11. Any combination of overwork and stress inevitably leads of insomnia. Managers at HiCorp, Inc., all suffer from stress. A majority of the managers—despite their doctors’ warnings—work well over 60 hours per week, whereas the other managers work no more than the normal 40 hours per week. HiCorp gives regular bonuses only to employees who work more than 40 hours per week.
Which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by the statements above?
(A) Managers at HiCorp work under conditions that are more stressful than the conditions under which managers at most other companies work.
(B) Most of the employee bonuses given by HiCorp are given to managers.
(C) At HiCorp, insomnia is more widespread among managers than among any other group of employees.
(D) No manager at HiCorp who works only 40 hours per week suffers from overwork.
(E) Most of the managers at HiCorp who receive regular bonuses have insomnia.
12. Holiday receipts—the total sales recorded in the fourth quarter of the year—determine the economic success or failure of many retail businesses. Camco, a retailer selling just one camera model, is an excellent example. Camco’s holiday receipts, on average, account for a third of its yearly total receipts and about half of its yearly profits.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true about Camco on the basis of them?
(A) Its fixed expenses per camera sold are higher during the fourth quarter than for any of the other three quarters.
(B) It makes more profit during the first and third quarters combined than during the fourth quarter.
(C) Its per-camera retail price is lower, on average, during the fourth quarter than during any one of the first three quarters.
(D) It makes less profit, on average, for a given dollar amount of sales during the first three quarters combined than during the fourth quarter.
(E) The per-camera price it pays to wholesalers is higher, on average, during the fourth quarter than during any of the other three quarters.
13. Canadians now increasingly engage in “out-shopping,” which is shopping across the national border, where prices are lower. Prices are lower outside of Canada in large part because the goods-and-services tax that pays for Canadian social services is not applied.
Which one of the following is best supported on the basis of the information above?
(A) If the upward trend in out-shopping continues at a significant level and the amounts paid by the government for Canadian social services are maintained, the Canadian goods-and-services tax will be assessed at a higher rate.
(B) If Canada imposes a substantial tariff on the goods bought across the border, a reciprocal tariff on cross-border shopping in the other direction will be imposed, thereby harming Canadian businesses.
(C) The amounts the Canadian government pays out to those who provide social services to Canadians are increasing.
(D) The same brands of goods are available to Canadian shoppers across the border as are available in Canada.
(E) Out-shopping purchases are subject to Canadian taxes when the purchaser crosses the border to bring them into Canada.
14. Surveys indicate that 52 percent of all women aged eighteen to sixty-five are in the labor force (employed outside the home) in any given month. On the basis of these surveys, a market researcher concluded that 48 percent of all women aged eighteen to sixty-five are full-time homemakers year-round.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the researcher’s conclusion?
(A) More women are in the labor force today than during any other period since the Second World War.
(B) Many workers, both men and women, enter and exit the labor force frequently.
(C) Although only a small sample of the total population is surveyed each month, these samples have been found to be a reliable indicator of total monthly employment.
(D) Surveys show that more women than ever before consider having a rewarding job an important priority.
(E) Women who are in the labor force have more discretionary income available to them than do women who are not.
15. Left-handed persons suffer more frequently than do right-handed persons from certain immune disorders, such as allergies. Left-handers tend to have an advantage over the right-handed majority, however, on tasks controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, and mathematical reasoning is strongly under the influence of the right hemisphere in most people.
If the information above is true, it best supports which of the following hypotheses?
(A) Most people who suffer from allergies or other such immune disorders are left-handed rather than right-handed.
(B) Most left-handed mathematicians suffer from some kind of allergy.
(C) There are proportionally more left-handers among people whose ability to reason mathematically is above average than there are among people with poor mathematical reasoning ability.
(D) If a left-handed person suffers from an allergy, that person will probably be good at mathematics.
(E) There are proportionally more people who suffer from immune disorders such as allergies than there are people who are left-handed or people whose mathematical reasoning ability is unusually good.
16. After observing the Earth’s weather patterns and the 11-year sunspot cycle of the Sun for 36 years, scientists have found that high levels of sunspot activity precede shifts in wind patterns that affect the Earth’s weather. One can conclude that meteorologists will be able to improve their weather forecasts based on this information.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) Weather forecasts are more detailed today than they were 36 years ago.
(B) Scientists can establish that sunspot activity directly affects the Earth’s weather.
(C) Evidence other than sunspot activity has previously enabled meteorologists to forecast the weather conditions that are predictable on the basis of sunspot activity.
(D) Scientists have not determined why the sunspot activity on the Sun follows an 11-year cycle.
(E) It has been established that predictable wind patterns yield predictable weather patterns