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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 40

in Critical Reasoning

Read the passage and choose the option that best answer the question.

1. The Dean claimed that, as a result of continued cutbacks in the budget for pure science research, fewer students are choosing a career in physics, and therefore the number of postgraduate students studying physics is likely to decline.

Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the Dean?s conclusion?

A. The number of students majoring in physics at the undergraduate level has been increasing steadily over the years, a trend that is expected to continue.
B. The number of students studying chemistry declined even before cutbacks in research funding were noted.
C. Most postgraduate students of physics move to careers in computer science and engineering.
D. The Dean?s own university has recently increased the number of staff members teaching physics.
E. The budget cutbacks are less severe for the pure sciences than for applied sciences.

2. At many colleges today, regulations have been imposed that forbid the use in speech or print of language that ?offends? or ?insults? the members of any group, especially women and racial, ethnic, and religious minorities. Although these regulations are defended in the name of ?democracy,? they restrict freedom of speech and the press in a way that opposes the true spirit of democracy. The argument above attempts to prove its case primarily by

A. impugning the credentials of an opponent
B. providing examples that support a theoretical principle
C. taking advantage of inconsistencies in the definition of ?democracy?
D. revealing a contradiction in an opposing point of view
E. appealing to the patriotic feelings of its audience

3. Merco has been in business longer than Nolen. Inc, Olean Industries was founded years before the Potter Company, and the Potter Company was started years after the Quarles Corporation. Nolen, Inc., and the Quarles Corporation were founded in the same year. If the information above is true, which of the following must also be true?

A. Olean Industries has been in business for more years than Merco .
B. Olean Industries has been in business for more years than the Quarles Corporation.
C. Nolen, Inc., has not been in business for as many years as Olean Industries.
D. Merco has been in business for more years than the Potter Company.
E. Nolen, Inc., has not been in business for as many years as the Potter Company.

4. People living in the undeveloped wilderness area want jobs, and commercial development of the area will create jobs. But if the new commercial development plan is carried out, the wilderness will suffer. Thus the board considering the area's future must choose between the preservation of the wilderness and the wishes of the local people. The answer to which of the following questions would be LEAST relevant to evaluating whether the board indeed faces the choice the author says it faces?

A. Could commercial development be carried out under an alternative plan without damaging the wilderness?
B. Would commercial development of the wilderness area significantly benefit people living elsewhere?
C. Would the jobs created by the new development plan be filled by the local people?
D. Do local people support or oppose commercial development of the wilderness area?
E. Can job be provided without commercial development of the wilderness area?

5. Which of the following best completes the passage below? Sales campaigns aimed at the faltering personal computer market have strongly emphasized ease of use, called user-friendliness. This emphasis is oddly premature and irrelevant in the eyes of most potential buyers, who are trying to address the logically prior issue of whether______

A. user-friendliness also implies that owners can service their own computers
B. personal computers cost more the more user-friendly they are
C. currently available models are user-friendly enough to suit them
D. the people promoting personal computers use them in their own homes
E. they have enough sensible uses for a personal computer to justify the expense of buying one

6. Shelby Industries manufactures and sells the same gauges as Jones Industries. Employee wages account for forty percent of the cost of manufacturing gauges at both Shelby Industries and Jones Industries. Shelby Industries is seeking a competitive advantage over Jones Industries. Therefore, to promote this end, Shelby Industries should lower employee wages. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

A. Because they make a small number of precision instruments, gauge manufacturers cannot receive volume discounts on raw materials.
B. Lowering wages would reduce the quality of employee work, and this reduced quality would lead to lowered sales.
C. Jones Industries has taken away twenty percent of Shelby Industries' business over the last year.
D. Shelby Industries pays its employees, on average, ten percent more than does Jones Industries.
E. Many people who work for manufacturing plants live in areas in which the manufacturing plant they work for is the only industry.

7. Large national budget deficits do not cause large trade deficits. If they did, countries with the largest budget deficits would also have the largest trade deficits. In fact, when deficit figures are adjusted so that different countries are reliably comparable to each other, there is no such correlation. If the statements above are all true, which of the following can properly be inferred on the basis of them?

A. Countries with large national budget deficits tend to restrict foreign trade.
B. Reliable comparisons of the deficit figures of one country with those of another are impossible.
C. Reducing a country's national budget deficit will not necessarily result in a lowering of any trade deficit that country may have.
D. When countries are ordered from largest to smallest in terms of population, the smallest countries generally have the smallest budget and trade deficits.
E. Countries with the largest trade deficits never have similarly large national budget deficits.

8. A study comparing a group of chronically depressed individuals with an otherwise matched group of individuals free from depression found significantly more disorders of the immune system among the depressed group. According to the researchers, these results strongly support the hypothesis that mental states influence the body's vulnerability to infection. Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the researchers' interpretation of their findings?

A. The researchers' view does little more than echo a familiar theme in folklore and literature.
B. Chronically depressed individuals are no less careful than others to avoid exposure to infections.
C. Disorders of the immune system cause many of those individuals who have them to become chronically depressed.
D. Individuals who have previously been free from depression can become depressed quite suddenly.
E. A high frequency of infections can stem from an unusually high level of exposure rather than from any disorder of the immune system.

9. 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.

10. Mannis Corporation's archival records are stored in an obsolete format that is accessible only by its current computer system; thus they are inaccessible when that system is not functioning properly. In order to avoid the possibility of losing access to their archival records in the case of computer malfunction, Mannis plans to replace its current computer system with a new system that stores records in a format that is accessible to several different systems. The answer to which of the following questions would be most helpful in evaluating the effectiveness of the plan as a means of retaining access to the archival records?

A. Will the new computer system require fewer operators than the current system requires?
B. Has Mannis Corporation always stored its archival records in a computerized format?
C. Will the new computer system that Mannis plans ensure greater security for the records stored than does Mannis ' current system?
D. Will Mannis ' current collection of archival records be readily transferable to the new computer system?
E. Will the new computer system be able to perform many more tasks than the current system is able to perform?