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GMAT

GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 22

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. Scientists investigating a rare metabolic disorder hypothesized that obesity was a predisposing factor in the development of the disease. A study of twenty patients found that, on average, the patients were close to the normal weight for their height.

Before concluding that obesity is not a predisposing factor, the researchers would find the answer to which of the following questions most useful?

A. Are the patients above or below normal height?
B. Were any of the patients underweight when the disorder was diagnosed?
C. Does weight loss reduce the severity of the symptoms?
D. Have the patients always been close to the normal weight for their heights?
E. How many of the patients had obese parents?

2. Which of the following best completes the passage below? One tax-reform proposal that has gained increasing support in recent years is the flat tax, which would impose a uniform tax rate on incomes at every level. Opponents of the flat tax say that a progressive tax system, which levies a higher rate of taxes on higher-income taxpayers, is fairer, placing the greater burden on those better able to bear it. However, the present crazy quilt of tax deductions, exemptions, credits, and loopholes benefits primarily the high-income taxpayer, who is consequently able to reduce his or her effective tax rate, often to a level below that paid by the lower-income taxpayer. Therefore, ______

A. higher-income taxpayers are likely to lend their support to the flat-tax proposal now being considered by Congress
B. a flat-tax system that allowed no deductions or exemptions would substantially increase actual government revenues
C. the lower-income taxpayer might well be penalized by the institution of a flat-tax system in this country
D. the progressive nature of our present tax system is more illusory than real
E. the flat tax would actually be fairer to the lower-income taxpayer than any progressive tax system could be

3. The average normal infant born in the United States weighs between twelve and fourteen pounds at the age of three months. Therefore, if a three-month-old child weighs only ten pounds, its weight gain has been below the United States average. Which of the following indicates a flaw in the reasoning above?

A. Weight is only one measure of normal infant development.
B. Some three-month-old children weigh as much as seventeen pounds.
C. It is possible for a normal child to weigh ten pounds at birth.
D. The phrase ?below average? does not necessarily mean insufficient.
E. Average weight gain is not the same as average weight.

4. In the aftermath of a worldwide stock-market crash, Country T claimed that the severity of the stock-market crash it experienced resulted from the accelerated process of denationalization many of its industries underwent shortly before the crash. Which of the following, if it could be carried out, would be most useful in an evaluation of Country T's assessment of the causes of the severity of its stock-market crash?

A. Calculating the average loss experienced by individual traders in Country T during the crash
B. Using economic theory to predict the most likely date of the next crash in Country T
C. Comparing the total number of shares sold during the worst days of the crash in Country T to the total number of shares sold in Country T just prior to the crash
D. Comparing the severity of the crash in Country T to the severity of the crash in countries otherwise economically similar to Country T that have not experienced recent denationalization
E. Comparing the long-term effects of the crash on the purchasing power of the currency of Country T to the immediate, more severe short-term effects of the crash on the purchasing power of the currency of Country T

5. Traditionally, decision-making by managers that is reasoned step-by-step has been considered preferable to intuitive decision-making. However, a recent study found that top managers used intuition significantly more than did most middle- or lower-level managers. This confirms the alternative view that intuition is actually more effective than careful, methodical reasoning. The conclusion above is based on which of the following assumptions?

A. Methodical, step-by-step reasoning is inappropriate for making many real-life management decisions.
B. Top managers have the ability to use either intuitive reasoning or methodical, step-by-step reasoning in making decisions.
C. The decisions made by middle- and lower-level managers can be made as easily by using methodical reasoning as by using intuitive reasoning.
D. Top managers use intuitive reasoning in making the majority of their decisions.
E. Top managers are more effective at decision-making than middle- or lower-level managers.

6. For the safety-conscious Swedish market, a United States manufacturer of desktop computers developed a special display screen that produces a much weaker electromagnetic field surrounding the user than do ordinary screens. Despite an advantage in this respect over its competitors, the manufacturer is introducing the screen into the United States market without advertising it as a safety improvement. Which of the following, if true, provides a rationale for the manufacturer's approach to advertising the screen in the United States?

A. Many more desktop computers are sold each year in the United States market than are sold in the Swedish market.
B. The manufacturer does not want its competitors to become aware of the means by which the company has achieved this advance in technology.
C. Most business and scientific purchasers of desktop computers expect to replace such equipment eventually as better technology becomes available on the market.
D. An emphasis on the comparative safety of the new screen would call into question the safety of the many screens the manufacturer has already sold in the United States.
E. Concern has been expressed in the United States over the health effects of the large electromagnetic fields surrounding electric power lines.

7. Working shorter workweeks causes managers to feel less stress than does working longer workweeks. In addition, greater perceived control over one's work life reduces stress levels. It can be concluded, therefore, that shorter workweeks cause managers to feel they have more control over their work life. The argument made above uses which of the following questionable techniques?

A. Associating two conditions as cause and effect on the basis of their being causally associated with the same phenomenon
B. Taking for granted that two factors that have a certain effect individually produce that effect more strongly when both act together
C. Assuming what it sets out to prove
D. Using an irrelevant point in order to draw a conclusion
E. Basing a conclusion on preconceived views about the needs of managers

8. Advertisement: For sinus pain, three out of four hospitals give their patients Novex . So when you want the most effective painkiller for sinus pain, Novex is the one to choose. Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the advertisement's argument?

A. Some competing brands of painkillers are intended to reduce other kinds of pain in addition to sinus pain.
B. Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex will do so for those patients who cannot tolerate the drug the hospitals usually use.
C. Many drug manufacturers increase sales of their products to hospitals by selling these products to the hospitals at the lowest price the manufacturers can afford.
D. Unlike some competing brands of painkillers, Novex is available from pharmacies without a doctor's prescription.
E. In clinical trials Novex has been found more effective than competing brands of painkillers that have been on the market longer than Novex .

9. Advertisement: The world's best coffee beans come from Colombia. The more Colombian beans in a blend of coffee, the better the blend, and no company purchases more Colombian beans than Kreemo Coffee, Inc. So it only stands to reason that if you buy a can of Kreemo's coffee, you're buying the best blended coffee available today. The reasoning of the argument in the advertisement is flawed because it overlooks the possibility that

A. the equipment used by Kreemo to blend and package its coffee is no different from that used by most other coffee producers
B. not all of Kreemo's competitors use Colombian coffee beans in the blends of coffee they sell
C. Kreemo sells more coffee than does any other company
D. Kreemo's coffee is the most expensive blended coffee available today
E. the best unblended coffee is better than the best blended coffee

10. Technological improvements and reduced equipment costs have made converting solar energy directly into electricity far more cost-efficient in the last decade. However, the threshold of economic viability for solar power (that is, the price per barrel to which oil would have to rise in order for new solar power plants to be more economical than new oil-fired power plants) is unchanged at thirty-five dollars. Which of the following, if true, does most to help explain why the increased cost-efficiency of solar power has not decreased its threshold of economic viability?

A. The cost of oil has fallen dramatically.
B. The reduction in the cost of solar-power equipment has occurred despite increased raw material costs for that equipment.
C. Technological changes have increased the efficiency of oil-fired power plants.
D. Most electricity is generated by coal-fired or nuclear, rather than oil-fired, power plants.
E. When the price of oil increases, reserves of oil not previously worth exploiting become economically viable.