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LSAT corrections

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Quiz on LSAT corrections, created by Aly Lim on 27/07/2016.
Aly Lim
Quiz by Aly Lim, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Aly Lim over 8 years ago
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Question 1

Question
How do the airlines expect to prevent commercial plane crashes? Studies have shown that pilot error contributes to two-thirds of all such crashes. To address this problem, the airlines have upgraded their training programs by increasing the hours of classroom instruction and emphasizing communication skills in the cockpit. But it is unrealistic to expect such measures to compensate for pilots’ lack of actual flying time. Therefore, the airlines should rethink their training approach to reducing commercial crashes. Which one of the following is an assumption upon which the argument depends?
Answer
  • Training programs can eliminate pilot errors.
  • Commercial pilots routinely undergo additional training throughout their careers.
  • The number of airline crashes will decrease if pilot training programs focus on increasing actual flying time.
  • Lack of actual flying time is an important contributor to pilot error in commercial plane crashes.
  • Communication skills are not important to pilot training programs.

Question 2

Question
Rhizobium bacteria living in the roots of bean plants or other legumes produce fixed nitrogen which is one of the essential plant nutrients and which for non-legume crops, such as wheat, normally must be supplied by applications of nitrogen-based fertilizer. So if biotechnology succeeds in producing wheat strains whose roots will play host to Rhizobium bacteria, the need for artificial fertilizers will be reduced. The argument above makes which one of the following assumptions?
Answer
  • Biotechnology should be directed toward producing plants that do not require artificial fertilizer.
  • Fixed nitrogen is currently the only soil nutrient that must be supplied by artificial fertilizer for growing wheat crops.
  • There are no naturally occurring strains of wheat or other grasses that have Rhizobium bacteria living in their roots.
  • Legumes are currently the only crops that produce their own supply of fixed nitrogen.
  • Rhizobium bacteria living in the roots of wheat would produce fixed nitrogen.

Question 3

Question
Fire ants from Brazil now infest the southern united States. Unlike queen fire ants in Brazil, two queens in the United States share a nest. Ants from these nests are more aggressive than those from single-queen nests. By destroying virtually all insects in the nest area, these aggressive ants gain sole access to food sources, and the ant population skyrockets. Since certain predator insects in Brazil limit the fire-ant population there, importing such predator insects into the United States would be of overall benefit to the environment by stopping the increase of the fire-ant population in the United States. Each of the following is an assumption made in the argument EXCEPT:
Answer
  • The imported insects would not prove more damaging to the environment in the United States than are the fire ants themselves.
  • The predator insects from Brazil could survive in the ecological environment found in the United States.
  • The especially aggressive fire ants from the two-queen nests would not be able to destroy the Brazilian predator insects.
  • The predator insects would stop the increase of the ant population before the ants spread to states that are farther north.
  • The rate of increase of the fire-ant population would not exceed the rate at which the predator insects could kill the ants.

Question 4

Question
Twenty years ago the Republic of Rosinia produced nearly 100 million tons of potatoes, but last year the harvest barely reached 60 million tons. Agricultural researchers, who have failed to develop new higher yielding strains of potatoes, are to blame for this decrease, since they have been concerned only with their own research and not with the needs of Rosinia. Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Answer
  • Any current attempts by agricultural researchers to develop higher-yielding potato strains are futile.
  • Strains of potatoes most commonly grown in Rosinia could not have produced the yields last year that they once did.
  • Agricultural researchers often find concrete solutions to practical problems when investigating seemingly unrelated questions.
  • Wide fluctuations in the size of the potato crop over a twenty-year period are not unusual.
  • Agricultural research in Rosinia is funded by government grants.

Question 5

Question
The government provides insurance for individuals' bank deposits, but requires the banks to pay the premiums for the insurance. Since it is depositors who primarily benefit from the security this insurance provides, the government should take steps to ensure that depositors who want this security bear the cost of it and thus should make depositors pay the premiums for insuring their own accounts. Which of the following is assumed by the argument?
Answer
  • Banks are not insured by the government against default on the loans the banks make.
  • Private insurance companies do not have the resources to provide banks or individual with deposit insurance.
  • Banks do not always cover the cost of the deposit-insurance premiums by paying depositors lower interest rates on insured deposits than the banks would on uninsured deposits.
  • The government limits the insurance protection it provides by insuring accounts up to a certain legally defined amount only.
  • The government does not allow banks to offer some kinds of accounts in which deposits are not insured.

Question 6

Question
One sure way you can tell how quickly a new idea—for example, the idea of “privatization”—is taking hold among the population is to monitor how fast the word or words expressing that particular idea are passing into common usage. Professional opinions of whether or not words can indeed be said to have passed into common usage are available from dictionary editors, who are vitally concerned with this question. The method described above for determining how quickly a new idea is taking hold relies on which one of the following assumptions?
Answer
  • Dictionary editors are not professionally interested in words that are only rarely used.
  • Dictionary editors have exact numerical criteria for telling when a word has passed into common usage.
  • For a new idea to take hold, dictionary editors have to include the relevant word or words in their dictionaries.
  • As a word passes into common usages, its meaning does not undergo any severe distortions in the process.
  • Words denoting new ideas tend to be used before the ideas denoted are understood.

Question 7

Question
The dean of computing must be respected by the academic staff and be competent to oversee the use of computers on campus. The only deans whom academics respect are those who hold doctoral degrees, and only someone who really knows about computers can competently oversee the use of computers on campus. Furthermore, the board of trustees has decided that the dean of computing must be selected from among this university's staff. Therefore, the dean of computing must be a professor from this university's computer science department. Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Answer
  • Academics respect only people who hold doctoral degrees.
  • All of this university's professors have obtained doctoral degrees.
  • At this university, every professor who holds a doctoral degree in computer science really knows about computers.
  • All academics who hold doctoral degrees are respected by their academic colleagues.
  • Among this university's staff members with doctoral degrees, only those in the computer science department really know about computers.

Question 8

Question
A university should not be entitled to patent the inventions of its faculty members. Universities, as guarantors of intellectual freedom, should encourage the free flow of ideas and the general dissemination of knowledge. Yet a university that retains the right to patent the inventions of its faculty members has a motive to suppress information about a potentially valuable discovery until the patent for it has been secured. Clearly, suppressing information concerning such discoveries is incompatible with the university's obligation to promote the free flow of ideas. Which one of the following is an assumption that the argument makes?
Answer
  • Universities are the only institutions that have an obligation to guarantee intellectual freedom.
  • Most inventions by university faculty members would be profitable if patented.
  • Publication of reports on research is the only practical way to disseminate information concerning new discoveries.
  • Universities have a motive to suppress information concerning discoveries by their faculty members will occasionally act on that motive.
  • If the inventions of the university faculty member are not patented by that university, then they will be patented by the faculty member instead.

Question 9

Question
Medical research findings are customarily not made public prior to their publication in a medical journal that has had them reviewed by a panel of experts in a process called peer review. It is claimed that this practice delays public access to potentially beneficial information that, in extreme instances, could save lives. Yet prepublication peer review is the only way to prevent erroneous and therefore potentially harmful information from reaching a public that is ill equipped to evaluate medical claims on its own. Therefore, waiting until a medical journal has published the research findings that have passed peer review is the price that must be paid to protect the public from making decisions based on possibly substandard research. The argument assumes that:
Answer
  • unless medical research findings are brought to peer review by a medical journal, peer review will not occur
  • anyone who does not serve on medical review panel does not have the necessary knowledge and expertise to evaluate medical research finding
  • the general public does not have access to the medical journals in which research findings are published
  • all medical research findings are subjected to prepublication peer review
  • peer review panels are sometimes subject to political and professional pressures that can make their judgments less than impartial

Question 10

Question
Marcus: For most ethical dilemmas the journalist is likely to face, traditional journalistic ethics is clear, adequate, and essentially correct. For example, when journalists have uncovered newsworthy information, they should go to press with it as soon as possible. No delay motivated by the journalists’ personal or professional interests is permissible. Anita: Well, Marcus, of course interesting and important information should be brought before the public—that is a journalist’s job. But in the typical case, where a journalist has some information but is in a quandary about whether it is yet important or “newsworthy,” this guidance is inadequate. In order to conclude properly from Anita’s statements that Marcus’ general claim about traditional journalistic ethics is incorrect, it would have to be assumed that:
Answer
  • whether a piece of information is or is not newsworthy can raise ethical dilemmas for journalists
  • there are circumstances in which it would be ethically wrong for a journalist to go to press with legitimately acquired, newsworthy information
  • the most serious professional dilemmas that a journalist is likely to face are not ethical dilemmas
  • there are no ethical dilemmas that a journalist is likely to face that would not be conclusively resolved by an adequate system of journalistic ethics
  • For a system of journalistic ethics to be adequate it must be able to provide guidance in every case in which a journalist must make a professional decision

Question 11

Question
The format of network television news programs generally allows advocates of a point of view only 30 seconds to convey their message. Consequently, regular watchers become accustomed to thinking of issues in terms only of slogans and catch phrases, and so the expectation of careful discussion of public issues gradually disappears from their awareness. The format of newspaper stories, on the other hand, leads readers to pursue details of stories headed by the most important facts and so has the opposite effect on regular readers—that of maintaining the expectation of careful discussion of public issues. Therefore, in contrast to regular newspaper reading, regular watching of network television news programs increases the tendency to think of public issues in oversimplified terms. The argument assumes which one of the following?
Answer
  • Viewers of network television news programs would be interested in seeing advocates of opposing views present their positions at length.
  • Since it is not possible to present striking images that would symbolize events for viewers, and since images hold sway over words in television, television must oversimplify.
  • It is not possible for television to present public issues in a way that allows for the nuanced presentation of diverse views and a good-faith interchange between advocates of opposing views.
  • In network television news reports, it is not usual for a reporter to offer additional factual evidence and background information to develop a story in which opposing views are presented briefly by their advocates.
  • Television news reporters introduce more of their own biases into news stories than do newspaper reporters.

Question 12

Question
Stage performances are judged to be realistic to the degree that actors reproduce on stage the behaviors generally associated by audiences with the emotional states of the characters portrayed. Traditional actors imitate those behaviors, whereas Method actors, through recollection of personal experience, actually experience the same emotions that their characters are meant to be experiencing. Audiences will therefore judge the performances of Method actors to be more realistic than the performances of traditional actors. Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Answer
  • Performances based on an actors own experience of emotional states are more likely to affect an audience's emotions than are performances based on imitations of the behaviors generally associated with those emotional states.
  • The behavior that results when a Method actor tells a certain emotion will conform to the behavior that is generally associated by audiences with that emotion.
  • Realism is an essential criterion for evaluating the performances of both traditional actors and Method actors.
  • Traditional actors do not aim to produce performances that are realistic representations of a characters emotional states.
  • In order to portray a character, a Method actor need not have had experiences identical to those of the character portrayed.

