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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 29

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. Ronald: According to my analysis of the national economy, housing prices should not increase during the next six months unless interest rates drop significantly. Mark: I disagree. One year ago, when interest rates last fell significantly, housing prices did not increase at all. It can be inferred from the conversation above that Mark has interpreted Ronald's statement to mean that

A. housing prices will rise only if interest rates fall
B. if interest rates fall, housing prices must rise
C. interest rates and housing prices tend to rise and fall together
D. interest rates are the only significant economic factor affecting housing prices
E. interest rates are likely to fall significantly in the next six months

2. The U.S. census is not perfect: thousands of Americans probably go uncounted. However, the basic statistical portrait of the nation painted by the census is accurate. Certainly some of the poor go uncounted, particularly the homeless; but some of the rich go uncounted as well, because they are often abroad or traveling between one residence and another. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument above depends?

A. Both the rich and the poor have personal and economic reasons to avoid being counted by the census.
B. All Americans may reasonably be classified as either poor or rich.
C. The percentage of poor Americans uncounted by the census is close to the percentage of rich Americans uncounted.
D. The number of homeless Americans is approximately equal to the number of rich Americans.
E. The primary purpose of the census is to analyze the economic status of the American population.

3. The Commerce Department recently put limits on machine-tool imports from two countries whose exports of machine tools into the United States have been substantial. As a result of these restrictions, analysts predict that domestic sales of machine tools manufactured in the United States are bound to rise considerably, starting in the very near future. Which of the following, if true, would be most likely to cause the analysts' prediction to be inaccurate?

A. A new tax bill that, if passed, would discourage investment in capital equipment such as machine tools is being studied and debated seriously in the United States Congress.
B. United States companies' orders for metal-cutting machines, which account for 75 percent of sales by the machine-tool industry, rose faster than orders for other types of machine tools during the past year.
C. Worldwide orders for machine tools made in the United States dropped by more than 10 percent during the past year.
D. Substantial inventories of foreign-made machine tools were stockpiled in the United States during the past year.
E. Companies in the industrial sectors of many countries showed a significantly expanded demand for machine tools during the past year.

4. For a local government to outlaw all strikes by its workers is a costly mistake, because all its labor disputes must then be settled by binding arbitration, without any negotiated public-sector labor settlements guiding the arbitrators. Strikes should be outlawed only for categories of public-sector workers for whose services no acceptable substitute exists. The statements above best support which of the following conclusions?

A. Where public-service workers are permitted to strike, contract negotiations with those workers are typically settled without a strike.
B. Where strikes by all categories of pubic-sector workers are outlawed, no acceptable substitutes for the services provided by any of those workers are available.
C. Binding arbitration tends to be more advantageous for public-service workers where it is the only available means of settling labor disputes with such workers.
D. Most categories of public-sector workers have no counterparts in the private sector.
E. A strike by workers in a local government is unlikely to be settled without help from an arbitrator.

5. In Asia, where palm trees are non-native, the trees' flowers have traditionally been pollinated by hand, which has kept palm fruit productivity unnaturally low. When weevils known to be efficient pollinators of palm flowers were introduced into Asia in 1980, palm fruit productivity increased?by up to fifty percent in some areas?but then decreased sharply in 1984. Which of the following statements, if true, would best explain the 1984 decrease in productivity?

A. Prices for palm fruit fell between 1980 and 1984 following the rise in production and a concurrent fall in demand.
B. Imported trees are often more productive than native trees because the imported ones have left behind their pests and diseases in their native lands.
C. Rapid increases in productivity tend to deplete trees of nutrients needed for the development of the fruit-producing female flowers.
D. The weevil population in Asia remained at approximately the same level between 1980 and 1984.
E. Prior to 1980 another species of insect pollinated the Asian palm trees, but not as efficiently as the species of weevil that was introduced in 1980.

6. The most important aspect of moviemaking is conveying a scene's rhythm. Conveying rhythm depends less on the artistic quality of the individual photographic images than on how the shots go together and the order in which they highlight different aspects of the action taking place in front of the camera. If the statements above are true, which of the following must be true on the basis of them?

