerable to which one of the following criticisms?
(A) The small differences in proficiency found by the researcher did not appear to fall into a systematic pattern by group.
(B) The possibility that the interaction of kinesthesia with at least one other sense is required for maze-learning cannot be ruled out on the basis of the data above.
(C) It can be determined from the data that rats who are deprived of one of their sources of sensory stimulation become more reliant on kinesthesia than they had been, but the data do not indicate how such a transference takes place.
(D) It can be determined from the data that rats can learn to run mazes by depending on kinesthesia alone, but the possibility that rats respond to non-kinesthetic stimulation is not ruled out.（B）
(E) It can be determined from the data that maze-learning in rats depends on at least two sources of sensory stimulation, one of which is kinesthesia, but which of the remaining sources must also be employed is not determinable.
15. New legislation would require a seven-day waiting period in the sale of handguns to private individuals, in order that records of prisons could be checked and the sale of handguns to people likely to hurt other people thereby prevented. People opposed to this legislation claim that prison records are so full of errors that the proposed law would prevent as many law-abiding citizens as criminals from having access to handguns.
If the claim made by people opposed to the new legislation is true, which one of the following is a principle that, if established, would do the most to justify opposition to the new legislation on the basis of that claim?
(A) The rights of law-abiding citizens are more worthy of protection than are the rights of criminals.
(B) Nothing should be done to restrict potential criminals at the cost of placing restrictions on law-abiding citizens.
(C) Legislation should not be enacted if no benefit could accrue to society as a result of that legislation.
(D) No restrictions should be placed on the sale of merchandise unless sale of that merchandise could endanger innocent people.（B）
(E) Even citizens who are neither fugitives nor felons should not be permitted to own a handgun unless they have received adequate training.
Questions 16-17
The Gulches is an area of volcanic rock that is gashed by many channels that lead downhill from the site of a prehistoric glacier to a river. The channels clearly were cut by running water. It was once accepted as fact that the cutting occurred gradually, as the glacier melted. But one geologist theorized that the channels were cut in a short time by an enormous flood. The channels do show physical evidence of having been formed quickly, but the flood theory was originally rejected because scientists knew of no natural process that could melt so much ice so quickly. Paradoxically, today the scientific community accepts the flood theory even though scientists still do not know of a process that can melt so much ice so quickly.
16. Which one of the following is supported by the information in the passage?
(A) Only running water can cause deep channels in volcanic rock.
(B) The river did not exist before the channels were cut.
(C) Geologists cannot determine the amount of heat required to melt a glacier quickly.
(D) The physical effects of water on rock vary with the speed with which those effects are produced.（D）
(E) Geologists are compelled to reject physical evidence when it leads to an unexplainable conclusion.
17. Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent paradox in the passage?
(A) Ripples, which indicate that the channels were cut by water, have been discovered in the floors of the channels.
(B) The Gulches is known to be similar in certain respects to many other volcanic rock formations.
(C) More than one glacier was present in the area during prehistoric times.
(D) Volcanic rock is more easily cut by water than are other forms of rock.（E）
(E) Scientists now believe that the prehistoric glacier dammed a source of water, created a huge lake in the process, and then retreated.
18. Advertisement: Attention pond owners! Ninety-eight percent of mosquito larvae in a pond die within minutes after the pond has been treated with BTI. Yet BTI is not toxic to fish, birds, animals, plants, or beneficial insects. So by using BTI regularly to destroy their larvae, you can greatly reduce populations of pesky mosquitoes that hatch in your pond, and you can do so without diminishing the populations of fish, frogs, or beneficial insects in and around the pond.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
(A) The most effective way to control the numbers of mosquitoes in a given area is to destroy the mosquito larvae in that area.
(B) Populations of mosquitoes are not dependent on a single body of water within an area as a place for their larvae to hatch and develop.
(C) There are no insect pests besides mosquitoes that pond owners might want to eliminate from in and around their pond.
(D) The effectiveness of BTI in destroying mosquito larvae in a pond does not require the pond owner’s strict adherence to specific application procedures.（E）
(E) The fish, frogs, and beneficial insects in and around a pond-owner’s pond do not depend on mosquito larvae as an important source of food.
19. Many people change their wills on their own every few years, in response to significant changes in their personal or financial circumstances. This practice can create a problem for the executor when these people are careless and do not date their wills: the executor will then often know neither which one of several undated wills is the most recent, nor whether the will drawn up last has ever been found. Therefore, people should not only date their wills but also state in any new will which will it supersedes, for then there would not be a problem to begin with.
The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
(A) treats a partial solution to the stated problem as though it were a complete solution
(B) fails to distinguish between prevention of a problem and successful containment of the adverse effects that the problem might cause
(C) proposes a solution to the stated problem that does not actually solve the problem but merely makes someone else responsible for solving the problem
(D) claims that a certain action would be a change for the better without explicitly considering what negative consequences the action might have（A）
(E) proposes that a certain action be based on information that would be unavailable at the time proposed for that action
20. Some flowering plant species, entirely dependent on bees for pollination, lure their pollinators with abundant nectar and pollen, which are the only source of food for bees. Often the pollinating species is so highly adapted that it can feed from—and thus pollinate—only a single species of plant. Similarly, some plant species have evolved flowers that only a single species of bee can pollinate—an arrangement that places the plant species at great risk of extinction. If careless applications of pesticides destroy the pollinating bee species, the plant species itself can no longer reproduce.
