1. Two groups of laboratory mice were injected with cancerous cells. One group’s cages were rotated in a disorienting manner. Two-thirds of these mice developed cancers. One-tenth of the mice in stationary cages developed cancers. The researchers concluded that stress enhances the development of cancer in laboratory mice.
The researchers’ conclusion logically depends on which of the following assumptions?
(A) Rotating the cages in disorienting manner produced stress in the mice in those cages.
(B) The injections given to the two groups of mice were not of equal strength.
(C) Injecting the mice with cancerous cells caused stress in the mice.
(D) Even without the injections the mice in the rotated cages would have developed cancers.
(E) Even the rotation of cages in a manner that is not disorienting is likely to produce stress in mice in those cages.
2. In 1846 about 80 percent of the towns in New York State banned the sale of alcoholic beverages. A recent article about the bans concludes that mid-nineteenth-century supporters of the temperance movement were not residents of remote rural areas, as has often been asserted; rather, they were concentrated in centers of economic opportunity.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the conclusion reached in the article?
(A) After 1846 the temperance movement grew rapidly and it flourished until the turn of the century.
(B) Support for the ban on alcohol was strongest in New York towns where the economy was based on new, growing industries.
(C) Many young New York State farmers supported the ban on alcohol.
(D) The most adamant opponents of the ban included several affluent factory and mill owners.
(E) In New York City, which was a commercial center in 1846, the sale of alcoholic beverages was not banned.
3. In 1984 Exco, which sells it s products only through mail-order catalogs, began distributing its catalog to people who had never purchased Exco’s products, while it continued to distribute the catalog to previous customers. Total dollar sales increased in 1984, but Exco’s profits that year were smaller than in 1983.
Which of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of Exco’s smaller profits in 1984, as compared to 1983?
(A) There was a two percent increase in 1984 in the sales tax that consumers had to pay on all purchases from the catalog.
(B) A greater number of catalogs were sent to previous customers than to people who never purchased products from Exco.
(C) In 1984 Exco’s product-manufacturing costs increased by a smaller amount than the products’ selling prices increased.
(D) Customers who never previously purchased products from Exco purchased, on the average, fewer products in 1984 than did previous customers.
(E) The increase between 1983 and 1984 in the cost of mailing the catalogs was greater than the increase in sales from 1983 to 1984.
4. People living in the undeveloped wilderness area want jobs, and commercial development of the area will create jobs. But if the new commercial development plan is carried out, the wilderness will suffer. Thus the board considering the area’s future must choose between the preservation of the wilderness and the wishes of the local people.
The answer to which of the following questions would be LEAST relevant to evaluating whether the board indeed faces the choice the author says it faces?
(A) Could commercial development be carried out under an alternative plan without damaging the wilderness?
(B) Would commercial development of the wilderness area significantly benefit people living elsewhere?
(C) Would the jobs created by the new development plan be filled by the local people?
(D) Do local people support or oppose commercial development of the wilderness area?
(E) Can job be provided without commercial development of the wilderness area?
Questions 5-6 are based on the following.
The lobbyists argued that because there is no statistical evidence that breathing other people’s tobacco smoke increases the incidence of heart disease or lung cancer in healthy nonsmokers, legislation banning smoking in workplaces cannot be justified on health grounds.
5. The argument reported above would be most seriously weakened if it were true that
(A) Breathing smoke-filled air increase the incidence of headaches and coughs in healthy nonsmokers.
(B) Most nonsmokers dislike the odor of smoke-filled air.
(C) Smoke-filled air is a major source of the dirt that damages computers and other sensitive equipment.
(D) Most workers would prefer to have smoking banned in workplaces.
(E) Legislation banning smoking in workplaces decreases friction between smoking and nonsmoking workers and is easy to enforce.
6. Of the following, which is the best criticism of the argument reported above?
(A) It ignores causes of lung cancer other than smoking.
(B) It neglects the damaging effects of smoke-filled air on nonsmokers who are not healthy.
(C) It fails to mention the roles played by diet, exercise, and heredity in the development of heart disease.
(D) It does not consider the possibility that nonsmokers who breathe smoke-filled air at work may become more concerned about their health.
(E) It does not acknowledge that nonsmokers, even those who breathe smoke-filled air at work, are in general healthier than smokers.
7. Which of the following best completes the passage below?
When a project is failing and should be terminated, plan to bring in a new manager. New managers are more likely to terminate the project than are the original managers because______
(A) the project may have failed for reasons that the original manager could not have foreseen
(B) organizations tend to reward managers who can overcome problems
(C) managerial decisions to terminate a project should depend on the likelihood of the project’s eventual success
(D) the original managers were not necessarily able to overcome problems caused by external events over which they had no control
(E) the new managers have no need to justify the earlier decision to maintain the project
8. State X’s income-averaging law allows a portion of one’s income to be taxed at lower rate than the rate based on one’s total taxable income. To use income averaging, the taxpayer must have earned taxable income for a particular year that exceeds 140 percent of his or her average taxable income for the previous three years. People using income averaging owe less tax for that year than they would without income averaging.