Question 13

Question
“Addiction” has been defined as “dependence on and abuse of a psychoactive substance.” Dependence and abuse do not always go hand in hand, however. For example, cancer patients can become dependent on morphine to relieve their pain, but this is not abusing the drug. Correspondingly, a person can abuse a drug without being dependent on it. Therefore, the definition of “addiction” is incorrect. The relevance of the example of cancer patients to the argument depends on the assumption that
Answer
  • cancer patients never abuse morphine
  • cancer patients often become dependent on morphine
  • cancer patients who are dependent on morphine are addicted to it
  • cancer patients who abuse a drug are dependent on it
  • cancer patients cannot depend on morphine without abusing it

Question 14

Question
When permits for the discharge of chemicals into a waterway are issued, they are issued in terms of the number of pounds each chemical that can be discharged into the waterway per day. These figures, calculated separately for each chemical for which a permit is issued, are based on an estimate of the effect of the dilution of the chemical by the amount of water flowing through the waterway. The waterway is therefore protected against being adversely affected by chemicals discharged under the permits. The argument depends on the assumption that
Answer
  • relatively harmless chemicals do not interact with each other in the water to form harmful compounds
  • there is a swift flow of water in the waterway that ensures rapid dispersion of chemicals discharged
  • there are no chemicals for which discharge into waterways is entirely prohibited
  • those who receive the permits do not always discharge the entire quantity of chemicals that the permits allow
  • the danger of chemical pollution of waterways is to be evaluated in terms of human health only and not in terms of the health of both human beings and wildlife

Question 15

Question
Cafeteria patron: The apples sold in this cafeteria are greasy. The cashier told me that the apples are in that condition when they are delivered to the cafeteria and that the cafeteria does not wash the apples it sells. Most fruit is sprayed with dangerous pesticides before it is harvested, and is dangerous until it is washed. Clearly, the cafeteria is selling pesticide-covered fruit, thereby endangering its patrons. Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Answer
  • The apples that the cafeteria sells are not thoroughly washed after harvest but before reaching the cafeteria.
  • Most pesticides that are sprayed on fruit before harvest leave a greasy residue on the fruit.
  • Many of the cafeteria's patrons are unaware that the cafeteria does not wash the apples it sells.
  • Only pesticides that leave a greasy residue on fruit can be washed off.
  • Fruits other than apples also arrive at the cafeteria in a greasy condition.

Question 16

Question
Even the earliest known species of land animals, known from fossils dating from the late Silurian period, 400 million years ago, show highly evolved adaptations to life on land. Since neither aquatic nor amphibious animals exhibit these adaptations, early species of land animals must have evolved very rapidly after leaving an aquatic environment. Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Answer
  • Known fossils of early land animals include fossils of animals that lived relatively soon after the first emergence of land animals.
  • Fossils from the late Silurian period represent only a small number of the animal species that were alive at that time.
  • No plants were established on land before the late Silurian period.
  • No present-day species of aquatic animal is descended from a species of animal that once lived on land.
  • All animals alive in the late Silurian period lived either exclusively on land or exclusively in the water.

Question 17

Question
A company with long-outstanding bills owed by its customers can assign those bills to collection agency that pays the company a fraction of their amount and then tries to collect payment from the customers. Since these agencies pay companies only 15 percent of the total amount of the outstanding bills, a company interested in reducing losses from long-outstanding bills would be well advised to pursue its debtors on its own. The argument depends on the assumption that:
Answer
  • a company that pursues its debtors on its own typically collects more than 15 percent of the total amount of the long-outstanding bills that it is owed
  • the cost to a company of pursuing its debtors on its own for payment of long-outstanding bills does not exceed 15 percent of the total amount of those bills
  • collection agencies that are assigned bills for collection by companies are unsuccessful in collecting, on average, only 15 percent of the total amount of those bills.
  • at least 15 percent of the customers that owe money to companies eventually pay their bills whether or not those bills are assigned to a collection agency
  • unless most of the customers of a company pay their bills, that company in the long run will not be profitable.

Question 18

Question
Computer operating system software has become increasingly standardized. But when a large business with multiple, linked computer systems uses identical operating system software on all of its computers, a computer vandal who gains access to one computer automatically has access to the data on all the computers. Using a program known as a “virus,” the vandal can then destroy much of the data on all the computers. If such a business introduced minor variations into its operating system software, unauthorized access to all the computers at the same time could be virtually eliminated. Furthermore variations in operating system software can be created without any lose of computer compatibility to the business. Therefore, it is advisable for businesses to implement such variations. Which one of the following, if true, supports the conclusion in the passage?
Answer
  • Standardization of computer operating system software has increased computer compatibility among different businesses.
  • Correcting any damage resulting from an invasion by a computer virus program is more expensive than preventing the damage.
  • It is not costly for a business to maintain incompatible computer operating systems.
  • There are other kinds of destructive computer programs that do not depend on inter-computer links.
  • Not all businesses need to share date among their internal computer systems.

Question 19

Question
Marine biologists have long thought that variation in the shell color of aquatic snails evolved as a protective camouflage against birds and other predators. Brown shells seem to be more frequent when the underlying seafloor is dark-colored and white shells more frequent when the underlying seafloor is light-colored. A new theory has been advanced, however, that claims that shell color is related to physiological stress associated with heat absorption. According to this theory, brown shells will be more prevalent in areas where the wave action of the sea is great and thus heat absorption from the Sun is minimized, whereas white shells will be more numerous in calmer waters where the snails will absorb more heat from the Sun's rays. Evidence that would strongly favor the new theory over the traditional theory would be the discovery of a large majority of
Answer
  • dark-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a dark, rocky bottom and many predators
  • dark-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a white, sandy bottom
  • light-shelled snails in an inlet with much wave action and a dark, rocky bottom
  • light-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a dark, rocky bottom and many predators
  • light-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a white, sandy bottom and many predators

Question 20

Question
Even if a crime that has been committed by computer is discovered and reported, the odds of being both arrested and convicted greatly favor the criminal. Each of the following, if true, supports the claim above EXCEPT:
Answer
  • The preparation of computer-fraud cases takes much more time than is required for average fraud cases, and the productivity of prosecutors is evaluated by the number of good cases made.
  • In most police departments, officers are rotated through different assignments every two or three years, a shorter time than it takes to become proficient as a computer-crime investigator.
  • The priorities of local police departments, under whose jurisdiction most computer crime falls, are weighted toward visible street crime that communities perceive as threatening.
  • Computer criminals have rarely been sentenced to serve time in prison, because prisons are overcrowded with violent criminals and drug offenders.
  • The many police officers who are untrained in computers often inadvertently destroy the physical evidence of computer crime.

Question 21

Question
If the public library shared by the adjacent towns of Redville and Glenwood were relocated from the library's current, overcrowded building in central Redville to a larger, available building in central Glenwood, the library would then be within walking distance of a larger number of library users. That is because there are many more people living in central Glenwood than in central Redville, and people generally will walk to the library only if it is located close to their homes. Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
Answer
  • The public library was located between Glenwood and Redville before being moved to its current location in central Redville.
  • The area covered by central Glenwood is approximately the same size as that covered by central Redville.
  • The building that is available in Glenwood is smaller than an alternative building that is available in Redville.
  • Many of the people who use the public library do not live in either Glenwood or Redville.
  • The distance that people currently walk to get to the library is farther than what is generally considered walking distance. OA is

Question 22

Question
The number of aircraft collisions on the ground is increasing because of the substantial increase in the number of flights operated by the airlines. Many of the fatalities that occur in such collisions are caused not by the collision itself, but by an inherent flaw in the cabin design of most aircraft, in which seats, by restricting access to emergency exits, impede escape. Therefore, to reduce the total number of fatalities that result annually from such collisions, the airlines should be required to remove all seats that restrict access to emergency exits. Which one of the following proposals, if implemented together with the proposal made in the passage, would improve the prospects for achieving the stated objective of reducing fatalities?
Answer
  • The airlines should be required, when buying new planes, to buy only planes with unrestricted access to emergency exits.
  • The airlines should not be permitted to increase further the number of lights in order to offset the decrease in the number of seats on each aircraft.
  • Airport authorities should be required to streamline their passenger check-in procedures to accommodate the increased number of passengers served by the airlines.
  • Airport authorities should be required to refine security precautions by making them less conspicuous without making them less effective.
  • The airlines should not be allowed to increase the ticket price for each passenger to offset the decrease in the number of seats on each aircraft.

Question 23

Question
In a mature tourist market such as Bellaria there are only two ways hotel owners can increase profits: by building more rooms or by improving what is already there. Rigid land-use laws in Bellaria rule out construction of new hotels or, indeed, any expansion of hotel capacity. It follows that hotel owners cannot increase their profits in Bellaria since Bellarian hotels______ Which one of the following logically completes the argument?
Answer
  • are already operating at an occupancy rate approaching 100 percent year-round
  • could not have been sited any more attractively than they are even in the absence of land-use laws
  • have to contend with upward pressures on the cost of labor which stem from an incipient shortage of trained personnel
  • already provide a level of luxury that is at the limits of what even wealthy patrons are prepared to pay for
  • have shifted from serving mainly Bellarian tourists to serving foreign tourists traveling in organized tour groups

Question 24

Question
In Peru, ancient disturbances in the dark surface material of a desert show up as light-colored lines that are the width of a footpath and stretch for long distances. One group of lines branching out like rays from a single point crosses over curved lines that form a very large bird figure. Interpreting the lines in the desert as landing strips for spaceship-traveling aliens, an investigator argues that they could hardly have been Inca roads, asking, “What use to the Inca would have been closely spaced roads that ran parallel? That intersected in a sunburst pattern? That came abruptly to an end in the middle of an uninhabited plain.” For someone who interprets the lines as referring to astronomical phenomena, which one of the following, if true, most effectively counters an objection that the crossing of the straight-line pattern over the bird figure shows that the two kinds of line pattern served unrelated purposes?
Answer
  • In areas that were inhabited by ancient native North American peoples, arrangements of stones have been found that make places where sunlight falls precisely on the spring solstice, an astronomically determined date.
  • The straight lines are consistent with sight lines to points on the horizon where particular astronomical events could have been observed at certain plausible dates, and the figure could represent a constellation.
  • The straight-line pattern is part of a large connected complex of patterns of straight-line rays connecting certain points with one another.
  • Native Central American cultures, such as that of the Maya, left behind elaborate astronomical calendars that were engraved on rocks.
  • There is evidence that the bird figure was made well before the straight-line pattern.

Question 25

Question
In the United States proven oil reserves-the amount of oil considered extractable from known fields-are at the same level as they were ten years ago. Yet over this same period no new oil fields of any consequence have been discovered, and the annual consumption of domestically produced oil has increased. Which one of the following, if true best reconciles the discrepancy described above?
Answer
  • Over the past decade the annual consumption of imported oil has increased more rapidly than that of domestic oil in the United States.
  • Conservation measures have lowered the rate of growth of domestic oil consumption from what it was a decade ago.
  • Oil exploration in the United States has slowed due to increased concern over the environmental impact of such exploration.
  • The price of domestically produced oil has fallen substantially over the past decade.
  • Due to technological advances over the last decade, much oil previously considered unextractable is now considered extractable.

Question 26

Question
On the basis of incontestable proof that car safety seats will greatly reduce the number of serious injuries sustained by children in car accidents, laws have been passed mandating the use of these seats. Unexpectedly, it has since been found that a large number of children who are riding in safety seats continue to receive serious injuries that safety seats were specifically designed to avoid, and in the prevention of which they in fact have proven to be effective. Which one of the following, if true, could by itself adequately explain the unexpected finding reported in the passage?
Answer
  • Many parents are defying the law by not using safety seats for their children.
  • Children are more likely to make automobile trips now than they were before the introduction of the safety seat.
  • The high cost of child safety seats has caused many parents to delay purchasing them.
  • The car safety seat was not designed to prevent all types of injuries, so it is not surprising that some injuries are sustained.
  • The protection afforded by child safety seats depends on their being used properly, which many parents fail to do.

Question 27

Question
In clinical trials of new medicines, half of the subjects receive the drug being tested and half receive a physiologically inert substance ?a placebo. Trials are designed with the intention that neither subjects nor experimenters will find out which subjects are actually being given the drug being tested. However, this intention is frequently frustrated because ____. Which one of the following, if true, most appropriately completes the explanation?
Answer
  • often the subjects who receive the drug being tested develop symptoms that the experimenters recognize as side effects of the physiologically active drug
  • subjects who believe they are receiving the drug being tested often display improvements in their conditions regardless of whether what is administered to them is physiologically active or not
  • in general, when the trial is intended to establish the experimental drug's safety rather than its effectiveness, all of the subjects are healthy
  • when a trial runs a long time, few of the experimenters will work on it from inception to conclusion
  • the people who are subjects for clinical trials must, by law, be volunteers and must be informed of the possibility that they will receive a placebo

Question 28

Question
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?
Answer
  • During times of inflation consumers save more money than they do in noninflationary periods.
  • There is usually a lag between the leading economic indicators first signaling the onset of an inflationary period and consumers’ recognition of its onset.
  • No generalization that describes human behavior will be true of every type of human behavior.
  • If significant numbers of consumers are unable to make purchases, prices will eventually fall but salaries will not be directly affected.
  • Consumers’ purchasing power decreases during periods of protracted inflation since salaries do not keep pace with prices.

