Like Reading Comprehension, you must take a passage and answer the multiple choice questions provided. This time however, the passage given will be less than 100 words and are followed by less questions. Like the title provides, this portion is meant to test your reasoning skills. This means analyzing the arguments provided, but also creating your own arguments as well as action plans to go along with the material.
You will be given a situation in the question in which you will have to break apart to find your answer. Don't get all worried if the subject of what you're reading doesn't seem familiar. The questions are not based on what you know prior or what you're familiar with. They are based on what you can dig up and retrieve from the actual text given.
According to the Official Guide for GMAT Review, there are 3 areas in which you will be working through…
Argument Construction
Argument Evaluation
Formulating and Evaluating a Plan of Action
Argument Construction
What is the structure of this passage? What arguments are being drawn throughout? Are there any conclusions being made, or assumptions along the way? You may find that there are similarities mirrored in different arguments, or that a research question is posed indirectly through the work. Try to delve into the reading and base what you find on the concrete structure that makes up the material.
Argument Evaluation
Can you analyze this given text? Do you understand this certain argument?Are you able to take off your rose-colored lenses and see past the author's possible bias?
Where does the author have strength in their writing? What about weaknesses? This is putting what the arguments are into context of the whole. Asking yourself if the arguments fly and whether they're backed up will help you determine these questions.
Formulating and Evaluating a Plan of Action
How effective is this written work? How diverse is the plan of action provided? Is there an openness about it to leave room for other prospective research, points, arguments or findings? Are there any factors that come into play as far as arguments go, to strengthen or weaken their points? These questions cause you to inquire into the make-up of the plan of action provided. Your job is to see whether it makes sense.
The bottom line for all of these questions is to think critically. Put on that analyzer eyeglass and try to see beyond what the text is generally saying. Critically reason out and analyze each point, bias and statement. These questions test your ability to see the text from a critical perspective.
Make sure to be careful while reading. Some statements are made generally whereas others are solid fact. Make sure you can distinguish between what is claimed by the facts and what is claimed by the author. Truth is an important factor here.
Try to figure out where it falls. It may trick you and not actually fall at the end so be careful with that. These conclusions can help you think logically about the rest of the work you're analyzing.
It is important that you clearly understand what the question is asking. Only then can you be solid in your answer. Read it carefully and then go to your text for reference. Some questions may seem awfully similar (resulting in people getting awfully confused) so make sure you've got your apples and oranges sorted out.
Answer Answer…
Before purely picking the answer you may know is right, read all of the options just to be sure. If you reason out the material with a critical eye and a knack for what the question requires of you, you can be sure you'll be set!
1. Below is an excerpt from a letter that was sent by the chairman of a corporation to the stockholders.
A number of charges have been raised against me, some serious, some trivial. Individuals seeking to control the corporation for their own purposes have demanded my resignation. Remember that no court of law in any state has found me guilty of any criminal offense whatsoever. In the American tradition, as you know, an individual is considered innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, as the corporation’s unbroken six-year record of growth will show, my conduct of my official duties as chairman has only helped enhance the success of the corporation, and so benefited every stockholder.
Which of the following can be properly inferred from the excerpt?
(A) The chairman believes that all those who have demanded his resignation are motivated by desire to control the corporation for their own purposes.
(B) Any misdeeds that the chairman may have committed were motivated by his desire to enhance the success of the corporation.
(C) The chairman is innocent of any criminal offense.
(D) The corporation has expanded steadily over the past six years.（D）
(E) Any legal proceedings against the chairman have resulted in his acquittal.
2. In the years since the city of London imposed strict air-pollution regulations on local industry, the number of bird species seen in and around London has increased dramatically. Similar air-pollution rules should be imposed in other major cities.
Each of the following is an assumption made in the argument above EXCEPT:
(A) In most major cities, air-pollution problems are caused almost entirely by local industry.
(B) Air-pollution regulations on industry have a significant impact on the quality of the air.
