21. Pedro: Unlike cloth diapers, disposable diapers are a threat to the environment. Sixteen billion disposable diapers are discarded annually, filling up landfills at an alarming rate. So people must stop buying disposable diapers and use cloth diapers.
Maria: But you forget that cloth diapers must be washed in hot water, which requires energy. Moreover, the resulting wastewater pollutes our rivers. When families use diaper services, diapers must be delivered by fuel-burning trucks that pollute the air and add to traffic congestion.
Maria objects to Pedro’s argument by
(A) claiming that Pedro overstates the negative evidence about disposable diapers in the course of his argument in favor of cloth diapers
(B) indicating that Pedro draws a hasty conclusion, based on inadequate evidence about cloth diapers
(C) pointing out that there is an ambiguous use of the word “disposable” in Pedro’s argument
(D) demonstrating that cloth diapers are a far more serious threat to the environment than disposable diapers are
(E) suggesting that the economic advantages of cloth diapers outweigh whatever environmental damage they may cause
22. In an experiment, two-year-old boys and their fathers made pie dough together using rolling pins and other utensils. Each father-son pair used a rolling pin that was distinctively different from those used by the other father-son pairs, and each father repeated the phrase “rolling pin” each time his son used it. But when the children were asked to identify all of the rolling pins among a group of kitchen utensils that included several rolling pins, each child picked only the one that he had used.
Which one of the following inferences is most supported by the information above?
(A) The children did not grasp the function of rolling pin.
(B) No two children understood the name “rolling pin” to apply to the same object.
(C) The children understood that all rolling pins have the same general shape.
(D) Each child was able to identify correctly only the utensils that he had used.
(E) The children were not able to distinguish the rolling pins they used from other rolling pins.
23. When 100 people who have not used cocaine are tested for cocaine use, on average only 5 will test positive. By contrast, of every 100 people who have used cocaine 99 will test positive. Thus, when a randomly chosen group of people is tested for cocaine use, the vast majority of those who test positive will be people who have used cocaine.
A reasoning error in the argument is that the argument
(A) attempts to infer a value judgment from purely factual premises
(B) attributes to every member of the population the properties of the average member of the population
(C) fails to take into account what proportion of the population have used cocaine
(D) ignores the fact that some cocaine users do not test positive
(E) advocates testing people for cocaine use when there is no reason to suspect that they have used cocaine
24. If a society encourages freedom of thought and expression, then, during the time when it does so, creativity will flourish in that society. In the United States creativity flourished during the eighteenth century. It is clear, therefore, that freedom of thought was encouraged in the United States during the eighteenth century.
An error of reasoning of the same kind as one contained in the passage is present in each of the following arguments EXCEPT:
(A) According to the airline industry, airfares have to rise if air travel is to be made safer; since airfares were just raised, we can rest assured that air travel will therefore become safer.
(B) We can conclude that the Hillside police department has improved its efficiency, because crime rates are down in Hillside, and it is an established fact that crime rates go down when police departments increase their efficiency.
(C) People who are really interested in the preservation of wildlife obviously do not go hunting for big game; since Gerda has never gone hunting for big game and intends never to do so, it is clear that she is really interested in the preservation of wildlife.
(D) If the contents of a bottle are safe to drink, the bottle will not be marked “poison,” so, since the bottle is not marked “poison,” its contents will be safe to drink.
(E) None of the so-called Western democracies is really democratic, because, for a country to be democratic, the opinion of each of its citizens must have a meaningful effect on government, and in none of these countries does each citizen’s opinion have such an effect.
参考答案：21. B 22. C 23. E