Question 29

Question
Michelangelo’s sixteenth-century Sistine Chapel paintings are currently being restored. A goal of the restorers is to uncover Michelangelo’s original work, and so additions made to Michelangelo’s paintings by later artists are being removed. However, the restorers have decided to make one exception: to leave intact additions that were painted by da Volterra. Which one of the following, if true, most helps to reconcile the restorers’ decision with the goal stated in the passage?
Answer
  • The restorers believe that da Volterra stripped away all previous layers of paint before he painted his own additions to the Sistine Chapel.
  • Because da Volterra used a type of pigment that is especially sensitive to light, the additions to the Sistine Chapel that ad Volterra painted have relatively muted colors.
  • Da Volterra’s additions were painted in a style that was similar to the style used by Michelangelo.
  • Michelangelo is famous primarily for his sculptures and only secondarily for his paintings, whereas da Volterra is known exclusively for his paintings.
  • Da Volterra’s work is considered by certain art historians to be just as valuable as the work of additions to Michelangelo’s work.

Question 30

Question
The “suicide wave” that followed the United States stock market crash of October 1929 is more legend than fact. Careful examination of the monthly figures on the causes of death in 1929 shows that the number of suicides in October and in November was comparatively low. In only three other months were the monthly figures lower. During the summer months, when the stock market was flourishing, the number of suicides was substantially higher. Which one of the following, if true, would best challenge the conclusion of the passage?
Answer
  • The suicide rate is influenced by many psychological, interpersonal, and societal factors during any given historical period.
  • October and November have almost always had relatively high suicide rates, even during the 1920s and 1930s.
  • The suicide rate in October and November of 1929 was considerably higher than the average for those months during several preceding and following years.
  • During the years surrounding the stock market crash, suicide rates were typically lower at the beginning of any calendar year than toward the end of that year.
  • Because of seasonal differences, the number of suicides in October and November of 1929 would not be expected to be the same as those for other mont

Question 31

Question
Samples from the floor of a rock shelter in Pennsylvania were dated by analyzing the carbon they contained. The dates assigned to samples associated which human activities formed a consistent series, beginning with the present and going back in time, a series that was correlated with the depth from which the samples came. The oldest and deepest sample was dated at 19,650 years before the present, plus or minus 2,400 years. Skeptic, viewing that date of human migration into North America, suggested that the samples could have been contaminated by dissolved "old carbon" carried by percolating groundwater from nearby coal deposits. Which one of the following considerations, if true, argues most strongly against the suggestion of the skeptics?
Answer
  • No likely mechanism of contamination involving percolating groundwater would have affected the deeper samples from the site without affecting the uppermost sample.
  • Not every application of the carbon-dating procedure has led to results that have been generally acceptable to scientists.
  • There is no evidence that people were using coal for fuel at any time when the deepest layer might have been laid down.
  • No sample in the series, when retested by the carbon-dating procedure, was assigned an earlier date than that assigned to a sample from a layer above it.
  • No North American site besides the one in Pennsylvania has ever yielded a sample to which the carbon-dating procedure assigned a date that was comparably ancient.

Question 32

Question
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. Which one of the following, if true, most of strongly indicates that the asteroid-impact theory is at least incomplete, if not false?
Answer
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Question 33

Question
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:
Answer
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Voters in the city, many of whom benefit from the low transit fares, are strongly opposed to increasing local taxes.
  • People who work in Greenville and earn wages above the nationally mandated minimum all pay the city wage tax of 5 percent

Question 34

Question
Household indebtedness, which some theorists regard as causing recession, was high preceding the recent recession, but so was the value of assets owned by households. Admittedly, if most of the assets were owned by quite affluent households, and most of the debt was owed by low-income households, high household debt levels could have been the cause of the recession despite high asset values: low-income households might have decreased spending in order to pay off debts while the quite affluent ones might simply have failed to increase spending. But, in fact, quite affluent people must have owed most of the household debt, since money is not lent to those without assets. Therefore, the real cause must lie elsewhere. Which one of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the argument?
Answer
  • Prior to the recent recession, middle-income households owed enough debt that they had begun to decrease spending.
  • The total value of the economy's household debt is exceeded by the total value of assets held by households.
  • Low-income households somewhat decreased their spending during the recent recession.
  • During a recession the affluent usually borrow money only in order to purchase assets
  • Household debt is the category of debt least likely to affect the economy.

Question 35

Question
Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends of the spectrum of ailments. At the more trivial end, orthodox medicine is largely ineffective in treating aches, pains and allergies, and, at the other extreme, it has yet to produce a cure for serious, life-threatening diseases such as advanced cancer and lupus. People turn to alternative medicine when orthodox medicine fails to help them and when it produces side effects that are unacceptable to them. One of the reasons alternative medicines is free of such side effects is that it does not have any effects at all. The charge made above against alternative medicine is most seriously weakened if it is true that
Answer
  • predictions based on orthodox medicine have sometimes failed, as when a patient has recovered despite the judgment of doctors that an illness is fatal
  • alternative medicine relies on concepts of the body and of the nature of healing that differ from those on which orthodox medicine is based
  • alternative medicine provides hope to those for whom orthodox medicine offers no cure
  • a patient’s belief in the medical treatment the patient is receiving can release the body’s own chemical painkillers, diminish allergic reactions, and promote healing
  • many treatments used for a time by orthodox medicine have later been found to be totally ineffective

Question 36

Question
Recent unexpectedly heavy rainfalls in the metropolitan area have filled the reservoirs and streams; water rationing, therefore, will not be necessary this summer. Which one of the following, if true, most undermines the author's prediction?
Answer
  • Water rationing was imposed in the city in three of the last five years.
  • A small part of the city's water supply is obtained from deep underground water systems that are not reached by rainwater
  • The water company's capacity to pump water to customers has not kept up with the increased demand created by population growth in the metropolitan area.
  • The long-range weather forecast predicts lower-than-average temperatures for this summer.
  • In most years the city receives less total precipitation in the summer than it receives in any other season.

Question 37

Question
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?
Answer
  • 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.
  • It is impossible to know how many unpremeditated assaults occur within the family, since many are not reported to the authorities.
  • Knives are used in other homicides besides those that result from unpremeditated assaults within the family
  • 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.
  • 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.

Question 38

Question
Sasha: Handwriting analysis should be banned in court as evidence of a person’s character: handwriting analysts called as witnesses habitually exaggerate the reliability of their analyses. Gregory: You are right that the current use of handwriting analysis as evidence is problematic. But this problem exists only because there is no licensing board to set professional standards and thus deter irresponsible analyst from making exaggerated claims. When such a board is established, however, handwriting analysis by licensed practitioners will be a legitimate courtroom tool for character assessment. Which one of the following, if true, would provide Sasha with the strongest counter to Gregory’s response?
Answer
  • Courts routinely use means other than handwriting analysis to provide evidence of a person’s character.
  • Many people can provide two samples of their handwriting so different that only a highly trained professional could identify them as having been written by the same person.
  • A licensing board would inevitably refuse to grant licenses to some responsible handwriting analysts for reasons having nothing to do with their reliability.
  • The only handwriting analysts who claim that handwriting provides reliable evidence of a person’s character are irresponsible.
  • The number of handwriting analysts who could conform to professional standards set by a licensing board is very small.

Question 39

Question
The Scorpio Miser with its special high-efficiency engine costs more to buy than the standard Scorpio sports car. At current fuel prices, a buyer choosing the Miser would have to drive it 60,000 miles to make up the difference in purchase price through savings on fuel. It follows that, if fuel prices fell, it would take fewer miles to reach the break-even point. Which one of the following arguments contains an error of reasoning similar to that in the argument above?
Answer
  • The true annual rate of earnings on an interest-bearing account is the annual rate of interest less the annual rate of inflation. Consequently, if the rate of inflation drips, the rate of interest can be reduced by an equal amount without there being a change in the true rate of earnings.
  • For retail food stores, the Polar freezer, unlike the Arctic freezer, provides a consistent temperature that allows the store to carry premium frozen foods. Thus, if electricity rates fell, a lower volume of premium-food sales could justify choosing the Polar freezer.
  • With the Roadmaker, a crew can repave a mile of decayed road in less time than with the competing model, which is, however, much less expensive. Reduced staffing levels made possible by the Roadmaker eventually compensate for its higher price. Therefore, the Roadmaker is especially advantageous where average wages are low.
  • The improve strain the Northland apple tree bears fruit younger and lives longer than the standard strain. The standard strain does grow larger at maturity, but to allow for this, standard trees must be spaced farther apart. Therefore, new plantings should all be of the improved strain.
  • Stocks pay dividends, which vary from year to year depending on profits made. Bonds pay interest, which remains constant from year to year. Therefore, since the interest earned on bonds does not decrease when economic conditions decline, investors interested in a reliable income should choose bonds.

Question 40

Question
Certain governments subsidize certain basic agricultural products in order to guarantee an adequate domestic production of them. But subsidies encourage more intensive farming, which eventually leads to soil exhaustion and drastically reduced yields. The situation above is most nearly similar to which one of the following situations with respect to the relationship between the declared intent of a government practice and a circumstance relevant to it?
Answer
  • Certain governments subsidize theaters in order to attract foreign tourists. But tourists rarely choose a destination for the theatrical performances it has to offer.
  • Certain governments restrict imports in order to keep domestic producers in business. But, since domestic producers do not have to face the full force of foreign competition, some domestic producers are able to earn inordinately high profits.
  • Certain governments build strong armed forces in order to forestall armed conflict, but in order to maintain the sort of discipline and morale that keeps armed forces strong, those forces must be used in actual combat periodically.
  • Certain governments reduce taxes on business in order to stimulate private investment. But any investment is to some extent a gamble, and new business ventures are not always as successful as their owners hoped.
  • Certain governments pass traffic laws in order to make travel safer. But the population-driven growth in volumes of traffic often has the effect of making travel less safe despite the passage of new traffic laws.

Question 41

Question
Of the two proposals for solving the traffic problems on Main Street, Chen's plan is better for the city as a whole, as is clear from the fact that the principal supporter of Ripley's plan is Smith Stores. Smith Stores, with its highly paid consultants, knows where its own interest lies and, moreover, has supported its own interests in the past, even to the detriment of the city as a whole. The faulty reasoning in which one of the following is most parallel to that in the argument above?
Answer
  • Surely Centreville should oppose adoption of the regional planning commission's new plan since it is not in Centreville's interest, even though it might be in the interest of some towns in the region.
  • The school board should support the plan for the new high school since this plan was recommended by the well-qualified consultants whom the school board hired at great expense.
  • Of the two budget proposals, the mayor's is clearly preferable to the city council's, since the mayor's budget addresses the needs of the city as a whole, whereas the city council is protecting special interests.
  • Nomura is clearly a better candidate for college president than Miller, since Nomura has the support of the three deans who best understand the president's job and with whom the president will have to work most closely.
  • The planned light-rail system will clearly serve suburban areas well, since its main opponent is the city government, which has always ignored the needs of the suburbs and sought only to protect the interests of the city.

