1. The country of Maravia has severe air pollution, 80 percent of which is caused by the exhaust fumes of cars. In order to reduce the number of cars on the road, the government is raising taxes on the cost of buying and running a car by 20 percent. This tax increase, therefore, will significantly reduce air pollution in Maravia.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) The government of Maravia is in the process of building a significant number of roadways.
(B) Maravia is an oil-producing country and is able to refine an amount of gasoline sufficient for the needs of its population.
(C) Maravia has had an excellent public transportation system for many years.
(D) Ninety percent of the population of Maravia is very prosperous and has a substantial amount of disposable income.
(E) In Maravia, cars that emit relatively low levels of pollutants cost 10 percent less to operate, on average, than do cars that emit high levels of pollutants.
2. Consumer income reports produced by the government distinguish between households and families by means of the following definition: “A family is a household containing a householder and at least one person related to the householder.” Except for the homeless and people in group living quarters, most people live in households.
According to the definition above, which of the following must be true?
(A) All householders are members of families.
(B) All families include a householder.
(C) All of the people related to a householder form a family.
(D) Some people residing in group living quarters are members of families.
(E) Some homeless people reside in group living quarters.
Questions 3-4 are based on the following.
The proportion of manufacturing companies in Alameda that use microelectronics in their manufacturing processes increased from 6 percent in 1979 to 66 percent in 1990. Many labor leaders say that the introduction of microelectronics is the principal cause of the great increase in unemployment during that period in Alameda. In actual fact, however, most of the job losses were due to organizational changes. Moreover, according to new figures released by the labor department, there were many more people employed in Alameda in the manufacturing industry in 1990 than in 1979.
3. Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the discrepancy between the increase in unemployment and the increase in jobs in the manufacturing industry of Alameda?
(A) Many products that contain microelectronic components are now assembled completely by machine.
(B) Workers involved in the various aspects of the manufacturing processes that use microelectronic technology need extensive training.
(C) It is difficult to evaluate numerically what impact on job security the introduction of microelectronics in the workplace had before 1979.
(D) In 1990 over 90 percent of the jobs in Alameda’s manufacturing companies were filled by workers who moved to Alameda because they had skills for which there was no demand in Alameda prior to the introduction of microelectronics there.
(E) Many workers who have retired from the manufacturing industry in Alameda since 1979 have not been replaced by younger workers.
4. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the labor leaders’ claim concerning the manufacturing industry in Alameda?
(A) From 1979 to 1990, fewer employees of manufacturing companies in Alameda lost their jobs because of the introduction of microelectronics than did employees of manufacturing companies in the nearby community of Rockside.
(B) The figures on the use of microelectronics that were made public are the result of inquiries made of managers in the manufacturing industry in Alameda.
(C) The organizational changes that led to job losses in all sectors of the manufacturing industry in Alameda were primarily the result of the introduction of microelectronics.
(D) Figures on job losses in the manufacturing industry in Alameda for the late sixties and early seventies have not been made available.
(E) A few jobs in the manufacturing industry in Alameda could have been saved if workers had been willing to become knowledgeable in microelectronics.
5. The number of musicians employed to play accompaniment for radio and television commercials has sharply decreased over the past ten years. This has occurred even though the number of commercials produced each year has not significantly changed for the last ten years.
Which of the following, if it occurred during the past ten years, would contribute LEAST to an explanation of the facts above?
(A) The type of music most popular for use in commercials has changed from a type that requires a large number of instruments to a type that requires very few instruments.
(B) There has been an increase in the number of commercials that use only the spoken word and sound effects, rather than musical accompaniment.
(C) There has been an increase in the number of commercials that use a synthesizer, an instrument on which one musician can reproduce the sound of many musicians playing together.
(D) There has been an increase in the number of commercials that use prerecorded music as their only source of music.
(E) There has been an increase in the number of commercials that use musicians just starting in the music industry rather than musicians experienced in accompanying commercials.
6. Recent audits revealed that BanqueCard, a credit service, has erred in calculating the interest it charges its clients. But BanqueCard’s chief accountant reasoned that the profits that the company shows would remain unaffected by a revision of its clients’ credit statements to correct its previous billing errors, since just as many clients had been overcharged as undercharged.
Which of the following is a reasoning error that the accountant makes in concluding that correcting its clients’ statements would leave BanqueCard’s profits unaffected?
(A) Relying on the reputation of BanqueCard as a trustworthy credit service to maintain the company’s clientele after the error becomes widely known
(B) Failing to establish that BanqueCard charges the same rates of interest for all of its clients
(C) Overlooking the possibility that the amount by which BanqueCard’s clients had been overcharged might be greater than the amount by which they had been undercharged
(D) Assuming that the clients who had been overcharged by BanqueCard had not noticed the error in their credit bills
(E) Presupposing that each one of BanqueCard’s clients had either been overcharged or else had been undercharged by the billing error
7. Not Scored
8. Residents of an apartment complex are considering two possible plans for collecting recyclable trash.
Plan 1 - Residents will deposit recyclable trash in municipal dumpsters located in the parking lot. The trash will be collected on the first and the fifteenth days of each month.