(C) The air-pollution problems of other major cities are basically similar to those once suffered by London.
(D) An increase in the number of bird species in and around a city is desirable.（A）
(E) The increased sightings of bird species in and around London reflect an actual increase in the number of species in the area.
3. Which of the following best completes the passage below?
In opposing government regulation of business, conservatives often appeal to the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government, expressing the wish that government would “get off the backs of the American people.” Yet, paradoxically, many of these same conservatives address questions of private morality, such as those dealing with sexual behavior, by calling for______
(A) a return to the restrictive sexual morality of the Victorian era
(B) a strengthening of the role of the family in setting moral norms for society
(C) a limitation on the amount of sexually provocative material appearing in books, motives, and television shows
(D) greater freedom for individuals to choose their own way of handling sexual issues（E）
(E) an increased governmental role in the regulation and control of private sexual behavior
Questions 4-5 are based on the following:
In an experiment, two different types of recorded music were played for neonates in adjacent nurseries in a hospital. In nursery A, classical music was played; in nursery B, rock music was played. After two weeks, it was found that the babies in nursery A cried less, suffered fewer minor ailments, and gained more weight than did the babies in nursery B.
4. In evaluating the validity of the conclusion suggested by the experiment above, it would be most important to know which of the following?
(A) The musical preferences of the parents of the two groups of newborns
(B) Whether the newborns in both nurseries were equally healthy and happy at the start of the experiment
(C) Whether loud rock music can damage the hearing of newborns
(D) What the average weight of the neonates was before and after the experiment（B）
(E) Whether the music was played in the nurseries at all times or only at certain times
5. Which of the following additional experimental data would support the hypothesis that classical music is beneficial to the development of newborn?
(A) The neonates in a nursery where no music was played fared better than those in nursery B.
(B) Nursery A contained 15 percent more premature babies than nursery B.
(C) The newborns in nursery A cried less, suffered fewer minor ailments, and gained more weight than did newborns in a nursery with no music.
(D) The music played in nursery A was louder than that played in nursery B.（C）
(E) The ratio of nurses to newborns in nursery B was 1 to 4; in nursery A, it was 1 to 6.
6. The ancient city of Cephesa was not buried by an eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 310, as some believe. The eruption in the year 310 damaged the city, but it did not destroy it. Cephesa survived for another century before it finally met its destruction in another eruption around A.D. 415.
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author’s claim that the city of Cephesa was not buried by the eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 310?
(A) The city of Cephesa is mentioned in a historical work known to have been written in A.D. 400.
(B) Coins bearing the image of an emperor who lived around A.D. 410 have been discovered in the ruins of Cephesa, which were preserved by the cinders and ashes that buried the city.
(C) Geological evidence shows that the eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 415 deposited a 10-foot-thick layer of lava on the city of Cephesa.
(D) Artworks from the city of Cephesa have been found in the ruins of another city known to have been destroyed in A.D. 420.（B）
(E) A historical work written in A.D. 430 refers to the eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 415.
7. June is taller than Kristin.
Letty is taller than Maria.
Maria is shorter than Nancy.
Kristin and Nancy are exactly the same height.
If the information above is true, which of the following must also be true?
(A) Letty is taller than Nancy.
(B) Letty is taller than June.
(C) Kristin is shorter than Letty.
(D) June is taller than Maria.（D）
(E) Kristin is shorter than Maria.
8. Current farm policy is institutionalized penalization of consumers. It increases food prices for middle- and low-income families and costs the taxpayer billions of dollars a year.
Which of the following statements, if true, would provide support for the author’s claims above?
I. Farm subsidies amount to roughly $20 billion a year in federal payouts and $12 billion more in higher food prices.
II. According to a study by the Department of Agriculture, each $1 of benefits provided to farmers for ethanol production costs consumers and taxpayers $4.