Question 42

Question
On average, city bus drivers who are using the new computerized fare-collection system have a much better on-time record than do drivers using the old fare collection system. Millicent Smith has the best on-time record of any bus driver in the city. Therefore, she must be using the computerized fare-collection system. Which one of the following contains flawed reasoning most similar to that contained in the argument above?
Answer
  • All the city's solid-waste collection vehicles acquired after 1988 have a large capacity than any of those acquired before 1988. This vehicle has the largest capacity of any the city owns, so it must have been acquired after 1988.
  • The soccer players on the blue team are generally taller than the players on the gold team. Since Henri is a member of the blue team, he is undoubtedly taller than most of the members of the gold team.
  • This tomato is the largest of this year's crop. Since the tomatoes in the experimental plot are on average larger than those grown in the regular plots,this tomato must have been grown in the experiment plot .
  • Last week's snowstorm in Toronto was probably an average storm for the area. It was certainly heavier than any snowstorm known to have occurred in Miami, but any average snowstorm in Toronto leaves more snow than ever falls in Miami.
  • Lawn mowers powered by electricity generally require less maintenance than do lawn mowers powered by gasoline. This lawn mower is powered by gasoline, so it will probably require a lot of maintenance.

Question 43

Question
Zachary: One would have to be blind to the reality of moral obligation to deny that people who believe a course of action to be morally obligatory for them have both the right and the duty to pursue that action, and that no one else has any right to stop them from doing so. Cynthia: But imagine an artist who feels morally obliged to do whatever she can to prevent works of art from being destroyed confronting a morally committed antipornography demonstrator engaged in destroying artworks he deems pornographic. According to your principle that artist has, simultaneously, both the right and the duty to stop the destruction and no right whatsoever to stop it. Which one of the following, if substituted for the scenario invoked by Cynthia, would preserve the force of her argument?
Answer
  • a medical researcher who feels a moral obligation not to claim sole credit for work that was performed in part by someone else confronting another researcher who feels no such moral obligation
  • a manufacturer who feels a moral obligation to recall potentially dangerous products confronting a consumer advocate who feels morally obliged to expose product defects
  • an investment banker who believes that governments are morally obliged to regulate major industries confronting an investment banker who holds that governments have a moral obligation not to interfere with market forces
  • an architect who feels amoral obligation to design only energy-efficient buildings confronting, as a potential client, a corporation that believes its primary moral obligation is to maximize shareholder profits
  • a health inspector who feels morally obliged to enforce restrictions on the number of cats a householder may keep confronting a householder who, feeling morally obliged to keep every stray that comes along, has over twice that number of cats

Question 44

Question
The commissioner has announced that Judge Khalid, who was on the seven-member panel appointed to resolve the Amlec labor dispute, will have sole responsibility for resolving the Simdon labor dispute. Since in its decision the Amlec panel showed itself both reasonable and fair, the two sides in the Simdon dispute are undoubtedly justified in the confidence they have expressed in the reasonableness and fairness of the arbitrator assigned to their case. Which one of the following contains flawed reasoning most parallel to that contained in the passage?
Answer
  • Representing the school board, Marcia Barthes presented to the school's principal a list of recently elected school board members. Since only an elected member of the school board can act as its representative. Ms. Barthe's name undoubtedly appears on that list.
  • Alan Caldalf, who likes being around young children, has decided to become a pediatrician. Since the one characteristic common to all good pediatricians is that they like young children, Mr. Caldalf will undoubtedly be a very good pediatrician.
  • Jorge Diaz is a teacher at a music school nationally known for the excellence of its conducting faculty. Since Mr. Diaz has recently been commended for the excellence of his teaching, he is undoubtedly a member of the school's conducting faculty.
  • Ula Borg, who has sold real estate for Arcande Realty for many years, undoubtedly sold fewer houses last year that she had the year before since the number of houses sold last year by Arcande Realty is far lower than the number sold the previous year.
  • The members of the local historical society unanimously support designating the First National Bank building a historical landmark. Since Evelyn George is a member of that society, she undoubtedly favors according landmark status to the city hall as well.

Question 45

Question
The Volunteer for Literacy Program would benefit if Dolores takes Victors place as director, since Dolores is far more skillful than Victor is at securing the kind of financial support the program needs and Dolores does not have Victor’s propensity for alienating program’s most dedicated volunteers. The pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most closely paralleled in which one of the following?
Answer
  • (A) It would be more convenient for Dominique to take a bus to school than to take the subway, since the bus stops closer to her house than does the subway and, unlike the subway, the bus goes directly to the school.
  • Joshua’s interest would be better served by taking the bus to get to his parent’s house rather than by taking an airplane, since his primary concern is to travel as cheaply as possible and taking the bus is less expensive than going by airplane.
  • Belinda will get to the concert more quickly by subway than by taxi since the concert takes place on a Friday evening and on Friday evenings traffic near the concert hall is exceptionally heavy.
  • Anita would benefit financially by taking the train to work rather than driving her car, since when she drives she has to pay parking fees and the daily fee for parking a car is higher than a round-trip train ticket.
  • It would be to Fred’s advantage to exchange his bus tickets for train tickets since he needs to arrive at his meeting before any of the other participants and if he goes by bus at least one of the other participants will arrive first.

Question 46

Question
The only plants in the garden were tulips, but they were tall tulips. So the only plants in the garden were tall plants. Which one of the following exhibits faulty reasoning most similar to the faulty reasoning in the argument above?
Answer
  • The only dogs in the show were poodles and they were all black poodles. So all the dogs in the show were black.
  • All the buildings on the block were tall. The only buildings on the block were office buildings and residential towers. So all the office buildings on the block were tall buildings.
  • All the primates in the zoo were gorillas. The only gorillas in the zoo were small gorillas. Thus the only primates in the zoo were small primates.
  • The only fruit in the kitchen was pears but the pears were not ripe. Thus none of the fruit in the kitchen was ripe.
  • All the grand pianos here are large. All the grand pianos here are heavy. Thus everything large is heavy.

Question 47

Question
Some of the most prosperous nations in the world have experienced a pronounced drop in national savings-rates - the percentage of after-tax income an average household saves. This trend will undoubtedly continue if the average age of these nations' populations continues to rise, since older people have fewer reasons to save than do younger people. Which one of the following indicates an error in the reasoning leading to the prediction above?
Answer
  • It fails to specify the many reasons younger people have for saving money, and it fails to identify which of those reasons is the strongest.
  • It assumes that a negative savings rate - the result of the average household's spending all of its after-tax income as well as some of its existing savings - cannot ever come about in any nation.
  • It fails to cite statistics showing that the average age of the population of certain nations is rising.
  • It only takes into account the comparative number of reasons older and younger people, respectively, have for saving, and not the comparative strength of those reasons.
  • It uses after-tax income as the base for computing the national savings rate without establishing by argument that after-tax income is a more appropriate base than before-tax income.

Question 48

Question
The public in the United States has in the past been conditioned to support a substantial defense budget by the threat of confrontation with the Eastern bloc. Now that that threat is dissolving, along with the Eastern bloc itself, it is doubtful whether the public can be persuaded to support an adequate defense budget. Which one of the following indicates a weakness in the position expressed above?
Answer
  • It presupposes that public opinion can be manipulated indefinitely, without the public’s becoming aware of that manipulation.
  • It refers to past and present events that do not have a causal connection with public support of the budget.
  • It assumes as fact what it seeks to establish by reasoning.
  • It fails to give any reason for the judgment it reaches.
  • It hinges on the term “adequate,” the precise meaning of which requires reevaluation in the new context.

Question 49

Question
Certain minor peculiarities of language are used unconsciously by poets. If such peculiarities appear in the works of more than one poet, they are likely to reflect the language in common use during the poets’ time. However, if they appear in the work of only one poet, they are likely to be personal idiosyncrasies. As such, they can provide a kind of “fingerprint” that allows scholars, by comparing a poem of previously unknown authorship to the work of a particular known poet, to identify the poem as the work of that poet. For which one of the following reasons can the test described above never provide conclusive proof of the authorship of any poem?
Answer
  • The labor of analyzing peculiarities of language both in the work of a known poet and in a poem of unknown authorship would not be undertaken unless other evidence already suggested that the poem of unknown authorship was written by the known poet.
  • A peculiarity of language that might be used as an identifying mark is likely to be widely scattered in the work of a poet, so that a single poem not known to have been written by that poet might not include that peculiarity.
  • A peculiarity of language in a poem of unknown authorship could be evidence either that the poem was written by the one author known to use that peculiarity or that the peculiarity was not unique to that author.
  • Minor peculiarities of language contribute far less to the literary effect of any poem than such factors as poetic form, subject matter, and deliberately chosen wording.
  • A poet’s use of some peculiarities of language might have been unconscious in some poems and conscious in other poems, and the two uses would be indistinguishable to scholars at a later date.

Question 50

Question
Joshua Smith's new novel was criticized by the book editor for The Daily Standard as implausible. That criticism, like so many other criticisms from the same source in the past , is completely unwarranted. As anyone who has actually read the novel would agree. Each one of the incidents in which Smith's hero gets involved is the kind of incident that could very well have happened to someone or other. Which one of the following is the most serious error of reasoning in the argument?
Answer
  • It relies on the assumption that a criticism can legitimately by dismissed as unwarranted if it is offended by someone who had previously displayed questionable judgment
  • It ignores the fact that people can agree about something even though what they agree about is not the case.
  • It calls into question the intellectual integrity of the critic in order to avoid having to address the grounds on which the criticism is based
  • It takes for granted that a whole story will have a given characteristics if each of its parts has that characteristics
  • It attempts to justify its conclusion by citing reasons that most people would find plausible only if they were already convinced that the conclusion was true

Question 51

Question
Psychotherapy has been described as a form of moral coercion. However, when people are coerced, their ability to make choices is restricted, and the goal of psychotherapy is to enhance people’s ability to make choices. Hence, psychotherapy cannot possibly be a form of coercion. Which one of the following describes a flaw in the argument?
Answer
  • The position being argued against is redefined unfairly in order to make it an easier target.
  • Psychotherapy is unfairly criticized for having a single goal, rather than having many complex goals.
  • No allowance is made for the fact that the practice or results of psychotherapy might run counter to its goals.
  • The goals of psychotherapy are taken to justify any means that are used to achieve those goals.
  • It offers no argument to show that moral coercion is always undesirable.

Question 52

Question
Saunders: Everyone at last week’s neighborhood association meeting agreed that the row of abandoned and vandalized houses on Carlton Street posed a threat to the safety of our neighborhood. Moreover, no one now disputes that getting the houses torn down eliminated that threat. Some people tried to argue that it was unnecessary to demolish what they claimed were basically sound buildings, since the city had established a fund to help people in need of housing buy and rehabilitate such buildings. The overwhelming success of the demolition strategy, however, proves that the majority, who favored demolition, were right and that those who claimed that the problem could and should be solved by rehabilitating the houses were wrong. Saunders’ reasoning is flawed because it
Answer
  • relies on fear rather than on argument to persuade the neighborhood association to reject the policy advocated by Saunders’ opponents
  • fails to establish that there is anyone who could qualify for city funds who would be interested in buying and rehabilitating the houses
  • mistakenly equates an absence of vocal public dissent with the presence of universal public support
  • offers no evidence that the policy advocated by Saunders’ opponents would not have succeeded if it had been given the chance
  • does not specify the precise nature of the threat to neighborhood safety supposedly posed by the vandalized houses

Question 53

Question
Mayor Smith, one of our few government officials with a record of outspoken, informed, and consistent opposition to nuclear power plant construction projects, has now declared herself in favor of building the nuclear power plant at Littletown. If someone with her past antinuclear record now favors building this power plant, then there is good reason to believe that it will be safe and therefore should be built. The argument is vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds?
Answer
  • It overlooks the possibility that not all those who fail to speak out on issues of nuclear power are necessarily opposed to it.
  • It assumes without warrant that the qualities enabling a person to be elected to public office confer on that person a grasp of the scientific principles on which technical decisions are based.
  • It fails to establish that a consistent and outspoken opposition is necessarily an informed opposition.
  • It leads to the further but unacceptable conclusion that any project favored by Mayor Smith should be sanctioned simply on the basis of her having spoken out in favor of it.
  • It gives no indication of either the basis of Mayor Smith’s former opposition to nuclear power plant construction or the reasons for her support for the Littletown project

