GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 6

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

1. Refer to the extract in the previous question1.

Jay apparently believes that

A. he has the best available hardware
B. the frequency of breakdowns in his office is above average
C. software specifications are not important in his office
D. no other office has a similar ratio of computers to users
E. he does not need more people working in his office

2. 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.
E. Due to years of neglect, U.S. highways today are badly in need of major repairs and rebuilding.

3. Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. Three years ago, Mainline hired QualiCo Advertising Agency to handle its promotions and advertising division. Today Mainline's profits are over 20 percent higher than they were five years ago and 10 percent higher than they were three years ago. Employee ownership and a good advertising agency have combined to make Mainline more profitable. Which of the following best describes the weak point in the argument above?

A. It fails to establish a causal connection between the change in ownership at Mainline Airways and the hiring of QualiCo , on the one hand, and the rise in Mainline's profits, on the other.
B. It presents no evidence showing that employee-owned airlines are any more profitable than other airlines.
C. It assumes that the profits of Mainline Airways will continue to rise.
D. It gives no exact figures for the current profits of Mainline Airways.
E. It fails to explain how the profits of Mainline Airways are calculated.

4. Technological education is worsening. People between eighteen and twenty-four, who are just emerging from their formal education, are more likely to be technologically illiterate than somewhat older adults. And yet, issues for public referenda will increasingly involve aspects of technology. Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?

A. If all young people are to make informed decisions on public referenda, many of them must learn more about technology.
B. Thorough studies of technological issues and innovations should be made a required part of the public and private school curriculum.
C. It should be suggested that prospective voters attend applied science courses in order to acquire a minimal competency in technical matters.
D. If young people are not to be overly influenced by famous technocrats, they must increase their knowledge of pure science.
E. On public referenda issues, young people tend to confuse real or probable technologies with impossible ideals.

5. Red blood cells in which the malarial-fever parasite resides are eliminated from a person's body after 120 days. Because the parasite cannot travel to a new generation of red blood cells, any fever that develops in a person more than 120 days after that person has moved to a malaria-free region is not due to the malarial parasite. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. The fever caused by the malarial parasite may resemble the fever caused by flu viruses.
B. The anopheles mosquito, which is the principal insect carrier of the malarial parasite, has been eradicated in many parts of the world.
C. Many malarial symptoms other than the fever, which can be suppressed with antimalarial medication, can reappear within 120 days after the medication is discontinued.
D. In some cases, the parasite that causes malarial fever travels to cells of the spleen, which are less frequently eliminated from a person's body than are red blood cells.
E. In any region infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes, there are individuals who appear to be immune to malaria.

6. With the emergence of biotechnology companies, it was feared that they would impose silence about proprietary results on their in-house researchers and their academic consultants. This constraint, in turn, would slow the development of biological science and engineering. Which of the following, if true, would tend to weaken most seriously the prediction of scientific secrecy described above?

A. Biotechnological research funded by industry has reached some conclusions that are of major scientific importance.
B. When the results of scientific research are kept secret, independent researchers are unable to build on those results.
C. Since the research priorities of biotechnology companies are not the same as those of academic institutions, the financial support of research by such companies distorts the research agenda.
D. To enhance the companies' standing in the scientific community, the biotechnology companies encourage employees to publish their results, especially results that are important.
E. Biotechnology companies devote some of their research resources to problems that are of fundamental scientific importance and that are not expected to produce immediate practical applications.

7. Parasitic wasps lay their eggs directly into the eggs of various host insects in exactly the right numbers for any suitable size of host egg. If they laid too many eggs in a host egg, the developing wasp larvae would compete with each other to the death for nutrients and space. If too few eggs were laid, portions of the host egg would decay, killing the wasp larvae. Which of the following conclusions can properly be drawn from the information above?

A. The size of the smallest host egg that a wasp could theoretically parasitize can be determined from the wasp's egg-laying behavior.
B. Host insects lack any effective defenses against the form of predation practiced by parasitic wasps.
C. Parasitic wasps learn from experience how many eggs to lay into the eggs of different host species.
D. Failure to lay enough eggs would lead to the death of the developing wasp larvae more quickly than would laying too many eggs.
E. Parasitic wasps use visual clues to calculate the size of a host egg.

8. One way to judge the performance of a company is to compare it with other companies. This technique, commonly called ?benchmarking,? permits the manager of a company to discover better industrial practices and can provide a justification for the adoption of good practices. Any of the following, if true, is a valid reason for benchmarking the performance of a company against companies with which it is not in competition rather than against competitors EXCEPT:

A. Comparisons with competitors are most likely to focus on practices that the manager making the comparisons already employs.
B. Getting ?inside? information about the unique practices of competitors is particularly difficult.
C. Since companies that compete with each other are likely to have comparable levels of efficiency, only benchmarking against noncompetitors is likely to reveal practices that would aid in beating competitors.
D. Managers are generally more receptive to new ideas that they find outside their own industry.
E. Much of the success of good companies is due to their adoption of practices that take advantage of the special circumstances of their products of markets.

9. If the county continues to collect residential trash at current levels, landfills will soon be overflowing and parkland will need to be used in order to create more space. Charging each household a fee for each pound of trash it puts out for collection will induce residents to reduce the amount of trash they create; this charge will therefore protect the remaining county parkland. Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above?

A. Residents will reduce the amount of trash they put out for collection by reducing the number of products they buy.
B. The collection fee will not significantly affect the purchasing power of most residents, even if their households do not reduce the amount of trash they put out.
C. The collection fee will not induce residents to dump their trash in the parklands illegally.
D. The beauty of county parkland is an important issue for most of the county's residents.
E. Landfills outside the county's borders could be used as dumping sites for the county's trash.

10. 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.