III. The average full-time farmers have an average net worth of over $300,000.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) III only
(D) I and II only（D）
(E) I, II, and III
9. Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school and schoolwork won’t work. Take the program in West Virginia, for instance, where they tried to reduce their dropout rate by revoking the driving licenses of kids who left school. The program failed miserably.
Anne: It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems.
According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is that it
(A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses
(B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program
(C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years
(D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license（E）
(E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical
10. In many surveys, American consumers have expressed a willingness to spend up to 10 percent more for products that are ecologically sound. Encouraged by such surveys, Bleach-O Corporation promoted a new laundry detergent, Bleach-O Green, as safer for the environment. Bleach-O Green cost 5 percent more than typical detergents. After one year, Bleach-O Green had failed to capture a significant share of the detergent market and was withdrawn from sale.
Which of the following questions is LEAST likely to be relevant in determining the reasons for the failure of Bleach-O Green?
(A) How effective as a detergent was Bleach-O Green?
(B) How many other detergents on the market were promoted as safe for the environment?
(C) How much more did Bleach-O Green cost to manufacture than ordinary detergents?
(D) To what extent did consumers accept the validity of Bleach-O Green advertised and promoted to consumers?（C）
(E) How effectively was Bleach-O Green advertised and promoted to consumers?
11. The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportionately on the trucking industry. Trucks represent only about 10 percent of the vehicles on U.S. roads. Yet road use taxes assessed on trucks amount to almost half the taxes paid for highway upkeep and repair.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) The trucking industry has enjoyed record after-tax profits in three of the past four years.
(B) Because of their weight, trucks cause over 50 percent of the damage sustained by highway surfaces each year.
(C) Without an economically viable trucking industry, the cost of goods in the United States would rise significantly.
(D) Road use taxes paid by trucking companies have decreased by 3 percent over the past five years.（B）
(E) Due to years of neglect, U.S. highways today are badly in need of major repairs and rebuilding.
12. The upcoming presidential election in the West African republic of Ganelon is of grave concern to the U.S. State Department. Ganelon presently has strong political and military ties to the United States. However, the Socialist party is widely expected to win the election, leading to fears that Ganelon will soon break away from the pro-American bloc and adopt a nonaligned or openly anti-American stance.
Which of the following is an assumption made in the passage above?
(A) A Socialist party government in Ganelon is more likely to oppose the United States than is a non-Socialist party government.
(B) The people of the United States recognize their nation’s interest in the political stability of West Africa.
(C) A weakening of U.S. political ties with Ganelon could have serious consequences for U.S. relations with other African nations.
(D) The Socialist party leaders in Ganelon believe that their nation’s interests would best be served by an alliance with anti-American forces.（A）
(E) The Socialist party will win the upcoming election in Ganelon.
13. No nation can long survive unless its people are united by a common tongue. For proof, we need only consider Canada, which is being torn asunder by conflicts between French-speaking Quebec and the other provinces, which are dominated by English speakers.
Which of the following, if true, most effectively challenges the author’s conclusion?
(A) Conflicts over language have led to violent clashes between the Basque-speaking minority in Spain and the Spanish-speaking majority.
(B) Proposals to declare English the official language of the United States have met with resistance from members of Hispanic and other minority groups.
(C) Economic and political differences, along with linguistic ones, have contributed to the provincial conflicts in Canada.
(D) The public of India, in existence sine 1948, has a population that speaks hundreds of different, though related, languages.（E）
(E) Switzerland has survived for nearly a thousand years as a home for speakers of three different languages.
14. As an experienced labor organizer and the former head of one of the nation’s most powerful labor unions, Grayson is an excellent choice to chair the new council on business-labor relations.
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion above?
(A) The new council must have the support of the nation’s labor leaders if it is to succeed.
(B) During his years as a labor leader, Grayson established a record of good relations with business leaders.
(C) The chair of the new council must be a person who can communicate directly with the leaders of the nation’s largest labor unions.
(D) Most of the other members of the new council will be representatives of business management interests.（E）
(E) An understanding of the needs and problems of labor is the only qualification necessary for the job of chairing the new council.