Question 54

Question
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?
Answer
  • attempting to justify a rule of conduct on the grounds that it confers benefits on all of the parties involved
  • concluding that a definition is fully applicable to a situation when it is known only that the situation conforms partially to that definition
  • speaking only in abstract terms about matters that involve contingencies and that must be judged on a case-by-case basis
  • 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
  • treating an issue that requires resolution through political processes as if it were merely a matter of opinion

Question 55

Question
The proposal to extend clinical trials, which are routinely used as systematic tests of pharmaceutical innovations, to new surgical procedures should not be implemented. The point is that surgical procedures differ in one important respect from medicinal drugs: a correctly prescribed drug depends for its effectiveness only on the drug's composition, whereas the effectiveness of even the most appropriate surgical procedure is transparently related to the skills of the surgeon who uses it. The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
Answer
  • does not consider that new surgical procedures might be found to be intrinsically more harmful than the best treatment previously available
  • ignores the possibility that the challenged proposal is deliberately crude in a way designed to elicit criticism to be used in refining the proposal
  • assumes that a surgeon's skills remain unchanged throughout the surgeon's professional life
  • describes a dissimilarity without citing any scientific evidence for the existence of that dissimilarity
  • rejects a proposal presumably advanced in good faith without acknowledging any such good faith

Question 56

Question
Until recently it was thought that ink used before the sixteenth century did not contain titanium. However, a new type of analysis detected titanium in the ink of the famous Bible printed by Johannes Gutenberg and in that of another fifteenth-century Bible known as B-36, though not in the ink of any of numerous other fifteenth-century books analyzed. This finding is of great significance, since it not only strongly supports the hypothesis that B-36 was printed by Gutenberg but also shows that the presence of titanium in the ink of the purportedly fifteenth century Vinland Map can no longer be regarded as a reason for doubting the map's authenticity. The reasoning in the passage is vulnerable to criticism on the ground that
Answer
  • the results of the analysis are interpreted as indicating that the use of titanium as an ingredient in fifteenth-century ink both was, and was not, extremely restricted
  • if the technology that makes it possible to detect titanium in printing ink has only recently become available, it is unlikely that printers or artists in the fifteenth century would know whether their ink contained titanium or not
  • it is unreasonable to suppose that determination of the date and location of a document's printing or drawing can be made solely on the basis of the presence or absence of a single element in the ink used in the document
  • both the B-36 Bible and the Vinland Map are objects that can be appreciated on their own merits whether or not the precise date of their creation or the identity of the person who made them is known
  • the discovery of titanium in the ink of the Vinland Map must have occurred before titanium was discovered in the ink of the Gutenberg Bible and the B-36 Bible

Question 57

Question
A certain airport security scanner designed to detect explosives in luggage will alert the scanner’s operator whenever the piece of luggage passing under the scanner contains an explosive. The scanner will erroneously alert the operator for only one percent of the pieces of luggage that contain no explosives. Thus in ninety-nine out of a hundred alerts explosives will actually be present. The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
Answer
  • ignores the possibility of the scanner’s failing to signal an alert when the luggage does contain an explosive
  • draws a general conclusion about reliability on the basis of a sample that is likely to be biased
  • ignores the possibility of human error on the part of the scanner’s operator once the scanner has alerted him or her
  • fails to acknowledge the possibility that the scanner will not be equally sensitive to all kinds of explosives
  • substitutes one group for a different group in the statement of a percentage

Question 58

Question
The government of Penglai, an isolated island, proposed eliminating outdoor adverting except for small signs of standard shape that identify places of business. Some island merchants protested that the law would reduce the overall volume of business in Penglai, pointing to a report done by the government indicating that in every industry the Penglai businesses that used outdoor advertising had a larger market share than those that did not. Which one of the following describes an error of reasoning in the merchants’ argument?
Answer
  • presupposing that there are no good reasons for restricting the use of outdoor advertising in Penglai
  • assuming without giving justification that the outdoor advertising increased market share by some means other than by diverting trade from competing businesses
  • ignoring the question of whether the government’s survey of the island could be objective
  • failing to establish whether the market-share advantage enjoyed by businesses employing outdoor advertising was precisely proportionate to the amount of advertising
  • disregarding the possibility that the government’s proposed restrictions are unconstitutional

Question 59

Question
According to government official involved in overseeing airplane safety during the last year, over 75 percent of the voice-recorder tapes taken from small airplanes involved in relatively minor accidents record the whistling of the pilot during the fifteen minutes immediately preceding the accident. Even such minor accidents pose some safety risk. Therefore, if passengers hear the pilot start to whistle they should take safety precautions, whether instructed by the pilot to do so or not. The argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it
Answer
  • accepts the reliability of the cited statistics on the authority of an unidentified government official
  • ignores the fact that in nearly one quarter of these accidents following the recommendation would not have improved passenger' safety
  • does not indicate the criteria by which an accident is classified as "relatively minor"
  • provides no information about the percentage of all small airplane flights during which the pilot whistles at some time during that flight
  • fails to specify the percentage of all small airplane flights that involve relatively minor accidents

Question 60

Question
Without information that could only have come from someone present at the secret meeting between the finance minister and the leader of the opposition party, the newspaper story that forced the finance minister to resign could not have been written. No one witnessed the meeting, however, except the minister’s aide. It is clear, therefore, that the finance minister was ultimately brought down, not by any of his powerful political enemies, but by his own trusted aide. The argument commits which one of the following errors of reasoning?
Answer
  • drawing a conclusion on the basis of evidence that provides equally strong support for a competing conclusion
  • assuming without warrant that if one thing cannot occur without another thing's already having occurred, then the earlier thing cannot occur without bringing about the later thing
  • confusing evidence that a given outcome on one occasion was brought about in a certain way with evidence that the same outcome on a different occasion was brought about in that way
  • basing its conclusion on evidence that is almost entirely irrelevant to the point at issue
  • treating evidence that a given action contributed to bringing about a certain effect as though that evidence established that the given action by itself was sufficient to bring about that effect

Question 61

Question
Although inflated government spending for weapons research encourages waste at weapons research laboratories, weapons production plants must be viewed as equally wasteful of taxpayer dollars. After all, by the government's own admission, the weapons plant it plans to reopen will violate at least 69 environmental, health, and safety laws. The government has decided to reopen the plant and exempt it from compliance, even though the weapons to be produced there could be produced at the same cost at a safer facility. The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds?
Answer
  • It offers no evidence that the "safer'" alternative production site actually complies with any of the laws mentioned.
  • It concedes a point regarding weapons research laboratories that undermines its conclusion about weapons production plants.
  • It relies on evidence that does not directly address the issue of wasteful spending.
  • It confuses necessary expenditures for research with wasteful spending on weapons
  • It fails to establish that research laboratories and weapons production plants are similar enough to be meaningfully compared

Question 62

Question
A controversial program rewards prison inmates who behave particularly well in prison by giving them the chance to receive free cosmetic plastic surgery performed by medical students. The program is obviously morally questionable, both in its assumptions about what inmates might want and in its use of the prison population to train future surgeons. Putting these moral issues aside, however, the surgery clearly has a powerful rehabilitative effect as is shown by the fact that, among recipients of the surgery, the proportion who are convicted of new crimes committed after release is only half that for the prison population as a whole. A flaw in the reasoning of the passage is that
Answer
  • allows moral issues to be a consideration in presenting evidence about matters of fact
  • dismisses moral considerations on the grounds that only matters of fact are relevant
  • labels the program as "controversial" instead of discussing the issues that give rise to controversy
  • asserts that the rehabilitation of criminals is not a moral issue
  • relies on evidence drawn from a sample that there is reason to believe is unrepresentative

Question 63

Question
Many people do not understand themselves, nor do they try to gain . These people might try to understand others, but these attempts are sure to fail, because without self-understanding it is impossible to understand others. It is clear from this that anyone who lacks self-understanding will be incapable of understanding others. The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
Answer
  • mistakes something that is necessary to bring about a situation for something that in itself is enough to bring about that situation
  • fails to take into account the possibility that not everyone wants to gain a thorough understanding of himself or herself
  • blames people for something for which they cannot legitimately be held responsible
  • makes use of the inherently vague term “self-understanding” without defining that term
  • draws a conclusion that simply restates a claim given in support of that conclusion

Question 64

Question
Politician: Critics of wetlands-protection bill are delaying passage of this important legislation merely on the grounds that they disagree with its new more restrictive definition of the term “wetlands.” But this bill will place stricter limits on the development of wetlands than the existing regulations do. Therefore, in quibbling over semantics, critics of this bill show that they care little about what really happens to our wetlands. politician’s reply to the opponents of the wetlands-protection bill is most vulnerable to which one of the following criticisms?
Answer
  • It falsely identifies the motives of those who have criticized the wetlands-protection bill with the motives of all those who are opposed to conservation.
  • It does not adequately recognize the possibility that the definition of the word “wetlands” determines the impact of the legislation.
  • It assumes without justification that those who criticized the wetlands-protection bill stand to profit if the bill is defeated.
  • It fails to provide a defense for a less restrictive definition of “wetlands.”
  • It attempts to defend the credibility of the author of the bill rather than defending the bill itself.

Question 65

Question
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
Answer
  • attempts to extract a general rule from a specific case
  • extracts an erroneous principle from a commonly held belief
  • attacks the civil libertarians character instead of the argument
  • relies on an irrelevant reason for rejecting the civil libertarian's argument
  • uses hyperbolic inflammatory language that obscures the issue at hand

Question 66

Question
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?
Answer
  • 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.
  • He does not distinguish between the quality and the quantity of the books that adults read to Emory when Emory was a child.
  • He overlooks the well-known fact that not all reading is equally relaxing.
  • He fails to establish that the claim made by this particular educator accurately reflects the position held by the majority of educators.
  • He attempts to refute a general claim by reference to nonconforming cases, although the claim is consistent with the occurrence of such cases.

Question 67

Question
A report of a government survey concluded that Center City was among the ten cities in the nation with the highest dropout rate from its schools. The survey data were obtained by asking all city residents over the age of 19 whether they were high school graduates and computing the proportion who were not. A city school official objected that the result did not seem accurate according to the schools' figures. The school official can most properly criticize the reasoning by which the survey report reached its result for failure to do which one of the following?
Answer
  • take into account instances of respondents dropping out that occurred before the respondents reached high school
  • ask residents whether they had completed their high school work in fewer than the usual number of years
  • distinguish between residents who had attended the city's schools and those who had received their schooling elsewhere
  • predict the effect of the information contained in the report on future high school dropout rates for the city
  • consider whether a diploma from the city's schools signaled the same level of achievement over time

Question 68

Question
The Baysville Chamber of Commerce recently met to discuss a proposal to beautify the Baysville area’s freeways by relocating power lines, adding landscaping and removing billboards. At the meeting Mary Simms, who was representing an outdoor advertising company, declared, “Billboards are the basis of our business. If they are torn down, our ability to earn a living will be severely damaged.” “I don’t agree,” said Jack Jordan, a local merchant, “The basis of our business is an attractive community. People who might shop in Baysville don’t want to see ugly billboards on their way into town. Billboards are hurting our ability to earn a living.” Jack Jordan a remarks suggest that he is misinterpreting which one of the following words used by Mary Simms?
Answer
  • billboards
  • basis
  • our
  • ability
  • damaged

Question 69

Question
An advertisements states: Like Danaxil, all headache pills can stop your headache. But when you are in pain, you want relief right away. Danaxil is for you-no headache pill stops pain more quickly. Evelyn and Jane are each suffering from a headache. Suppose Evelyn takes Danaxil and Jane takes its leading competitor. Which one of the following can be properly concluded from the claims in the advertisement?
Answer
  • Evelyn’s headache pain will be relieved, but Jane’s will not.
  • Evelyn’s headache pain will be relieved more quickly than Jane’s.
  • Evelyn’s headache will be relieved at least as quickly as Jane’s.
  • Jane’s headache pain will be relieved at the same time as is Evelyn’s.
  • Jane will be taking Danaxil for relief from headache pain.