Plan 2 - Residents will be given individual containers for recyclable trash. The containers will be placed at the curb twice a week for trash collection.
Which of the following points raised at a meeting of the residents, if valid, would most favor one of the recycling plans over the other?
(A) Residents will be required to exercise care in separating recyclable trash from nonrecyclable trash.
(B) For trash recycling to be successful, residents must separate recyclable bottles and cans from recyclable paper products.
(C) Penalties will be levied against residents who fail to sort their trash correctly.
(D) Individual recycling containers will need to be made of a strong and durable material.
(E) Recyclable trash that is allowed to accumulate for two weeks will attract rodents.
9. In 1990 all of the people who applied for a job at Evco also applied for a job at Radeco, and Evco and Radeco each offered jobs to half of these applicants. Therefore, every one of these applicants must have been offered a job in 1990.
The argument above is based on which of the following assumptions about these job applicants?
(A) All of the applicants were very well qualified for a job at either Evco or Radeco.
(B) All of the applicants accepted a job at either Evco or Radeco.
(C) None of the applicants was offered a job by both Evco and Radeco.
(D) None of the applicants had applied for jobs at places other than Evco and Radeco.
(E) None of the applicants had previously worked for either Evco or Radeco.
10. The geese that gather at the pond of a large corporation create a hazard for executives who use the corporate helicopter, whose landing site is 40 feet away from the pond. To solve the problem, the corporation plans to import a large number of herding dogs to keep the geese away from the helicopter.
Which of the following, if a realistic possibility, would cast the most serious doubt on the prospects for success of the corporation’s plan?
(A) The dogs will form an uncontrollable pack.
(B) The dogs will require training to learn to herd the geese.
(C) The dogs will frighten away foxes that prey on old and sick geese.
(D) It will be necessary to keep the dogs in quarantine for 30 days after importing them.
(E) Some of the geese will move to the pond of another corporation in order to avoid being herded by the dogs.
11. When a person is under intense psychological stress, his or her cardiovascular response is the same as it is during vigorous physical exercise. Psychological stress, then, must be beneficial for the heart as is vigorous physical exercise.
The argument above relies on which of the following assumptions?
(A) Exercise is an effective means of relieving psychological stress.
(B) The body’s short-term cardiovascular response to any activity indicates that activity’s long-term effect on the body.
(C) Cardiovascular response during an activity is an adequate measure of how beneficial the activity is for the heart.
(D) Psychological stress can have a positive effect on the body.
(E) Vigorous exercise is the most reliable method of maintaining a healthy heart.
12. After graduating from high school, people rarely multiply fractions or discuss ancient Rome, but they are confronted daily with decisions relating to home economics. Yet whereas mathematics and history are required courses in the high school curriculum, home economics is only an elective, and few students choose to take it.
Which of the following positions would be best supported by the considerations above?
(A) If mathematics and history were not required courses, few students would choose to take them.
(B) Whereas home economics would be the most useful subject for people facing the decisions they must make in daily life, often mathematics and history can also help them face these decisions.
(C) If it is important to teach high school students subjects that relate to decisions that will confront them in their daily lives, then home economics should be made an important part of the high school curriculum.
(D) Mathematics, history, and other courses that are not directly relevant to a person’s daily life should not be a required part of the high school curriculum.
(E) Unless high schools put more emphasis on nonacademic subjects like home economics, people graduating from high school will never feel comfortable about making the decisions that will confront them in their daily lives.
13. Houses built during the last ten years have been found to contain indoor air pollution at levels that are, on average, much higher than the levels found in older houses. The reason air-pollution levels are higher in the newer houses is that many such houses are built near the sites of old waste dumps or where automobile emissions are heavy.
Which of the following, if true, calls into question the explanation above?
(A) Many new houses are built with air-filtration systems that remove from the house pollutants that are generated indoors.
(B) The easing of standards for smokestack emissions has led to an increase in air-pollution levels in homes.
(C) New houses built in secluded rural areas are relatively free of air pollutants.
(D) Warm-weather conditions tend to slow down the movement of air, thus keeping pollution trapped near its source.
(E) Pressboard, an inexpensive new plywood substitute now often used in the construction of houses, emits the pollutant formaldehyde into the house.
14. The most important aspect of moviemaking is conveying a scene’s rhythm. Conveying rhythm depends less on the artistic quality of the individual photographic images than on how the shots go together and the order in which they highlight different aspects of the action taking place in front of the camera.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must be true on the basis of them?