A. The artistic quality of the individual photographic image is unimportant in movie photography.
B. Photographers known for the superb artistic quality of their photographs are seldom effective as moviemakers.
C. Having the ability to produce photographs of superb artistic quality does not in itself guarantee having the ability to be a good moviemaker.
D. Movie photographers who are good at their jobs rarely give serious thought to the artistic quality of the photographs they take.
E. To convey a scene's rhythm effectively, a moviemaker must highlight many different aspects of the action taking place.

7. Reviewer: The book Art's Decline argues that European painters today lack skills that were common among European painters of preceding centuries. In this the book must be right, since its analysis of 100 paintings, 50 old and 50 contemporary, demonstrates convincingly that none of the contemporary paintings are executed as skillfully as the older paintings. Which of the following points to the most serious logical flaw in the reviewer's argument?

A. The paintings chosen by the book's author for analysis could be those that most support the book's thesis.
B. There could be criteria other than the technical skill of the artist by which to evaluate a painting.
C. The title of the book could cause readers to accept the book's thesis even before they read the analysis of the paintings that supports it.
D. The particular methods currently used by European painters could require less artistic skill than do methods used by painters in other parts of the world.
E. A reader who was not familiar with the language of art criticism might not be convinced by the book's analysis of the 100 paintings.

8. In order to increase revenues, an airport plans to change the parking fees it charges at its hourly parking lots. Rather than charging $2.00 for the first two-hour period, or part thereof, and $1.00 for each hour thereafter, the airport will charge $4.00 for the first four-hour period, or part thereof, and $1.00 for each hour thereafter. Which of the following is a consideration that, if true, suggests that the plan will be successful in increasing revenues?

A. Very few people who park their cars at the hourly parking lot at the airport leave their cars for more than two hours at a time.
B. Over the past several years, the cost to the airport of operating its hourly parking facilities has been greater than the revenues it has received from them.
C. People who leave their cars at the airport while on a trip generally park their cars in lots that charge by the day rather than by the hour.
D. A significant portion of the money spent to operate the airport parking lot is spent to maintain the facilities rather than to pay the salaries of the personnel who collect the parking fees.
E. The hourly parking lots at the airport have recently been expanded and are therefore rarely filled to capacity.

9. Mechanicorp's newest product costs so little to make that it appears doubtful the company will be able to sell it without increasing the markup the company usually allows for profit: potential clients would simply not believe that something so inexpensive would really work. Yet Mechanicorp's reputation is built on fair prices incorporating only modest profit margins. The statements above, if true, most strongly support which of the following?

A. Mechanicorp will encounter difficulties in trying to set a price for its newest product that will promote sales without threatening to compromise the company's reputation.
B. Mechanicorp achieves large annual profits, despite small profits per unit sold, by means of a high volume of sales.
C. Mechanicorp made a significant computational error in calculating the production costs for its newest product.
D. Mechanicorp's newest product is intended to perform tasks that can be performed by other devices costing less to manufacture.
E. Mechanicorp's production processes are designed with the same ingenuity as are the products that the company makes.

10. In malaria-infested areas, many children tend to suffer several bouts of malaria before becoming immune to the disease. Clearly, what must be happening is that those children's immune systems are only weakly stimulated by any single exposure to the malaria parasite and need to be challenged several times to produce an effective immune response. Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the explanatory hypothesis?

A. Immediately after a child has suffered a bout of malaria, the child's caregivers tend to go to great lengths in taking precautions to prevent another infection, but this level of attention is not sustained.
B. Malaria is spread from person to person by mosquitoes, and mosquitoes have become increasingly resistant to the pesticides used to control them.
C. A certain gene, if inherited by children from only one of their parents, can render those children largely immune to infection with malaria.
D. Antimalaria vaccines, of which several are in development, are all designed to work by stimulating the body's immune system.
E. There are several distinct strains of malaria, and the body's immune response to any one of them does not protect it against the others.