Which of the following individuals would be most seriously affected if income averaging were not permitted in computing the taxes owed for current year?
(A) Individuals whose income has steadily decreased for the past three years
(B) Individuals whose income increased by 50 percent four years ago and has remained the same since then
(C) Individuals whose income has doubled this year after remaining about the same for five years
(D) Individuals who had no income this year, but did in each of the previous three years
(E) Individuals who are retired and whose income has remained about the same for the past ten years
9. According to a recent study, fifteen corporations in the United States that follow a credo of social responsibility are also very profitable. Because of their credos, these fifteen corporations give generously to charity, follow stringent environmental-protection policies, and have vigorous affirmative-action programs.
Which of the following can be correctly inferred from the statements above?
(A) Following a credo of social responsibility helps to make a corporation very profitable.
(B) It is possible for a corporation that follows a credo of social responsibility to be very profitable.
(C) A corporation that gives generously to charity must be doing so because of its credo of social responsibility.
(D) Corporations that are very profitable tend to give generously to charity.
(E) Corporations that have vigorous affirmative-action programs also tend to follow stringent environmental-protection policies.
10. A year after the start an experiment to decrease crime in two high-crime subway stations by the installation of closed-circuit televisions, the experiment is being discontinued, city officials say the program has led to an increase in crime, citing the fact that following the installation, both stations showed increases in the number of crimes reported.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the claim of the city officials that the program has led to an increase in crime?
(A) The two subway stations had been chosen on the basis subway stations was higher than that of other high-crime subway stations not equipped with closed-circuit-television.
(B) The rate of increase in crimes reported for two subway stations was higher than that of other high-crime subway stations not equipped with closed-circuit television.
(C) The percentage of all crimes committed at the two subway stations that were reported rose as a result of increased instances of observations of crime on the closed-circuit televisions.
(D) The year in which the experiment was conducted was a year in which the total number of crimes reported in the city fell.
(E) Closed-circuit televisions installed in shops and stores throughout the city have proved to be useful in the prevention of shoplifting and burglaries.
11. A government agency that reimburses its clients for bills they have paid for medical care has had this year’s budget cut. To save money without cutting reimbursements or otherwise harming clients financially, it plans to delay reimbursements to clients for forty days, thereby earning $180 million per year in interest on the reimbursement money.
Which of the following, if true, is the best criticism of the agency’s plan?
(A) Hospitals and physicians typically hold patients responsible for the ultimate payment of their bills.
(B) The agency cannot save money by cutting staff because it is already understaffed.
(C) Some clients borrow money to pay their medical bills; they will pay forty extra days of interest on these loans.
(D) Some clients pay their medical bills immediately, but they often take more than forty days to file with the agency for reimbursement.
(E) The agency’s budget was cut by more than $180 million last year.
Questions 12-13 are based on the following.
Record companies defend their substitution of laser-read compact discs (CD’s) for the much less expensive traditional long-playing vinyl records in their catalogs by claiming that the audio market is ruled by consumer demand for ever-improved sound reproduction rather than by record manufacturers’ profit-motivated marketing decisions. But this claim cannot be true, because if it were true, then digital audiotape, which produces even better sound than CD’s, would be commercially available from these same record companies, but it is not.
12. Which of the following, if true, best explains how the record companies’ claim about the nature of the audio reproduction market could be true and digital audiotape nevertheless be unavailable for the commercial market?
(A) Most consumers prefer audiotape to long-playing records or CD’s because of the tape’s durability and compactness.
(B) Prototypes of digital audiotape have been used to make master tapes of some performances in recording studios.
(C) The manufacturing technology that underlies the commercial production of CD’s requires equipment very similar to that needed for commercial production of digital audiotape.
(D) Record companies have not yet solved several quality-control problems that have beset attempts to produce digital audiotape in commercial quantities.
(E) CD’s are more expensive than long-playing vinyl records by about the same ratio as digital audiotape cassettes would be more expensive than conventional cassettes.
13. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument against the record companies’ claim?
(A) When CD’s were first introduced in the audio-reproduction market, prices were high and selection was poor.
(B) Record companies are reluctant to attempt commercial production of digital audiotape until profits from the sales of CD’s have enabled them to recover their investments in compact-disc manufacturing technology.
(C) Some CD’s have been so much in demand that consumers have experienced long delays in obtaining copies.
(D) Because CD’s work according to principles very different from those that govern conventional recordings, commercial production of CD’s requires new kinds of manufacturing technology.
(E) Any valid comparison of CD audio reproductions to digital audiotape reproductions must be based on identical performances played back on the highest quality disc or tape player.
14. The president of a consulting firm analyzed the decisions made about marketing by her clients and concluded that the decisions were correct only about half of the time.