Question 70

Question
There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. It takes three minutes to pop corn in the microwave, compared to seven minutes to pop corn conventionally. Yet by weight, microwave popcorn typically costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn. Judging by the popularity of microwave popcorn, many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience. If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?
Answer
  • No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.
  • There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product.
  • By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.
  • More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.
  • Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.

Question 71

Question
SHOW TIMER STATISTICS The consistency of ice cream is adversely affected by even slight temperature changes in the freezer. To counteract his problem, manufacturers add stabilizers to ice cream. Unfortunately, stabilizers, though inexpensive, adversely affect flavor. Stabilizers are less needed if storage temperatures are very low. However, since energy costs are constantly going up, those costs constitute a strong incentive in favor of relatively high storage temperatures. Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?
Answer
  • Even slight deviations from the proper consistency for ice cream sharply impair its flavor.
  • Cost considerations favor sacrificing consistency over sacrificing flavor.
  • It would not be cost effective to develop a new device to maintain the constancy of freezer temperatures.
  • Stabilizers function well only at very low freezer temperatures.
  • Very low, stable freezer temperatures allow for the best possible consistency and flavor of ice cream.

Question 72

Question
It takes 365.25 days for the Earth to make one complete revolution around the sun. Long standing convention makes a year 365 days long, with an extra day added every fourth year, and the year is divided into 52 seven-day weeks. But since 52 times 7 is only 364, anniversaries do not fall on the same day of the week each year. Many scheduling problems could be avoided if the last day of each year and an additional day every fourth year belonged to no week, so that January 1 would be a Sunday every year. The proposal above, once put into effect, would be most likely to result in continued scheduling conflicts for which one of the following groups?
Answer
  • people who have birthdays or other anniversaries on December 30 or 31
  • employed people whose strict religious observances require that they refrain from working every seventh day
  • school systems that require students to attend classes a specific number of days each year
  • employed people who have three-day breaks from work when holidays are celebrated on Mondays or Fridays
  • people who have to plan events several years before those events occur

Question 73

Question
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?
Answer
  • An infant should never be held morally responsible for an action that infant has performed.
  • There are certain commonly performed actions for which no one performing those actions should ever be held morally responsible.
  • 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.
  • If a given action is within a certain person’s control that person should be held morally.
  • No adult should be held morally responsible for every action he or she performs.

Question 74

Question
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 mak-ers 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 reserva-tions about it are idiosyncratic or are held independently by their advisers. Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the statement above?
Answer
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Question 75

Question
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?
Answer
  • the rate of inflation has risen
  • the investment in question is becoming less profitable
  • the investment in question is less profitable than the most profitable investment available
  • the rate of return on the most profitable investment available has declined
  • there has been a change in which particular investment happens to be the most profitable available

Question 76

Question
hlorofluorocarbons are the best possible solvents to have in car engines for cleaning the electronic sensors in modern automobile ignition systems. These solvents have contributed significantly to automakers┬б┬п ability to meet legally mandated emission standards. Now automakers will have to phase out the use of chlorofluorocarbons at the same time that emission standards are becoming more stringent. If under the circumstances described above cars continue to meet emission standards, which one of the following is the most strongly supported inference?
Answer
  • As emission standards become more stringent, automakers will increasingly cooperate with each other in the area of emission control.
  • Car engines will be radically redesigned so as to do away with the need for cleaning the electronic ignition sensors.
  • There will be a marked shift toward smaller, lighter cars that will have less powerful engines but will use their fuel more efficiently.
  • The solvents developed to replace chlorofluorocarbons in car engines will be only marginally less effective than the chlorofluorocarbons themselves.
  • Something other than the cleansers for electronic ignition sensors will make a relatively greater contribution to meeting emission standards than at present.

Question 77

Question
Each year, an official estimate of the stock of cod in the Grand Banks is announced. This estimate is obtained by averaging two separate estimates of how many cod are available, one based on the number of cod caught by research vessels during a once-yearly sampling of the area and the other on the average number of tons of cod caught by various commercial vessels per unit of fishing effort expended there in the past year--a unit of fishing effort being one kilometer of net set out in the water for one hour. In previous decades, the two estimates usually agreed closely. However, for the last decade the estimate based on commercial tonnage has been increasing markedly, by about the same amount as the sampling-based estimate has been decreasing. If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following is most strongly supported by them?
Answer
  • Last year's official estimate was probably not much different from the official estimate ten years ago.
  • The number of commercial vessels fishing for cod in the Grand Banks has increased substantially over the past decade.
  • The sampling-based estimate is more accurate than the estimate based on commercial tonnage in that the data on which it relies is less likely to be inaccurate.
  • The once-yearly sampling by research vessels should be used as the sole basis for arriving at the official estimate of the stock of cod.
  • Twenty years ago, the overall stock of cod in the Grand Banks was officially estimated to be much larger than it is estimated to be today.

Question 78

Question
When the manufacturers in a given country are slower to adopt new technologies than their foreign competitors are, their production costs will fall more slowly than their foreign competitors' costs will. But if manufacturers' production costs fall less rapidly than their foreign competitors' costs do, those manufacturers will be unable to lower their prices as rapidly as their foreign competitors can; and when a country's manufacturers cannot lower their prices as rapidly as their foreign competitors can, that country gets squeezed out of the global market. If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true on the basis of them?
Answer
  • If the manufacturers in one country raise their prices, it is because they have squeezed their foreign competitors out of the global market.
  • If manufacturers in one country have been squeezed out of the global market, this shows that their foreign competitors have adopted new technologies more rapidly than they have.
  • If a country's foreign competitors can lower their production costs more rapidly than the country's own manufacturers can, then their foreign competitors must have adopted new manufacturing techniques.
  • If a country's manufacturers adopt new technologies at the same rate as their foreign competitors, neither group will be able to squeeze the other out of the global market
  • If a country's manufacturers can lower their prices as rapidly as their foreign competitors can, this shows that they adopt new technology at least as fast as their foreign competitors do.

Question 79

Question
The similarity between ichthyosaurs and fish is an example of convergence, a process by which different classes of organisms adapt to the same environment by independently developing one or more similar external body features. Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles and thus do not belong to the same class of organisms as fish. However, ichthyosaurs adapted to their marine environment by converging on external body features similar to those of fish. Most strikingly, ichthyosaurs, like fish, had fins. If the statements above are true, which one of the following is an inference that can be properly drawn on the basis of them?
Answer
  • The members of a single class of organisms that inhabit the same environment must be identical in all their external body features.
  • The members of a single class of organisms must exhibit one or more similar external body features that differentiate that class from all other classes of organisms.
  • It is only as a result of adaptation to similar environments that one class of organisms develops external body features similar to those of another class of organisms.
  • An organism does not necessarily belong to a class simply because the organism has one or more external body features similar to those of members of that class.
  • Whenever two classes of organisms share the same environment, members of one class will differ from members of the other class in several external body features.

Question 80

Question
Mature white pines intercept almost all the sunlight that shines on them. They leave a deep litter that dries readily and they grow to prodigious height so that, even when there are large gaps in a stand of such trees, little light reaches the forest floor. For this reason white pines cannot regenerate in their own shade. Thus, when in a dense forest a stand of trees consists of nothing but mature white pines, it is a fair bet that _______. Which one of the following most logically concludes the argument?
Answer
  • the ages of the trees in the stand do not differ from each other by much more than the length of time it takes a white pine to grow to maturity
  • the land on which the stand is now growing had been cleared of all trees at the time when the first of the white pines started growing
  • competition among the trees in the stand for sunlight will soon result in some trees' dying and the stand thus becoming thinner
  • other species of trees will soon begin to colonize the stand, eventually replacing all of the white pines
  • any differences in the heights of the trees in the stand are attributable solely to differences in the ages of the trees

Question 81

Question
Though they soon will, patients should not have a legal right to see their medical records. As a doctor, I see two reasons for this. First, giving them access will be time-wasting because it will significantly reduce the amount of time that medical staff can spend on more important duties, by forcing them to retrieve and return files. Second, if my experience is anything to go by, no patients are going to ask for access to their records anyway. Which one of the following, if true, establishes that the doctor's second reason does not cancel out the first?
Answer
  • The new law will require that doctors, when seeing a patient in their office, must be ready to produce the patient's records immediately, not just ready to retrieve them.
  • The task of retrieving and returning files would fall to the lowest-paid member of a doctor's office staff.
  • Any patients who asked to see their medical records would also insist on having details they did not understand explained to them.
  • The new law does not rule out that doctors may charge patients for extra expenses incurred specifically in order to comply with the new law.
  • Some doctors have all allowing their patients access to their medical records, but those doctors' patients took no advantage of this policy.

Question 82

Question
Photovoltaic power plants produce electricity from sunlight. As a result of astonishing recent technological advances, the cost of producing electric power at photovoltaic power plants, allowing for both construction and operating costs, is one-tenth of what it was 20 years ago, whereas the corresponding cost for traditional plants, which burn fossil fuels, has increased. Thus, photovoltaic power plants offer a less expensive approach to meeting demand for electricity than do traditional power plants. The conclusion of the argument is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?
Answer
  • The cost of producing electric power at traditional plants has increased over the past 20 years.
  • Twenty years ago, traditional power plants were producing 10 times more electric power than were photovoltaic plants.
  • None of the recent technological advances in producing electric power at photovoltaic plants can be applied to producing power at traditional plants.
  • Twenty years ago, the cost of producing electric power at photovoltaic plants was less than 20 times the cost of producing power at traditional plants.
  • The cost of producing electric power at photovoltaic plants is expected to decrease further, while the cost of producing power at traditional plants is not expected to decrease.

Question 83

Question
In a bureaucracy, all decisions are arrived at by a process that involves many people. There is no one person who has the authority to decide whether a project will process or not. As a consequence, in bureaucracies, risky projects are never undertaken. The conclusion follows logically from the premises if which one of the following
Answer
  • All projects in a bureaucracy require risk.
  • Decisive individuals choose not to work in a bureaucracy.
  • An individual who has decision-making power will take risks.
  • The only risky projects undertaken are those for which a single individual has decision-making power.
  • People sometimes take risks as individuals that they would not take as part of a group.

Question 84

Question
In many languages other than English there is a word for "mother's brother" which is different from the word for "father's brother," whereas English uses the word "uncle" for both. Thus, speakers of these languages evidence a more finely discriminated kinship system than English speakers do. The number of basic words for colors also varies widely from language to language. Therefore, speakers of languages that have fewer basic words for colors than English has must be perceptually unable to distinguish as many colors as speakers of English can distinguish. The conclusion concerning words for colors would be properly draw if which one of the following were assumed?
Answer
  • Most languages have distinct words for "sister" and "brother."
  • Each language has a different basic word for each sensory quality that its speakers can perceptually distinguish.
  • Every language makes some category distinctions that no other language makes.
  • In any language short, frequently used words express categories that are important for its speakers to distinguish perceptually from each other.
  • Speaker of languages with relatively few basic words for colors live in geographical regions where flora and fauna do not vary greatly in color.

Question 85

Question
In experiments in which certain kinds of bacteria were placed in a generous supply of nutrients, the populations of bacteria grew rapidly, and genetic mutations occurred at random in the populations. These experiments show that all genetic mutation is random. Which one of the following, if true, enables the conclusion to be properly drawn?
Answer
  • Either all genetic mutations are random or none are random.
  • The bacteria tested in the experiments were of extremely common forms.
  • If all genetic mutations in bacteria are random, then all genetic mutations in every other life form are random also.
  • The kind of environment in which genetic mutation takes place has no effect on the way genetic mutation occurs.
  • The nutrients used were the same as those that nourish the bacteria in nature.

Question 86

Question
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?
Answer
  • 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.
  • Humans who settled Australia probably introduced many of the placental mammal species now present on that Continent.
  • The only Australian placentals that could be native to Australia would be animals whose ancestors could not have reached Australia from elsewhere.
  • No marsupials now found in Australia can swim long distances, fly, or float on driftwood.
  • Seals, bats, and mice are typically found only in areas where there are no native marsupials.