15. In the effort to fire a Civil Service employee, his or her manager may have to spend up to $100,000 of tax money. Since Civil Service employees know how hard it is to fire them, they tend to loaf. This explains in large part why the government is so inefficient.
It can be properly inferred on the basis of the statements above that the author believes which of the following?
I. Too much job security can have a negative influence on workers.
II. More government workers should be fired.
III. Most government workers are Civil Service employees.
(A) I only
(B) I and III only
(C) II only
(D) I, II, and III（A）
(E) III only
16. Some commentators complain that a “litigation explosion” in the past decade has led to unreasonably high costs for U.S. businesses by encouraging more product liability suits against manufacturers. However, these complaints are based mainly on myth. Statistics show that the number of successful product liability suits has remained almost the same, and the average sum awarded in damages has grown no faster than the inflation rate.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) The number of unsuccessful suits has skyrocketed, imposing huge new legal expenses on businesses.
(B) Several of the largest awards ever made in product liability cases occurred within the last two years.
(C) The rise of the consumer movement has encouraged citizens to seek legal redress for product flaws.
(D) Lawyers often undertake product liability cases on a contingency basis, so their payment is based on the size of the damages awarded.（A）
(E) Juries often award damages in product liability suits out of emotional sympathy for an injured consumer.
17. Ronald: According to my analysis of the national economy, housing prices should not increase during the next six months unless interest rates drop significantly.
Mark: I disagree. One year ago, when interest rates last fell significantly, housing prices did not increase at all.
It can be inferred from the conversation above that Mark has interpreted Ronald’s statement to mean that
(A) housing prices will rise only if interest rates fall
(B) if interest rates fall, housing prices must rise
(C) interest rates and housing prices tend to rise and fall together
(D) interest rates are the only significant economic factor affecting housing prices（B）
(E) interest rates are likely to fall significantly in the next six months
18. It’s time we stopped searching for new statistics to suggest that we are not spending enough on education. In fact, education spending increased 30 percent overall during the last decade.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) Despite increased spending on education, enrollment in our elementary and secondary schools declined about 4 percent during the last ten years.
(B) Our spending on gasoline increased more than 100 percent during the last decade.
(C) When adjusted for inflation, our per-pupil expenditure on education this year is less than it was ten years ago.
(D) Eleven other economically developed nations spend more on education than we do.（C）
(E) The achievement levels of our students have been declining steadily since 1960, and the last decade produced no reversal in this trend.
19. The U.S. census is not perfect: thousands of Americans probably go uncounted. However, the basic statistical portrait of the nation painted by the census is accurate. Certainly some of the poor go uncounted, particularly the homeless; but some of the rich go uncounted as well, because they are often abroad or traveling between one residence and another.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument above depends?
(A) Both the rich and the poor have personal and economic reasons to avoid being counted by the census.
(B) All Americans may reasonably be classified as either poor or rich.
(C) The percentage of poor Americans uncounted by the census is close to the percentage of rich Americans uncounted.
(D) The number of homeless Americans is approximately equal to the number of rich Americans.（C）
(E) The primary purpose of the census is to analyze the economic status of the American population.
20. Which of the following best completes the passage below?
In today’s pluralistic society, textbook publishers find themselves in an increasingly uncomfortable position. Since the schools are regarded as a repository of society’s moral and cultural values, each group within society wishes to prevent any material that offends its own values from appearing in textbooks. As a result, stance on an issue is certain to run afoul of one group or another. And since textbook publishers must rely on community goodwill to sell their books, it is inevitable that______
(A) fewer and fewer publishers will be willing to enter the financially uncertain textbook industry
(B) the ethical and moral content of textbooks will become increasingly neutral and bland
(C) more and more pressure groups will arise that seek to influence the content of textbooks
(D) the government will be forced to intervene in the increasingly rancorous debate over the content of textbooks（B）
(E) school boards, teachers, and principals will find it nearly impossible to choose among the variety of textbooks being offered
Vampire bats have been attacking a different person in the village of Batsrus on different days of the week and they all managed to succeed in sucking a little blood from their victim. The victim fought off the attacking bat by using any weapon to hand.