The conclusion above depends on the presupposition that
(A) companies can be successful even when about half of the decisions they make about marketing prove to be wrong
(B) companies hiring her consulting firm make no more incorrect marketing decisions than do companies in general
(C) executives consistently making correct marketing decisions rarely enlist the aid of a consulting firm
(D) marketing decision are just as likely to be correct as they are to be incorrect
(E) it is possible to classify a marketing decision properly as being either right or wrong
15. It is true that unionized women earn, on average, more than a third more than nonunionized women do. But the unionized women work in industries where wages happen to be high, their nonunionized counterparts in these industries earn about as much as they do. Therefore unionization does not raise women’s wages.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) Besides wage increases, unions bargain for benefits such as medical insurance and workplace safety.
(B) The most highly paid women are in executive positions, which are not unionized.
(C) Wages in many industries vary from one part of the country to another, regardless of whether workers are unionized or not.
(D) Nonunionized women in an industry often receive income increases as a result of increases won by unions representing women who work for other employers in the same industry.
(E) The unionization of women who work for one employer in a given industry frequently prompts the unionization of women who work for other employers in the same industry.
16. A violin constructed to have improved sound would sound different from the best-sounding existing violins.
To professional violinists, a violin that sounds different from the best-sounding existing violins sounds less like a violin and therefore worse than the best-sounding existing violins.
Professional violinists are the only accepted judges of the sound quality of violins.
Would be the best supported by those statements?
(A) Only amateur violinists should be asked to judge the sound quality of newly constructed violins.
(B) Professional violinists supervise the construction of violins.
(C) The best-sounding existing violins have been in existence fro several centuries.
(D) It is currently impossible to construct a violin that the only accepted judges will evaluate as having improved sound.
(E) It is possible to construct a violin that sounds better than the best-sounding existing violins to everyone but professional violinists.
17. The fact that several of the largest senior citizens’ organizations are constituted almost exclusively of middle-class elderly people has led critics to question the seriousness of those organizations’ commitment to speaking out on behalf of the needs of economically disadvantaged elderly people.
Which of the following generalizations, if true, would help to substantiate the criticism implicit in the statement above?
(A) The ideology of an organization tends reflect the traditional political climate of its locale.
(B) The needs of disadvantaged elderly people differ in some ways from those of other disadvantaged groups within contemporary society.
(C) Organized groups are better able to publicize their problems and seek redress than individuals acting alone.
(D) Middle-class elderly people are more likely to join organizations than are economically disadvantaged elderly people.
(E) People usually join organizations whose purpose is to further the economic, political, or social interests of their members.
18. Corporate Officer: Last year was an unusually poor one for our chemical division, which has traditionally contributed about 60 percent of the corporation’s profits. It is therefore encouraging that there is the following evidence that the pharmaceutical division is growing stronger: it contributed 45 percent of the corporation’s profits, up from 20 percent the previous year.
On the basis of the facts stated, which of the following is the best critique of the evidence presented above?
(A) The increase in the pharmaceutical division’s contribution to corporation profits could have resulted largely from the introduction of single, important new product.
(B) In multidivisional corporations that have pharmaceutical divisions, over half of the corporation’s profits usually come from the pharmaceuticals.
(C) The percentage of the corporation’s profits attributable to the pharmaceutical division could have increased even if that division’s performance had not improved.
(D) The information cited does not make it possible to determine whether the 20 percent share of profits cited was itself an improvement over the year before.
(E) The information cited does not make it possible to compare the performance of the chemical and pharmaceutical divisions in of the percent of total profits attributable to each.
19. Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment outweighs heredity in personality development, twins raised together should presumably have more similar personalities than those raised apart. A recent study of identical twins in both situations measured 11 key traits through a questionnaire, and concluded that 7 of the 11 are primarily products of heredity.
Which of the following, if established, would cast the most doubt on the study’s results?
(A) Fewer than half of the pairs of twins studied were raised separately.
(B) The ages of all of the twins studied fell within a 10-year range.
(C) Some of the traits that the study attributed to heredity developed in the separately raised twins because those pairs all grew up in similar families.
(D) Although over half the traits measured were determined to be linked to heredity, the nature of those traits varied widely.
(E) The 11 traits that were measured constitute a representative sample of larger, generally accepted pool of key personality traits.
20. When people predict that certain result will not take place unless a certain action is taken, they believe that they have learned that the prediction is correct when the action is taken and the result occurs. On reflection, however, it often becomes clear that the result admits of more than one interpretation.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the claims above?
(A) Judging the success of an action requires specifying the goal of the action.
(B) Judging which action to take after a prediction is made requires knowing about other actions that have been successful in similar past situations.
(C) Learning whether a certain predictive strategy is good requires knowing the result using that strategy through several trials.
(D) Distinguishing a correct prediction and effective action from an incorrect prediction and ineffective action is often impossible.
(E) Making a successful prediction requires knowing the facts about the context of that prediction.
