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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 18

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. On the basis of the Big Bang theory scientists predicted levels of Helium-3 in the universe that are ten times greater than the levels actually observed. According to the original model, Helium-3 is produced when low-mass stars burn up hydrogen and become ?red giants?, as well as being produced in the Big Bang itself. Researchers have now produced a new model in which the Helium-3 produced by a red giant is pushed to the star?s interior and burnt up. Hence the Big Bang theory is no longer undermined by Helium-3 data.

The two portions in bold-face are related to each other in which of the following ways?

A. The first highlights an observation that tends to undermine a particular theory. The second is that theory.
B. The first is a fact that undermines a theory. The second is context for accepting that theory.
C. The first points to an inconsistency in a particular model; the second is the author?s main conclusion.
D. The first is a challenge to a classic theory; the second resolves that challenge.
E. The first is a position that the author does not accept; the second is the author?s position.

2.

Red is a color which has powerful effects on human beings as well as animals. A group of psychologists carried out an experiment which confirms the subconscious effects of this color on human behavior. They provided selected sports teams at school and college level with either red or blue shorts and recorded the outcome of the games. The teams wearing red won in a disproportionate number of matches. The psychologists suggested that either the teams wearing red subconsciously felt themselves more powerful, or that the non-red teams were subconsciously intimidated by the red color.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the psychologists? suggestion?

A. Each team wore red in some matches and blue in others.
B. The color blue has the subconscious effect of making human beings less competitive.
C. The effect was only observed if all the team members wore white shirts.
D. Red signifies danger in some cultures whereas it signifies happiness in others.
E. In a subsequent study, teams with all-red outfits were more likely to report that they thought they would win no matter what color the opponents wore.

3. Current farm policy is institutionalized penalization of consumers. It increases food prices for middle- and low-income families and costs the taxpayer billions of dollars a year. Which of the following statements, if true, would provide support for the author's claims above? I. Farm subsidies amount to roughly $20 billion a year in federal payouts and $12 billion more in higher food prices. II. According to a study by the Department of Agriculture, each $1 of benefits provided to farmers for ethanol production costs consumers and taxpayers $4. III. The average full-time farmers have an average net worth of over $300,000.

A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II only
E. I, II, and III

4. Which of the following best completes the passage below? In today's pluralistic society, textbook publishers find themselves in an increasingly uncomfortable position. Since the schools are regarded as a repository of society's moral and cultural values, each group within society wishes to prevent any material that offends its own values from appearing in textbooks. As a result, stance on an issue is certain to run afoul of one group or another. And since textbook publishers must rely on community goodwill to sell their books, it is inevitable that______

A. fewer and fewer publishers will be willing to enter the financially uncertain textbook industry
B. the ethical and moral content of textbooks will become increasingly neutral and bland
C. more and more pressure groups will arise that seek to influence the content of textbooks
D. the government will be forced to intervene in the increasingly rancorous debate over the content of textbooks
E. school boards, teachers, and principals will find it nearly impossible to choose among the variety of textbooks being offered

5. Ross: The profitability of Company X, restored to private ownership five years ago, is clear evidence that businesses will always fare better under private than under public ownership. Julia: Wrong. A close look at the records shows that X has been profitable since the appointment of a first-class manager, which happened while X was still in the pubic sector. Which of the following best describes the weak point in Ross's claim on which Julia's response focuses?

A. The evidence Ross cites comes from only a single observed case, that of Company X.
B. The profitability of Company X might be only temporary.
C. Ross's statement leaves open the possibility that the cause he cites came after the effect he attributes to it.
D. No mention is made of companies that are partly government owned and partly privately owned.
E. No exact figures are given for the current profits of Company X.

6. Child's World, a chain of toy stores, has relied on a ?supermarket concept? of computerized inventory control and customer self-service to eliminate the category of sales clerks from its force of employees. It now plans to employ the same concept in selling children's clothes. The plan of Child's World assumes that

A. supermarkets will not also be selling children's clothes in the same manner
B. personal service by sales personnel is not required for selling children's clothes successfully
C. the same kind of computers will be used in inventory control for both clothes and toys at Child's World
D. a self-service plan cannot be employed without computerized inventory control
E. sales clerks are the only employees of Child's World who could be assigned tasks related to inventory control

7. In 1985 the city's Fine Arts Museum sold 30,000 single-entry tickets. In 1986 the city's Folk Arts and Interior Design museums opened, and these three museums together sold over 80,000 such tickets that year. These museums were worth the cost, since more than twice as many citizens are now enjoying the arts. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the author's assertion that more than twice as many citizens are now enjoying the arts?

A. Most visitors to one museum also visit the other two.
B. The cost of building the museums will not be covered by revenues generated by the sale of museum tickets.
C. As the two new museums become better known, even more citizens will visit them.
D. The city's Fine Arts Museum did not experience a decrease in single-entry tickets sold in 1986.
E. Fewer museum entry tickets were sold in 1986 than the museum planners had hoped to sell.

8. Commentator: The theory of trade retaliation states that countries closed out of any of another country's markets should close some of their own markets to the other country in order to pressure the other country to reopen its markets. If every country acted according to this theory, no country would trade with any other. The commentator's argument relies on which of the following assumptions?

A. No country actually acts according to the theory of trade retaliation.
B. No country should block any of its markets to foreign trade.
C. Trade disputes should be settled by international tribunal.
D. For any two countries, at least one has some market closed to the other.
E. Countries close their markets to foreigners to protect domestic producers.

9. Demographers doing research for an international economics newsletter claim that the average per capita income in the country of Kuptala is substantially lower than that in the country of Bahlton . They also claim, however, that whereas poverty is relatively rare in Kuptala , over half the population of Bahlton lives in extreme poverty. At least one of the demographers' claims must, therefore, be wrong. The argument above is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms?

A. It rejects an empirical claim about the average per capita incomes in the two countries without making any attempt to discredit that claim by offering additional economic evidence.
B. It treats the vague term ?poverty? as though it had a precise and universally accepted meaning.
C. It overlooks the possibility that the number of people in the two countries who live in poverty could be the same even though the percentages of the two populations that live in poverty differ markedly.
D. It fails to show that wealth and poverty have the same social significance in Kuptala as in Bahlton .
E. It does not consider the possibility that incomes in Kuptala , unlike those in Bahlton , might all be very close to the country's average per capita income.

10. A discount retailer of basic household necessities employs thousands of people and pays most of them at the minimum wage rate. Yet following a federally mandated increase of the minimum wage rate that increased the retailer's operating costs considerably, the retailer's profits increased markedly. Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent paradox?

A. Over half of the retailer's operating costs consist of payroll expenditures; yet only a small percentage of those expenditures go to pay management salaries.
B. The retailer's customer base is made up primarily of people who earn, or who depend on the earnings of others who earn, the minimum wage.
C. The retailer's operating costs, other than wages, increased substantially after the increase in the minimum wage rate went into effect.
D. When the increase in the minimum wage rate went into effect, the retailer also raised the wage rate for employees who had been earning just above minimum wage.
E. The majority of the retailer's employees work as cashiers, and most cashiers are paid the minimum wage.