Can you determine the amount of blood sucked from which person, on what day and what they defended themselves with?
1) Miss Fitch had 4ml of blood sucked from her neck before managing to fight the bat off, but not with her Handbag or Fist and this wasn't on a Saturday.
2) The bat that was fought off with a Walking Stick managed to suck 1.5ml more than the bat that attacked 2 days before the victim that used a Slipper to defend themselves, which was not Mr. Sachs.
3) Mr. Sachs had more blood sucked from him than the Saturday victim.
4) A bat was hit with a Fist 2 days after a bat was hit with a Handbag.
5) The victim that had 7ml of blood sucked was attacked the day before the victim having the least amount of blood sucked, which was not on a Wednesday.
6) Monday's bat attack was on Mrs Melbury who didn't fight the bat off with a Slipper.
7) Ms Trews did not use an Umbrella as her weapon.
Four dogs of breeds A, B, C and D win top four prizes at a dog show. Their trainers are Ankit, Balwant, Chaman and Deepak ( not necessarily in that order). The dogs name are Kalu, Moti, Haria and Labu ( again not necessarily in that order).
1. Chaman’s dog wins neither the first nor the second prize. 2. The dog of breed C wins the first prize. 3. Labu wins the second prize. 4. Kalu is of breed A. 5. Balwant’s dog is of breed D, wins the fourth prize. 6. Deepak’s dog is Moti.
Now answer the following questions:
1. The first prize is won by………… 2. Haria is owned by…………. 3. Chaman’s dog is …………. 4. Who wins the third prize……… 5. Moti’s breed is…………..
1.Below is an excerpt from a letter that was sent by the chairman of a corporation to the stockholders.
A number of charges have been raised against me, some serious, some trivial. Individuals seeking to control the corporation for their own purposes have demanded my resignation. Remember that no court of law in any state has found me guilty of any criminal offense whatsoever. In the American tradition, as you know, an individual is considered innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, as the corporation’s unbroken six-year record of growth will show, my conduct of my official duties as chairman has only helped enhance the success of the corporation, and so benefited every stockholder.
Which of the following can be properly inferred from the excerpt?
(A) The chairman believes that all those who have demanded his resignation are motivated by desire to control the corporation for their own purposes.
(B) Any misdeeds that the chairman may have committed were motivated by his desire to enhance the success of the corporation.
(C) The chairman is innocent of any criminal offense.
(D) The corporation has expanded steadily over the past six years.（D）
(E) Any legal proceedings against the chairman have resulted in his acquittal.
2.In the years since the city of London imposed strict air-pollution regulations on local industry, the number of bird species seen in and around London has increased dramatically. Similar air-pollution rules should be imposed in other major cities.
Each of the following is an assumption made in the argument above EXCEPT:
(A) In most major cities, air-pollution problems are caused almost entirely by local industry.
(B) Air-pollution regulations on industry have a significant impact on the quality of the air.
(C) The air-pollution problems of other major cities are basically similar to those once suffered by London.
(D) An increase in the number of bird species in and around a city is desirable.（A）
(E) The increased sightings of bird species in and around London reflect an actual increase in the number of species in the area.
3.Which of the following best completes the passage below?
In opposing government regulation of business, conservatives often appeal to the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government, expressing the wish that government would “get off the backs of the American people.” Yet, paradoxically, many of these same conservatives address questions of private morality, such as those dealing with sexual behavior, by calling for______
(A) a return to the restrictive sexual morality of the Victorian era
(B) a strengthening of the role of the family in setting moral norms for society
(C) a limitation on the amount of sexually provocative material appearing in books, motives, and television shows
(D) greater freedom for individuals to choose their own way of handling sexual issues（E）
(E) an increased governmental role in the regulation and control of private sexual behavior
Questions 4-5 are based on the following:
In an experiment, two different types of recorded music were played for neonates in adjacent nurseries in a hospital. In nursery A, classical music was played; in nursery B, rock music was played. After two weeks, it was found that the babies in nursery A cried less, suffered fewer minor ailments, and gained more weight than did the babies in nursery B.