Question 87

Question
In the past decade, a decreasing percentage of money spent on treating disease X went to pay for standard methods of treatment, which are known to be effective though they are expensive and painful. An increasing percentage is being spent on nonstandard treatments, which cause little discomfort. Unfortunately,the nonstandard treatments have proved to be ineffective. Obviously, less money is being spent now on effective treatments of disease X than was spent 10 years ago. Which one of the following if assumed, allows the conclusion above to be properly drawn?
Answer
  • Varieties of disease X requiring expensive special treatment have become less common during the past decade
  • Nonstandard methods of treating disease X are more expensive now than they were a decade ago.
  • Of total medical expenditures, the percentage that is due to treatment of disease X increased during the past decade
  • Most of the money spent on treating disease X during the last decade went to pay for nonstandard treatments
  • The total amount of money spent on treating disease X slowly declined during the past decade

Question 88

Question
Mainstream economic theory holds that manufacturers, in deciding what kinds of products to manufacture and what form those products should have, simply respond to the needs and desires of consumers. However, most major manufacturers manipulate and even create consumer demand, as anyone who watches television knows. Since even mainstream economic theorists watch television, their motive in advancing this theory must be something other than disinterested concern for scientific truth. The claim that manufacturers manipulate and create consumer demand plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
Answer
  • It is one of the claims on which the conclusion is based.
  • It is the conclusion of the argument.
  • It states the position argued against.
  • It states a possible objection to the argument's conclusion.
  • It provides supplementary background information.

Question 89

Question
In opposing the 1970 Clean Air Act, the United States automobile industry argued that meeting the act’s standards for automobile emissions was neither economically feasible nor environmentally necessary. However, the catalytic converter, invented in 1967, enabled automakers to meet the 1970 standards efficiently. Currently, automakers are lobbying against the government’s attempt to pass legislation that would tighten restrictions on automobile emissions. The automakers contend that these new restrictions would be overly expensive and unnecessary to efforts to curb air pollution. Clearly, the automobile industry’s position should not be heeded. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the method used to counter the automakers’ current position?
Answer
  • The automakers’ premises are shown to lead to a contradiction.
  • Facts are mentioned that show that the automakers are relying on false information.
  • A flaw is pointed out in the reasoning used by the automakers to reach their conclusion.
  • A comparison is drawn between the automakers’ current position and a position they held in the past.
  • Evidence is provided that the new emissions legislation is both economically feasible and environmentally necessary.

Question 90

Question
The Transit Authority’s proposal to increase fares by 40 percent must be implemented. Admittedly, this fare increase will impose a hardship on some bus and subway riders. But if the fare is not increased, service will have to be cut severely and that would result in an unacceptably large loss of ridership. The passage employs which one of the following argumentative strategies?
Answer
  • It offers evidence that the recommended course of action would have no undesirable consequences.
  • It shows that a proponent of any alternative position would be force into a contradiction.
  • It arrives at its conclusion indirectly by providing reasons for rejecting an alternative course of action.
  • It explains why the recommended course of action would not be subject to the objections raised against the alternative.
  • It justifies the conclusion by showing that such a course of action has proven effective in the past.

Question 91

Question
Concetta: Franchot was a great writer because she was ahead of her time in understanding that industrialization was taking an unconscionable toll on the family structure of the working class. Alicia: Franchot was not a great writer. The mark of a great writer is the ability to move people with the power of the written word, not the ability to be among the first to grasp a social issue. Besides, the social consequences of industrialization were widely understood in Franchot's day. In her disagreement with Concetta, Alicia does which one of the following?
Answer
  • accepts Concetta's criterion and then adds evidence to Concetta's case
  • discredits Concetta's evidence and then generalizes from new evidence
  • rejects Concetta's criterion and then disputes a specific claim
  • disputes Concetta's conclusion and then presents facts in support of an alternative criterion
  • attacks one of Concetta's claims and then criticizes the structure of her argument

Question 92

Question
The United States government generally tries to protect valuable natural resources. But one resource has been ignored for too long. In the United States, each bushel of corn produced might result in the loss of as much as two bushels of topsoil. Moreover, in the last 100 years, the topsoil in many states, which once was about fourteen inches thick, has been eroded to only six or eight inches. Nonetheless, federal expenditures for nationwide soil conservation programs have remained at ridiculously low levels. Total federal expenditures for nationwide soil conservation programs have been less than the allocations of some individual states. In stating the argument, the author does which one of the following?
Answer
  • makes a detailed statistical projection of future topsoil loss
  • makes a generalization about the total reduction in topsoil depth in all states
  • assumes that the United States government does not place a high value on its natural resources
  • refrains from using slanted language concerning the level of federal expenditures
  • compares state expenditures with federal expenditures

Question 93

Question
Proposals for extending the United States school year to bring it more in line with its European and Japanese counterparts are often met with the objection that curtailing the school's three-month summer vacation would violate an established United States tradition dating from the nineteenth century. However, this objection misses its mark. True, in the nineteenth century, the majority of schools closed for three months every summer, but only because they were in rural areas where successful harvests depended on children labor. If any policy could be justified by those appears to tradition. It would be the policy of determining the length of the school year according to the needs of the economy. The argument counters the objection by
Answer
  • providing evidence to show that the objection relies on a misunderstanding about the amount of time each United States traditionally have been closed
  • calling into question the relevance of information about historical practices to current disputes about proposed social change
  • arguing for an alternate understanding of the nature of the United States tradition regarding the length of the school year
  • showing that those who oppose extending the school year have no genuine concern for tradition
  • demonstrating that tradition justifies bringing the United States school year in line with that of the rest of the industrialized world

Question 94

Question
Advertisement: Anyone who exercises knows from firsthand experience that exercise leads to better performance of such physical organs as the heart and lungs, as well as to improvement in muscle tone. And since your brain is a physical organ, your actions can improve its performance, too. Act now. Subscribe to Stimulus: read the magazine that exercises your brain. The Advertisement employs which one of the following argumentative strategies?
Answer
  • It cites experimental evidence that subscribing to the product being advertised has desirable consequences.
  • It ridicules people who do not subscribe to Stimulus by suggesting that they do not believe that exercise will improve brain capacity.
  • It explains the process by which the product being advertised brings about the result claimed for its use.
  • It supports its recommendation by a careful analysis of the concept of exercise.
  • It implies that brains and muscle are similar in one respect because they are similar in another respect.

Question 95

Question
SHOW TIMER STATISTICS Coherent solutions for the problem of reducing health-care costs cannot be found within the current piecemeal (done, made, or accomplished piece by piece or in a fragmentary way *piecemeal reforms in the system*) system of paying these costs. The reason is that this system gives health-care providers and insurers every incentive to shift, wherever possible, the costs of treating illness onto each other or any other party, including the patient. That clearly is the lesson of the various reforms of the 1980s: push in on one part of this pliable spending balloon and an equally expensive bulge pops up elsewhere. For example, when the government health-care insurance program for the poor cut costs by disallowing payments for some visits to physicians, patients with advanced illness later presented themselves at hospital emergency rooms in increased numbers. The argument proceeds by
Answer
  • showing that shifting costs onto the patient contradicts the premise of health-care reimbursement
  • attributing without justification fraudulent intent to people
  • employing an analogy to characterize interrelationships
  • denying the possibility of a solution by disparaging each possible alternative system
  • demonstrating that cooperation is feasible by citing an instance

Question 96

Question
Historian: There is no direct evidence that timber was traded between the ancient nations of Poran and Nayal, but the fact that a law setting tariffs on timber imports from Poran was enacted during the third Nayalese dynasty does suggest that during that period a timber trade was conducted. Critic: Your reasoning is flawed. During its third dynasty, Nayal may well have imported timber from Poran, but certainly on today's statute books there remain many laws regulating activities that were once common but in which people no longer engage. The critic's response to the historian's reasoning does which one of the following?
Answer
  • It implies an analogy between the present and the past.
  • It identifies a general principle that the historian's reasoning violates.
  • It distinguishes between what has been established as a certainty and what has been established as a possibility.
  • It establishes explicit criteria that must be used in evaluating indirect evidence.
  • It points out the dissimilar roles that law plays in societies that are distinct from one another.

Question 97

Question
The problem that environmental economics aims to remedy is the following: people making economic decisions cannot readily compare environmental factors, such as clean air and the survival of endangered species, with other costs and benefits. As environmental economists recognize, solving this problem requires assigning monetary values to environmental factors. But monetary values result from people comparing costs and benefits in order to arrive at economic decisions. Thus, environmental economics is stymied by what motivates it. If the considerations advanced in its support are true, the passage's conclusion is supported
Answer
  • strongly, on the assumption that monetary values for environment factors cannot be assigned unless people make economic decisions about these factors
  • strongly, unless economic decision-making has not yet had any effect on the things categorized as environmental factors
  • at best weakly, because the passage fails to establish that economic decision-makers do not by and large take adequate account of environmental factors
  • at best weakly, because the argument assumes that pollution and other effects on environmental factors rarely result from economic decision-making
  • not at all, since the argument is circular, taking that conclusion as one of its premises

Question 98

Question
S: It would be premature to act to halt the threatened “global warming trend,” since that alleged trend might not be real. After all, scientists disagree about it, some predicting over twice as much warming as others, so clearly their predictions cannot be based on firm evidence. W: Most scientists consider discussions of accepted ideas boring, and prefer to argue about what is not known. According to the International Science Council there is a consensus among reputable investigators that average global warming in the next century will be from 1.5℃ to 4.5℃. W’s rejoinder proceeds by
Answer
  • denying the existence of the disagreements cited by S
  • accepting S’s conclusion while disputing the reasons offered for it
  • relying on authorities whose views conflict with the views of the authorities cited by S
  • putting disagreements cited by S in perspective by emphasizing similarities
  • reasoning in a circle by accepting evidence only if it agrees with a desired conclusion

Question 99

Question
Psychologists have claimed that many people are more susceptible to psychological problems in the winter than in the summer; the psychologists call this condition seasonal affective disorder. Their claim is based on the results of surveys in which people were asked to recall how they felt at various times in the past. However, it is not clear that people are able to report accurately on their past psychological states. Therefore, these survey results do not justify the psychologists' claim that there is any such condition as seasonal affective disorder. The author criticizes the psychologists claim by
Answer
  • offering an alternative explanation of the variation in the occurrence of psychological problems across seasons
  • questioning whether any seasonal variation in the occurrence of psychological problems could properly be labeled a disorder
  • questioning the representativeness of the population sample surveyed by the psychologists
  • questioning an assumption that the author attributes to the psychologists
  • demonstrating that fewer people actually suffer from seasonal affective disorder than psychologists had previously thought

Question 100

Question
Millions of female bats rear their pups in Bracken Cave. Although the mothers all leave the cave nightly, on their return each mother is almost always swiftly reunited with her own pup. Since the bats' calls are their only means of finding one another, and a bat pup cannot distinguish the call of its mother from that of any other adult bat, it is clear that each mother bat can recognize the call of her pup. The argument seeks to do which one of the following?
Answer
  • derive a general conclusion about all members of a group from facts known about representative members of that group
  • establish the validity of one explanation for a phenomenon by excluding alternative explanations
  • support, by describing a suitable mechanism, the hypothesis that a certain phenomenon can occur
  • conclude that members of two groups are likely to share a certain ability because of other characteristics they share
  • demonstrate that a general rule applies in a particular case

Question 101

Question
Some people have been promoting a new herbal mixture as a remedy for the common cold. The mixture contains, among other things, extracts of plants purple coneflower and goldenseal. A cold sufferer, skeptical of the claim that the mixture is an effective cold remedy, argued, " Suppose that the mixture were an effective cold remedy. Since most people with colds with to recover quickly, it follows that almost everybody with a cold would be using it. Therefore, since there are many people who have colds but do not use the mixture, it is obviously not effective." Which one of the following most accurately describes the method of reasoning the cold sufferer uses to reach the conclusion of the argument?
Answer
  • finding a claim to be false on the grounds that it would if true have consequences that are false
  • accepting a claim on the basis of public opninon of the claim
  • showing that conditions necessary to establish the truth of a claim are met
  • basing a generalization on a representative group of instances
  • showing that a measure claimed to be effective in acheiving a certain effect would actually make acheiving the effect more difficult