The information above, if true, most strongly supports which one of the following?
(A) The earliest species of flowering plants appeared on Earth contemporaneously with the earliest bee species.
(B) If the sole pollinator of a certain plant species is in no danger of extinction, the plant species it pollinates is also unlikely to become extinct.
(C) Some bees are able to gather pollen and nectar from any species of plant.
(D) The blossoms of most species of flowering plants attract some species of bees and do not attract others.（E）
(E) The total destruction of the habitat of some plant species could cause some bee species to become extinct.
21. The proper way to plan a scientific project is first to decide its goal and then to plan the best way to accomplish that goal. The United States space station project does not conform to this ideal. When the Cold War ended, the project lost its original purpose, so another purpose was quickly grafted onto the project, that of conducting limited-gravity experiments, even though such experiments can be done in an alternative way. It is, therefore, abundantly clear that the space station should not be built.
The
reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
(A) attacks the proponents of a claim rather than arguing against the claim itself
(B) presupposes what it sets out to prove
(C) faults planners for not foreseeing a certain event, when in fact that event was not foreseeable
(D) contains statements that lead to a self-contradiction（E）
(E) concludes that a shortcoming is fatal, having produced evidence only of the existence of that shortcoming
22. Only an expert in some branch of psychology could understand why Patrick is behaving irrationally. But no expert is certain of being able to solve someone else’s problem. Patrick wants to devise a solution to his own behavioral problem.
Which one of the following conclusions can be validly drawn from the passage?
(A) Patrick does not understand why he is behaving in this way.
(B) Patrick is not an expert in psychology.
(C) Patrick is not certain of being able to devise a solution to his own behavioral problem.
(D) Unless Charles is an expert in some branch of psychology, Charles should not offer a solution to Patrick’s behavioral problem.（E）
(E) If Charles is certain of being able to solve Patrick’s behavioral problem, then Charles does not understand why Patrick is behaving in this way.
23. Throughout European history famines have generally been followed by period of rising wages, because when a labor force is diminished, workers are more valuable in accordance with the law of supply and demand. The Irish potato famine of the 1840s is an exception; it resulted in the death or emigration of half of Ireland’s population, but there was no significant rise in the average wages in Ireland in the following decade.
Which one of the following, if true, would LEAST contribute to an explanation of the exception to the generalization?
(A) Improved medical care reduced the mortality rate among able-bodied adults in the decade following the famine to below prefamine levels.
(B) Eviction policies of the landowners in Ireland were designed to force emigration of the elderly and infirm, who could not work, and to retain a high percentage of able-bodied workers.
(C) Advances in technology increased the efficiency of industry and agriculture, and so allowed maintenance of economic output with less demand for labor.
(D) The birth rate increased during the decade following the famine, and this compensated for much of the loss of population that was due to the famine.（D）
(E) England, which had political control of Ireland, legislated artificially low wages to provide English-owned industry and agriculture in Ireland with cheap labor.
24. When the rate of inflation exceeds the rate of return on the most profitable investment available, the difference between those two rates will be the percentage by which, at a minimum, the value of any investment will decline. If in such a circumstance the value of a particular investment declines by more than that percentage. It must be true that______
Which one of the following logically completes the argument?
(A) the rate of inflation has risen
(B) the investment in question is becoming less profitable
(C) the investment in question is less profitable than the most profitable investment available
(D) the rate of return on the most profitable investment available has declined（C）
(E) there has been a change in which particular investment happens to be the most profitable available
25. Philosopher: The eighteenth-century thesis that motion is absolute asserts that the change in an object’s position over time could be measured without reference to the position of any other object. A well-respected physicist, however, claims that this thesis is incoherent. Since a thesis that is incoherent cannot be accepted as a description of reality, motion cannot be absolute.
The argument uses which one of the following argumentative techniques?
(A) attempting to persuade by the mere use of technical terminology
(B) using experimental results to justify a change in definition
(C) relying on the authority of an expert to support a premise
(D) inferring from what has been observed to be the case under experimental conditions to what is in principle true（C）
(E) generalizing from what is true in one region of space to what must be true in all regions of space
TEST 11
SECTION I
|
1. B |
2. E |
3. E |
4. D |
5. B |
|
6. C |
7. A |
8. E |
9. D |
10. E |
|
11. C |
12. B |
13. B |
14. E |
15. A |
|
16. E |
17. B |
18. E |
19. D |
20. D |
|
21. B |
22. C |
23. D |
24. E |
25. E |
SECTION IV
|
1. A |
2. B |
3. C |
4. D |
5. B |
|
6. D |
7. A |
8. C |
9. D |
10. A |
|
11. A |
12. D |
13. B |
14. B |
15. B |
|
16. D |
17. E |
18. E |
19. A |
20. E |
|
21. E |
22. E |
23. D |
24. C |
25. C |
Where's My Stuff? |
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