4.In evaluating the validity of the conclusion suggested by the experiment above, it would be most important to know which of the following?
(A) The musical preferences of the parents of the two groups of newborns
(B) Whether the newborns in both nurseries were equally healthy and happy at the start of the experiment
(C) Whether loud rock music can damage the hearing of newborns
(D) What the average weight of the neonates was before and after the experiment（B）
(E) Whether the music was played in the nurseries at all times or only at certain times
5.Which of the following additional experimental data would support the hypothesis that classical music is beneficial to the development of newborn?
(A) The neonates in a nursery where no music was played fared better than those in nursery B.
(B) Nursery A contained 15 percent more premature babies than nursery B.
(C) The newborns in nursery A cried less, suffered fewer minor ailments, and gained more weight than did newborns in a nursery with no music.
(D) The music played in nursery A was louder than that played in nursery B.（C）
(E) The ratio of nurses to newborns in nursery B was 1 to 4; in nursery A, it was 1 to 6.
6.The ancient city of Cephesa was not buried by an eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 310, as some believe. The eruption in the year 310 damaged the city, but it did not destroy it. Cephesa survived for another century before it finally met its destruction in another eruption around A.D. 415.
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author’s claim that the city of Cephesa was not buried by the eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 310?
(A) The city of Cephesa is mentioned in a historical work known to have been written in A.D. 400.
(B) Coins bearing the image of an emperor who lived around A.D. 410 have been discovered in the ruins of Cephesa, which were preserved by the cinders and ashes that buried the city.
(C) Geological evidence shows that the eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 415 deposited a 10-foot-thick layer of lava on the city of Cephesa.
(D) Artworks from the city of Cephesa have been found in the ruins of another city known to have been destroyed in A.D. 420.（B）
(E) A historical work written in A.D. 430 refers to the eruption of Mt.Amnos in A.D. 415.
7.June is taller than Kristin.
Letty is taller than Maria.
Maria is shorter than Nancy.
Kristin and Nancy are exactly the same height.
If the information above is true, which of the following must also be true?
(A) Letty is taller than Nancy.
(B) Letty is taller than June.
(C) Kristin is shorter than Letty.
(D) June is taller than Maria.（D）
(E) Kristin is shorter than Maria.
8.Current farm policy is institutionalized penalization of consumers. It increases food prices for middle- and low-income families and costs the taxpayer billions of dollars a year.
Which of the following statements, if true, would provide support for the author’s claims above?
I. Farm subsidies amount to roughly $20 billion a year in federal payouts and $12 billion more in higher food prices.
II. According to a study by the Department of Agriculture, each $1 of benefits provided to farmers for ethanol production costs consumers and taxpayers $4.
III.The average full-time farmers have an average net worth of over $300,000.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) III only
(D) I and II only（D）
(E) I, II, and III
9.Reva: Using extraneous incentives to get teenagers to change their attitude toward school and schoolwork won’t work. Take the program in West Virginia, for instance, where they tried to reduce their dropout rate by revoking the driving licenses of kids who left school. The program failed miserably.
Anne: It’s true that the West Virginia program failed, but many schools have devised incentive programs that have been very successful in improving attendance and reducing discipline problems.