(A) The artistic quality of the individual photographic image is unimportant in movie photography.
(B) Photographers known for the superb artistic quality of their photographs are seldom effective as moviemakers.
(C) Having the ability to produce photographs of superb artistic quality does not in itself guarantee having the ability to be a good moviemaker.
(D) Movie photographers who are good at their jobs rarely give serious thought to the artistic quality of the photographs they take.
(E) To convey a scene’s rhythm effectively, a moviemaker must highlight many different aspects of the action taking place.
15. Human beings can see the spatial relations among objects by processing information conveyed by light. Scientists trying to build computers that can detect spatial relations by the same kind of process have so far designed and built stationary machines. However, these scientists will not achieve their goal until they produce such a machine that can move around in its environment.
Which of the following, if true, would best support the prediction above?
(A) Human beings are dependent on visual cues from motion in order to detect spatial relations.
(B) Human beings can often easily detect the spatial relations among objects, even when those objects are in motion.
(C) Detecting spatial relations among objects requires drawing inferences from the information conveyed by light.
(D) Although human beings can discern spatial relations through their sense of hearing, vision is usually the most important means of detecting spatial relations.
(E) Information about the spatial relations among objects can be obtained by noticing such things as shadows and the relative sizes of objects.
16. In a study of the effect of color on productivity, 50 of 100 factory workers were moved from their drab workroom to a brightly colored workroom. Both these workers and the 50 who remained in the drab workroom increased their productivity, probably as a result of the interest taken by researchers in the work of both groups during the study.
Which of the following, if true, would cast most doubt upon the author’s interpretation of the study results given above?
(A) The 50 workers moved to the brightly colored room performed precisely the same manufacturing task as the workers who remained in the drab workroom.
(B) The drab workroom was designed to provide adequate space for at most 65 workers.
(C) The 50 workers who moved to the brightly colored workroom were matched as closely as possible in age and level of training to the 50 workers who remained in the drab work-room.
(D) Nearly all the workers in both groups had volunteered to move to the brightly colored workroom.
(E) Many of the workers who moved to the brightly colored workroom reported that they liked the drab workroom as well as or better than they liked the brightly colored workroom.
17. Not Scored
18. Manager: Accounting and Billing are located right next to each other and the two departments do similar kinds of work; yet expenditures for clerical supplies charged to Billing are much higher. Is Billing wasting supplies?
Head of Billing: Not at all.
Which of the following, if true, best supports the position of the Head of Billing?
(A) There are more staff members in Accounting than in Billing.
(B) Two years ago, expenditures in Accounting for clerical supplies were the same as were expenditures that year in Billing for clerical supplies.
(C) The work of Billing now requires a wider variety of clerical supplies than it did in the past.
(D) Some of the paper-and-pencil work of both Accounting and Billing has been replaced by work done on computers.
(E) Members of Accounting found the clerical supplies cabinet of Billing more convenient to go to for supplies than their own department’s cabinet.
19. Most geologists believe oil results from chemical transformations of hydrocarbons derived from organisms buried under ancient seas. Suppose, instead, that oil actually results from bacterial action on other complex hydrocarbons that are trapped within the Earth. As is well known, the volume of these hydrocarbons exceeds that of buried organisms. Therefore, our oil reserves would be greater than most geologists believe.
Which of the following, if true, gives the strongest support to the argument above about our oil reserves?
(A) Most geologists think optimistically about the Earth’s reserves of oil.
(B) Most geologists have performed accurate chemical analyses on previously discovered oil reserves.
(C) Ancient seas are buried within the Earth at many places where fossils are abundant.
(D) The only bacteria yet found in oil reserves could have leaked down drill holes from surface contaminants.
(E) Chemical transformations reduce the volume of buried hydrocarbons derived from organisms by roughly the same proportion as bacterial action reduces the volume of other complex hydrocarbons.
20. The wild mouflon sheep of the island of Corsica are direct descendants of sheep that escaped from domestication on the island 8,000 years ago. They therefore provide archaeologists with a picture of what some early domesticated sheep looked like, before the deliberate selective breeding that produced modern domesticated sheep began.
The argument above makes which of the following assumptions?
(A) The domesticated sheep of 8,000 years ago were quite dissimilar from the wild sheep of the time.
(B) There are no other existing breeds of sheep that escaped from domestication at about the same time as the forebears of the mouflon.
(C) Modern domesticated sheep are direct descendants of sheep that were wild 8,000 years ago.
(D) Mouflon sheep are more similar to their forebears of 8,000 years ago than modern domesticated sheep are to theirs.
(E) The climate of Corsica has not changed at all in the last 8,000 years.