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GMAT

GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 21

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. Corporate Officer: Last year was an unusually poor one for our chemical division, which has traditionally contributed about 60 percent of the corporation's profits. It is therefore encouraging that there is the following evidence that the pharmaceutical division is growing stronger: it contributed 45 percent of the corporation's profits, up from 20 percent the previous year. On the basis of the facts stated, which of the following is the best critique of the evidence presented above?

A. The increase in the pharmaceutical division's contribution to corporation profits could have resulted largely from the introduction of single, important new product.
B. In multidivisional corporations that have pharmaceutical divisions, over half of the corporation's profits usually come from the pharmaceuticals.
C. The percentage of the corporation's profits attributable to the pharmaceutical division could have increased even if that division's performance had not improved.
D. The information cited does not make it possible to determine whether the 20 percent share of profits cited was itself an improvement over the year before.
E. The information cited does not make it possible to compare the performance of the chemical and pharmaceutical divisions in of the percent of total profits attributable to each.

2. People tend to estimate the likelihood of an event's occurrence according to its salience; that is, according to how strongly and how often it comes to their attention. By placement and headlines, newspapers emphasize stories about local crime over stories about crime elsewhere and about many other major events. It can be concluded on the basis of the statements above that, if they are true, which of the following is most probably also true?

A. The language used in newspaper headlines about local crime is inflammatory and fails to respect the rights of suspects.
B. The coverage of international events in newspapers is neglected in favor of the coverage of local events.
C. Readers of local news in newspapers tend to overestimate the amount of crime in their own localities relative to the amount of crime in other places.
D. None of the events concerning other people that are reported in newspapers is so salient in people's minds as their own personal experiences.
E. The press is the news medium that focuses people's attention most strongly on local crimes.

3. Sales of telephones have increased dramatically over the last year. In order to take advantage of this increase, Mammoth Industries plans to expand production of its own model of telephone, while continuing its already very extensive advertising of this product. Which of the following, if true, provides most support for the view that Mammoth Industries cannot increase its sales of telephones by adopting the plan outlined above?

A. Although it sells all of the telephones that it produces, Mammoth Industries' share of all telephone sales has declined over the last year.
B. Mammoth Industries' average inventory of telephones awaiting shipment to retailers has declined slightly over the last year.
C. Advertising has made the brand name of Mammoth Industries' telephones widely known, but few consumers know that Mammoth Industries owns this brand.
D. Mammoth Industries' telephone is one of three brands of telephone that have together accounted for the bulk of the last year's increase in sales.
E. Despite a slight decline in the retail price, sales of Mammoth Industries' telephones have fallen in the last year.

4. The fossil record shows that the climate of North America warmed and dried at the end of the Pleistocene period. Most of the species of large mammals then living on the continent became extinct, but the smaller mammalian species survived. Which of the following, if true, provides the best basis for an explanation of the contrast described above between species of large mammals and species of small mammals?

A. Individual large mammals can, in general, travel further than small mammals and so are more able to migrate in search of a hospitable environment.
B. The same pattern of comparative success in smaller, as opposed to larger, species that is observed in mammals is also found in bird species of the same period.
C. The fossil record from the end of Pleistocene period is as clear for small mammals as it is for large mammals.
D. Larger mammals have greater food and space requirements than smaller mammals and are thus less able to withstand environmental change.
E. Many more of the species of larger mammals than of the species of smaller mammals living in North America in that period had originated in climates that were warmer than was that of North America before the end of the Pleistocene period.

5. 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.

6. Although aspirin has been proven to eliminate moderate fever associated with some illnesses, many doctors no longer routinely recommend its use for this purpose. A moderate fever stimulates the activity of the body's disease-fighting white blood cells and also inhibits the growth of many strains of disease-causing bacteria. If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them?

A. Aspirin, an effective painkiller, alleviates the pain and discomfort of many illnesses.
B. Aspirin can prolong a patient's illness by eliminating moderate fever helpful in fighting some diseases.
C. Aspirin inhibits the growth of white blood cells, which are necessary for fighting some illnesses.
D. The more white blood cells a patient's body produces, the less severe the patient's illness will be.
E. The focus of modern medicine is on inhibiting the growth of disease-causing bacteria within the body.

7. Although computers can enhance people's ability to communicate, computer games are a cause of underdeveloped communication skills in children. After-school hours spent playing computer games are hours not spent talking with people. Therefore, children who spend all their spare time playing these games have less experience in interpersonal communication than other children have. The argument depends on which of the following assumptions?

A. Passive activities such as watching television and listening to music do not hinder the development of communication skills in children.
B. Most children have other opportunities, in addition to after-school hours, in which they can choose whether to play computer games or to interact with other people.
C. Children who do not spend all of their after-school hours playing computer games spend at least some of that time talking with other people.
D. Formal instruction contributes little or nothing to children's acquisition of communication skills.
E. The mental skills developed through playing computer games do not contribute significantly to children's intellectual development.

8. In the past most airline companies minimized aircraft weight to minimize fuel costs. The safest airline seats were heavy, and airlines equipped their planes with few of these seats. This year the seat that has sold best to airlines has been the safest one?a clear indication that airlines are assigning a higher priority to safe seating than to minimizing fuel costs. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. Last year's best-selling airline seat was not the safest airline seat on the market.
B. No airline company has announced that it would be making safe seating a higher priority this year.
C. The price of fuel was higher this year than it had been in most of the years when the safest airline seats sold poorly.
D. Because of increases in the cost of materials, all airline seats were more expensive to manufacture this year than in any previous year.
E. Because of technological innovations, the safest airline seat on the market this year weighed less than most other airline seats on the market.

9. Technically a given category of insurance policy is underpriced if, over time, claims against it plus expenses associated with it exceed total income from premiums. But premium income can be invested and will then yield returns of its own. Therefore, an underpriced policy does not represent a net loss in every case. The argument above is based on which of the following assumptions?

A. No insurance policies are deliberately underpriced in order to attract customers to the insurance company offering such policies.
B. A policy that represents a net loss to the insurance company is not an underpriced policy in every case.
C. There are policies for which the level of claims per year can be predicted with great accuracy before premiums are set.
D. The income earned by investing premium income is the most important determinant of an insurance company's profits.
E. The claims against at least some underpriced policies do not require paying out all of the premium income from those policies as soon as it is earned.

10. In the first half of this year, from January to June, about three million videocassette recorders were sold. This number is only 35 percent of the total number of videocassette recorders sold last year. Therefore, total sales of videocassette recorders will almost certainly be lower for this year than they were for last year. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. The total number of videocassette recorders sold last year was lower than the total number sold in the year before that.
B. Most people who are interested in owning a videocassette recorder have already purchased one.
C. Videocassette recorders are less expensive this year than they were last year.
D. Of the videocassette recorders sold last year, almost 60 percent were sold in January.
E. Typically, over 70 percent of the sales of videocassette recorders made in a year occur in the months of November and December.