According to Anne, the weak point in Reva’s claim is that it
(A) fails to consider the possibility that the majority of potential dropouts in West Virginia do not have driving licenses
(B) doesn’t provide any exact figures for the dropout rate in West Virginia before and during the program
(C) ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that parents and employers have been using extrinsic incentives with positive results for years
(D) assumes that a positive incentive—a prize or a reward—will be no more effective than a negative incentive, like the revoking of a driving license（E）
(E) is based on a single example, the incentive program in West Virginia, which may not be typical
10.In many surveys, American consumers have expressed a willingness to spend up to 10 percent more for products that are ecologically sound. Encouraged by such surveys, Bleach-O Corporation promoted a new laundry detergent, Bleach-O Green, as safer for the environment. Bleach-O Green cost 5 percent more than typical detergents. After one year, Bleach-O Green had failed to capture a significant share of the detergent market and was withdrawn from sale.
Which of the following questions is LEAST likely to be relevant in determining the reasons for the failure of Bleach-O Green?
(A) How effective as a detergent was Bleach-O Green?
(B) How many other detergents on the market were promoted as safe for the environment?
(C) How much more did Bleach-O Green cost to manufacture than ordinary detergents?
(D) To what extent did consumers accept the validity of Bleach-O Green advertised and promoted to consumers?（C）
(E) How effectively was Bleach-O Green advertised and promoted to consumers?
11.The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportionately on the trucking industry. Trucks represent only about 10 percent of the vehicles on U.S. roads. Yet road use taxes assessed on trucks amount to almost half the taxes paid for highway upkeep and repair.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) The trucking industry has enjoyed record after-tax profits in three of the past four years.
(B) Because of their weight, trucks cause over 50 percent of the damage sustained by highway surfaces each year.
(C) Without an economically viable trucking industry, the cost of goods in the United States would rise significantly.
(D) Road use taxes paid by trucking companies have decreased by 3 percent over the past five years.（B）
(E) Due to years of neglect, U.S. highways today are badly in need of major repairs and rebuilding.
12.The upcoming presidential election in the West African republic of Ganelon is of grave concern to the U.S. State Department. Ganelon presently has strong political and military ties to the United States. However, the Socialist party is widely expected to win the election, leading to fears that Ganelon will soon break away from the pro-American bloc and adopt a nonaligned or openly anti-American stance.
Which of the following is an assumption made in the passage above?
(A) A Socialist party government in Ganelon is more likely to oppose the United States than is a non-Socialist party government.
(B) The people of the United States recognize their nation’s interest in the political stability of West Africa.
(C) A weakening of U.S. political ties with Ganelon could have serious consequences for U.S. relations with other African nations.
(D) The Socialist party leaders in Ganelon believe that their nation’s interests would best be served by an alliance with anti-American forces.（A）
(E) The Socialist party will win the upcoming election in Ganelon.
13.No nation can long survive unless its people are united by a common tongue. For proof, we need only consider Canada, which is being torn asunder by conflicts between French-speaking Quebec and the other provinces, which are dominated by English speakers.
Which of the following, if true, most effectively challenges the author’s conclusion?
(A) Conflicts over language have led to violent clashes between the Basque-speaking minority in Spain and the Spanish-speaking majority.
(B) Proposals to declare English the official language of the United States have met with resistance from members of Hispanic and other minority groups.
(C) Economic and political differences, along with linguistic ones, have contributed to the provincial conflicts in Canada.
(D) The public of India, in existence sine 1948, has a population that speaks hundreds of different, though related, languages.（E）
(E) Switzerland has survived for nearly a thousand years as a home for speakers of three different languages.
14.As an experienced labor organizer and the former head of one of the nation’s most powerful labor unions, Grayson is an excellent choice to chair the new council on business-labor relations.
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion above?
(A) The new council must have the support of the nation’s labor leaders if it is to succeed.
(B) During his years as a labor leader, Grayson established a record of good relations with business leaders.
(C) The chair of the new council must be a person who can communicate directly with the leaders of the nation’s largest labor unions.
(D) Most of the other members of the new council will be representatives of business management interests.（E）
(E) An understanding of the needs and problems of labor is the only qualification necessary for the job of chairing the new council.