Question 102

Question
Household indebtedness, which some theorists regard as causing recession, was high preceding the recent recession, but so was the value of assets owned by households. Admittedly, if most of the assets were owned by quite affluent households, and most of the debt was owed by low-income households, high household debt levels could have been the cause of the recession despite high asset values: low-income households might have decreased spending in order to pay off debts while the quite affluent ones might simply have failed to increase spending. But, in fact, quite affluent people must have owed most of the household debt, since money is not lent to those without assets. Therefore, the real cause must lie elsewhere. The argument is structured to lead to which one of the following conclusions?
Answer
  • High levels of household debt did not cause the recent recession
  • Low-income households succeeded in paying off their debts despite the recent recession
  • Affluent people probably increased their spending levels during the recent recession
  • High levels of household debt have little impact on the economy
  • When people borrowed money prior to the recent recession, they did not use it to purchase assets

Question 103

Question
Zachary: One would have to be blind to the reality of moral obligation to deny that people who believe a course of action to be morally obligatory for them have both the right and the duty to pursue that action, and that no one else has any right to stop them from doing so. Cynthia: But imagine an artist who feels morally obliged to do whatever she can to prevent works of art from being destroyed confronting a morally committed antipornography demonstrator engaged in destroying artworks he deems pornographic. According to your principle that artist has, simultaneously, both the right and the duty to stop the destruction and no right whatsoever to stop it. Cynthia's response to Zachary's claim is structured to demonstrate that
Answer
  • the concept of moral obligation is inconherent
  • the ideas of right and duty should not be taken seriously since doing so leads to morally undesirable consequences
  • Zachary's principle is untenable on its own terms
  • because the term "moral obligation" is understood differently by different people, it is impossible to find a principle concerning moral rights and the duties that applies to everyone
  • Zachary's principle is based on an understanding of moral obligation that is too narrow to encompass the kind of moral obligation artists feel toward works of art

Question 104

Question
Would it be right for the government to abandon efforts to determine at what levels to allow toxic substances in our food supply? Only if it can reasonably be argued that the only acceptable level of toxic substances in food is zero. However, virtually all foods contain perfectly natural substances that are toxic but cause no harm because they do not occur in food in toxic concentrations. Furthermore, we can never be certain of having reduced the concentration of any substance to zero; all we can ever know is that it has been reduced to below the threshold of detection of current analytical methods. The main conclusion of the argument is that
Answer
  • the government should continue trying to determine acceptable levels for toxic substances in our food supply
  • the only acceptable level of toxic substances in food is zero
  • naturally occurring toxic substances in food present little danger because they rarely occur in toxic concentrations
  • the government will never be able to determine with certainty that a food contains no toxic substances
  • the government needs to refine its methods of detecting toxic substances in our food supply

Question 105

Question
Should a Journalist’s story begin with the set phrase “in a surprise development” as routinely happens? Well, not if the surprise was merely the journalist’s, since journalists should not intrude themselves into their stories, and not if the surprise was someone else’s, because if some person’s surprise was worth mentioning at all, it should have been specifically attributed. The one possibility remaining is that lots of people were surprised: in that case, however, there is no point in belaboring the obvious. Which one of the following most accurately states the conclusion of the argument above?
Answer
  • Journalists should reserve use of the phrase “in a surprise development" for major developments that are truly unexpected.
  • The phrase "in a surprise development" is appropriately used only where someone's being surprised is itself interesting.
  • The phase "in a surprise development" is used in three distinct sorts of circumstances.
  • Journalists should make the point that a development comes as a surprise when summing up, not when introducing a story.
  • Introducing stories with the phrase “in a surprise development” is not good journalistic practice.

Question 106

Question
Consumer advocate: Under the current absence of government standards for food product labeling, manufacturers are misleading or deceiving consumers by their product labeling. For example, a certain brand of juice is labeled “fresh orange juice,” yet the product is made from water, concentrate, and flavor enhancers. Since “fresh” as applied to food products is commonly understood to mean pure and unprocessed, labeling that orange juice “fresh” is unquestionably deceptive. Manufacturer: Using words somewhat differently than they are commonly used is not deceptive. After all, “fresh” can also mean never frozen. We cannot be faulted for failing to comply with standards that have not been officially formulated. When the government sets clear standards pertaining to product labeling, we will certainly comply with them. On the basis of their statements above, the consumer advocate and the manufacturer are committed to disagreeing about the truth of which one of the following statements?
Answer
  • In the absence of government standards, common understanding is the arbiter of deceptive labeling practices.
  • Truthful labeling practices that reflect common standards of usage can be established by the government.
  • The term “fresh” when it is applied to food products is commonly understood to mean pure and unprocessed.
  • Terms that apply to natural foods can be truthfully applied to packaged foods.
  • Clear government standards for labeling food products will ensure truthful labeling practices.

Question 107

Question
Sabina: The words used in expressing facts affect neither the facts nor the conclusions those facts will support. Moreover, if the words are clearly defined and consistently used, the actual words chosen make no difference to an argument’s soundness. Thus, how an argument is expressed can have no bearing on whether it is a good argument. Emile: Badly chosen words can make even the soundest argument a poor one. After all, many words have social and political connotations that influence people’s response to claims expressed in those words, regardless of how carefully and explicitly those words are defined. Since whether people will acknowledge a fact is affected by how the fact is expressed, the conclusions they actually draw are also affected. The point at issue between Emile and Sabina is whether
Answer
  • defining words in one way rather than another can alter either the facts or the conclusions the facts will justify
  • a word can be defined without taking into account its social and political connotations
  • a sound argument in support of a given conclusion is a better argument than any unsound argument for that same conclusion
  • it would be a good policy to avoid using words that are likely to lead people either to misunderstand the claims being made or to reason badly about those claims
  • a factor that affects neither the truth of an argument’s premises nor the logical relation between its premises and its conclusion can cause an argument to be a bad one

Question 108

Question
Conservative: Socialists begin their arguments with an analysis of history, from which they claim to derive certain trends leading inevitably to a socialist future. But in the day-to-day progress of history there are never such discernible trends. Only in retrospect does inevitability appear, for history occurs through accident, contingency, and individual struggle. Socialist: If we thought the outcome of history were inevitable, we would not work so hard to transform the institutions of capitalist society. But to transform them we must first understand them, and we can only understand them by an analysis of their history. This is why historical analysis is important in socialist argument. In the dispute the issue between the socialist and the conservatives can most accurately be described as whether
Answer
  • a socialist society is the inevitable consequence of historical trends that can be identified by an analysis of history
  • the institutions of capitalist society stand in need of transformation
  • socialists' arguments for the inevitability of socialism are justified
  • it is possible for people by their own efforts to affect the course of history
  • socialists analyze history in order to support the view that socialism is inevitable

Question 109

Question
Motorcoach driver: Professional drivers spend much more time driving, on average, than do other people and hence are more competent drivers that are other, less experienced drivers. Therefore, the speed limit on major highways should not be reduced, because that action would have the undesirable effect of forcing some people who are now both law-abiding and competent drivers to break the law. Police officer: All drivers can drive within the legal speed limit if they wish, so it is not true to say that reducing the speed limit would be the cause of such illegal behavior. The point at issue between the motorcoach driver and police officer is whether
Answer
  • it would be desirable to reduce the speed limit on major highway
  • professional drivers will drive within the legal speed limit if that limit is reduced
  • reducing the speed limit on major highways would cause some professional drivers to break the law
  • professional drivers are more competent drivers than are other less experienced drivers
  • all drivers wish to drive within the speed limit

Question 110

Question
Yolanda: Gaining access to computers without authorization and manipulating the data and programs they contain is comparable to joyriding in stolen cars; both involve breaking into private property and treating it recklessly. Joyriding, however, is the more dangerous crime because it physically endangers people, whereas only intellectual property is harmed in the case of computer crimes. Arjun: I disagree! For example, unauthorized use of medical records systems in hospitals could damage data systems on which human lives depend, and therefore computer crimes also cause physical harm to people. An issue in dispute between Yolanda and Arjun is
Answer
  • whether joyriding physically endangers human lives
  • whether the unauthorized manipulation of computer data involves damage to privates property
  • whether damages to physical property is more criminal than damage to intellectual property
  • whether the unauthorized use of computers is as dangerous to people as is joyriding
  • whether treating private property recklessly is ever a dangerous crime

Question 111

Question
Murray: You claim Senator Brandon has accepted gifts from lobbyists. You are wrong to make this criticism. That it is motivated by personal dislike is shown by the fact that you deliberately avoid criticizing other politicians who have done what you accuse Senator Brandon of doing. Jan: You are right that I dislike Senator Brandon, but just because I have not criticized the same failing in others doesn't' mean you can excuse the senator's offense. If Murray and Jane are both sincere in what they say, then it can properly be concluded that they agree that
Answer
  • Senator Brandon has accepted gifts from lobbyists
  • It is wrong for politicians to accept gifts from lobbyists
  • Jane's criticism of Senator Brandon is motivated only by personal dislike
  • Senator Brandon should be criticized for accepting gifts from lobbyists
  • One or more politicians have accepted gifts from lobbyists

Question 112

Question
A large company has been convicted of engaging in monopolistic practices. The penalty imposed on the company will probably have little if any effect on its behavior. Still, the trial was worth while, since it provided useful information about the company's practices. After all, this information has emboldened the company's direct competitors, alerted potential rivals, and forced the company to restrain its unfair behavior toward customers and competitors.
Answer
  • Even if the company had not been convicted of engaging in monopolistic practices, the trial probably would have had some effect on the company's behavior
  • The light shed on the company's practices by the trial has emboldened its competitors, alerted potential rivals, and forced the company to restrain its unfair behavior.
  • The penalty imposed on the company will likely have little or no effect on its behavior
  • The company's trial on charges engaging in monopolistic behavior was worthwhile
  • The penalty imposed on the company in the trial should have been larger

Question 113

Question
Anthropologist: It was formerly believed that prehistoric Homo Sapiens ancestors of contemporary humans interbred with Neanderthals, but DNA testing of a Neanderthal's remains indicated that this is not the case. The DNA of contemporary humans is significantly different from that of the Neanderthal. Which of the following is an assumption required by the anthropologist's argument?
Answer
  • At least some Neanderthals lived at the same time and in the same places as prehistoric Homo sapiens ancestors of contemporary humans
  • DNA testing of remains is significantly less reliable than DNA testing of samples from living species
  • The DNA of prehistoric Homo sapiens ancestors of contemporary humans was not significantly more similar to that of Neanderthals than is the DNA of con
  • Neanderthals and prehistoric Homo sapiens ancestors of contemporary humans were completely isolated from each other geographically
  • Any similarity in the DNA of two species must be a result of interbreeding

Question 114

Question
Students from outside the province of Markland, who in any given academic year pay twice as much tuition each as do students from Markland, had traditionally accounted for at least two-thirds of the enrollment at Central Markland College. Over the past 10 years academic standards at the college have risen and the proportion of students who are not Marklanders has dropped to around 40 percent. Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the statements above?
Answer
  • If it had not been for the high tuition paid by students from outside Markland, the college could not have improved its academic standards over the past 10 years.
  • If academic standards had not risen over the past 10 years, students who are not Marklanders would still account for at least two-thirds of the college’s enrollment.
  • Over the past 10 year the number of students from Markland increased and the number of students from outside Markland decreased.
  • Over the past 10 years academic standards at Central Markland College have risen by more than academic standards at any other college in Markland.
  • If the college’s per capita revenue from tuition has remained the same, tuition fees have increased over the past 10 years.
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