15.In the effort to fire a Civil Service employee, his or her manager may have to spend up to $100,000 of tax money. Since Civil Service employees know how hard it is to fire them, they tend to loaf. This explains in large part why the government is so inefficient.
It can be properly inferred on the basis of the statements above that the author believes which of the following?
I. Too much job security can have a negative influence on workers.
II. More government workers should be fired.
III.Most government workers are Civil Service employees.
(A) I only
(B) I and III only
(C) II only
(D) I, II, and III（A）
(E) III only
16.Some commentators complain that a “litigation explosion” in the past decade has led to unreasonably high costs for U.S. businesses by encouraging more product liability suits against manufacturers. However, these complaints are based mainly on myth. Statistics show that the number of successful product liability suits has remained almost the same, and the average sum awarded in damages has grown no faster than the inflation rate.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) The number of unsuccessful suits has skyrocketed, imposing huge new legal expenses on businesses.
(B) Several of the largest awards ever made in product liability cases occurred within the last two years.
(C) The rise of the consumer movement has encouraged citizens to seek legal redress for product flaws.
(D) Lawyers often undertake product liability cases on a contingency basis, so their payment is based on the size of the damages awarded.（A）
(E) Juries often award damages in product liability suits out of emotional sympathy for an injured consumer.
17.Ronald: According to my analysis of the national economy, housing prices should not increase during the next six months unless interest rates drop significantly.
Mark: I disagree. One year ago, when interest rates last fell significantly, housing prices did not increase at all.
It can be inferred from the conversation above that Mark has interpreted Ronald’s statement to mean that
(A) housing prices will rise only if interest rates fall
(B) if interest rates fall, housing prices must rise
(C) interest rates and housing prices tend to rise and fall together
(D) interest rates are the only significant economic factor affecting housing prices（B）
(E) interest rates are likely to fall significantly in the next six months
18.It’s time we stopped searching for new statistics to suggest that we are not spending enough on education. In fact, education spending increased 30 percent overall during the last decade.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) Despite increased spending on education, enrollment in our elementary and secondary schools declined about 4 percent during the last ten years.
(B) Our spending on gasoline increased more than 100 percent during the last decade.
(C) When adjusted for inflation, our per-pupil expenditure on education this year is less than it was ten years ago.
(D) Eleven other economically developed nations spend more on education than we do.（C）
(E) The achievement levels of our students have been declining steadily since 1960, and the last decade produced no reversal in this trend.
19.The U.S. census is not perfect: thousands of Americans probably go uncounted. However, the basic statistical portrait of the nation painted by the census is accurate. Certainly some of the poor go uncounted, particularly the homeless; but some of the rich go uncounted as well, because they are often abroad or traveling between one residence and another.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument above depends?
(A) Both the rich and the poor have personal and economic reasons to avoid being counted by the census.
(B) All Americans may reasonably be classified as either poor or rich.
(C) The percentage of poor Americans uncounted by the census is close to the percentage of rich Americans uncounted.
(D) The number of homeless Americans is approximately equal to the number of rich Americans.（C）
(E) The primary purpose of the census is to analyze the economic status of the American population.
20.Which of the following best completes the passage below?
In today’s pluralistic society, textbook publishers find themselves in an increasingly uncomfortable position. Since the schools are regarded as a repository of society’s moral and cultural values, each group within society wishes to prevent any material that offends its own values from appearing in textbooks. As a result, stance on an issue is certain to run afoul of one group or another. And since textbook publishers must rely on community goodwill to sell their books, it is inevitable that______
(A) fewer and fewer publishers will be willing to enter the financially uncertain textbook industry
(B) the ethical and moral content of textbooks will become increasingly neutral and bland
(C) more and more pressure groups will arise that seek to influence the content of textbooks
(D) the government will be forced to intervene in the increasingly rancorous debate over the content of textbooks（B）
(E) school boards, teachers, and principals will find it nearly impossible to choose among the variety of textbooks being offered
