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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 36

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. Johnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of Dickinson 's poetry often distorted her intentions. Yet Johnson's own, more faithful, text is still guilty of its own forms of distortion. To standardize Dickinson 's often indecipherable handwritten punctuation by the use of the dash is to render permanent a casual mode of poetic phrasing that Dickinson surely never expected to see in print. It implies that Dickinson chose the dash as her typical mark of punctuation when, in fact, she apparently never made any definitive choice at all. Which of the following best summarizes the author's main point?

A. Although Johnson is right in criticizing Dickinson 's early editors for their distortion of her work, his own text is guilty of equally serious distortions.
B. Johnson's use of the dash in his text of Dickinson 's poetry misleads readers about the poet's intentions.
C. Because Dickinson never expected her poetry to be published, virtually any attempt at editing it must run counter to her intentions.
D. Although Johnson's attempt to produce a more faithful text of Dickinson 's poetry is well-meaning, his study of the material lacks sufficient thoroughness.
E. Dickinson 's editors, including Johnson, have failed to deal adequately with the problem of deciphering Dickinson 's handwritten manuscripts.

2. Contrary to the statements of labor leaders, the central economic problem facing America today is not the distribution of wealth. It is productivity. With the productivity of U.S. industry stagnant, or even declining slightly, the economic pie is no longer growing. Labor leaders, of course, point to what they consider an unfair distribution of the slices of pie to justify their demands for further increases in wages and benefits. And in the past, when the pie was still growing, management could afford to acquiesce. No longer. Until productivity resumes its growth, there can be no justification for further increases in the compensation of workers. Which of the following statements by a labor leader focuses on the logical weakness in the argument above?

A. Although the economic pie is no longer growing, the portion of the pie allocated to American workers remains unjustly small.
B. If management fails to accommodate the demands of workers, labor leaders will be forced to call strikes that will cripple the operation of industry.
C. Although productivity is stagnant, the U.S. population is growing, so that the absolute size of the economic pie continues to grow as well.
D. As a labor leader, I can be concerned only with the needs of working people, not with the problems faced by management.
E. The stagnation of U.S. industry has been caused largely by factors?such as foreign competition?beyond the control of American workers.

3. Gloria: Those who advocate tuition tax credits for parents whose children attend private schools maintain that people making no use of a government service should not be forced to pay for it. Yet those who choose to buy bottled water rather than drink water from the local supply are not therefore exempt from paying taxes to maintain the local water supply. Roger: Your argument is illogical. Children are required by law to attend school. Since school attendance is a matter not of choice, but of legal requirement, it is unfair for the government to force some parents to pay for it twice. Which of the following responses by Gloria would best refute Roger's charge that her argument is illogical?

A. Although drinking water is not required by law, it is necessary for all people, and therefore my analogy is appropriate.
B. Those who can afford the tuition at a high-priced private school can well bear the same tax burden as those whose children attend public schools.
C. If tuition tax credits are granted, the tax burden on parents who choose public schools will rise to an intolerable level.
D. The law does not say that parents must send their children to private schools, only that the children must attend some kind of school, whether public or private.
E. Both bottled water and private schools are luxury items, and it is unfair that some citizens should be able to afford them while others cannot.

4. Every painting hanging in the Hoular Gallery is by a French painter. No painting in the Hoular Gallery is by a Vorticist . Only Vorticists use acrylic monochromes in their works. If the information above is true, which of the following must also be true?

A. No French painters are Vorticists .
B. All Vorticists use acrylic monochromes in their works.
C. Some French painters do not use acrylic monochromes in their works.
D. No French painters use acrylic monochromes in their works.
E. All French painters who use acrylics use acrylic monochromes in their works.

5. Even though most universities retain the royalties from faculty members' inventions, the faculty members retain the royalties from books and articles they write. Therefore, faculty members should retain the royalties from the educational computer software they develop. The conclusion above would be more reasonably drawn if which of the following were inserted into the argument as an additional premise?

A. Royalties from inventions are higher than royalties from educational software programs.
B. Faculty members are more likely to produce educational software programs than inventions.
C. Inventions bring more prestige to universities than do books and articles.
D. In the experience of most universities, educational software programs are more marketable than are books and articles.
E. In terms of the criteria used to award royalties, educational software programs are more nearly comparable to books and articles than to inventions.

6. Tocqueville, a nineteenth-century writer known for his study of democracy in the United States, believed that a government that centralizes power in one individual or institution is dangerous to its citizens. Biographers claim that Tocqueville disliked centralized government because he blamed Napoleon's rule for the poverty of his childhood in Normandy. Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the biographers' claim?

A. Although Napoleon was popularly blamed at the time for the terrible living conditions in Normandy, historians now know that bad harvests were really to blame for the poor economic conditions.
B. Napoleon was notorious for refusing to share power with any of his political associates.
C. Tocqueville said he knew that if his father had not suffered ill health, his family would have had a steady income and a comfortable standard of living.
D. Although Tocqueville asserted that United States political life was democratic, the United States of the nineteenth century allowed political power to be concentrated in a few institutions.
E. Tocqueville once wrote in a letter that, although his childhood was terribly impoverished, it was not different from the experience of his friends and neighbors in Normandy.

7. Two decades after the Emerald River Dam was built, none of the eight fish species native to the Emerald River was still reproducing adequately in the river below the dam. Since the dam reduced the annual range of water temperature in the river below the dam from 50 degrees to 6 degrees, scientists have hypothesized that sharply rising water temperatures must be involved in signaling the native species to begin the reproductive cycle. Which of the following statements, if true, would most strengthen the scientists' hypothesis?

A. The native fish species were still able to reproduce only in side streams of the river below the dam where the annual temperature range remains approximately 50 degrees.
B. Before the dam was built, the Emerald River annually overflowed its banks, creating backwaters that were critical breeding areas for the native species of fish.
C. The lowest recorded temperature of the Emerald River before the dam was built was 34 degrees, whereas the lowest recorded temperature of the river after the dam was built has been 43 degrees.
D. Nonnative species of fish, introduced into the Emerald River after the dam was built, have begun competing with the declining native fish species for food and space.
E. Five of the fish species native to the Emerald River are not native to any other river in North America.

8. The recent decline in the value of the dollar was triggered by a prediction of slower economic growth in the coming year. But that prediction would not have adversely affected the dollar had it not been for the government's huge budget deficit, which must therefore be decreased to prevent future currency declines. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion about how to prevent future currency declines?

A. The government has made little attempt to reduce the budget deficit.
B. The budget deficit has not caused a slowdown in economic growth.
C. The value of the dollar declined several times in the year prior to the recent prediction of slower economic growth.
D. Before there was a large budget deficit, predictions of slower economic growth frequently caused declines in the dollar's value.
E. When there is a large budget deficit, other events in addition to predictions of slower economic growth sometimes trigger declines in currency value.

9. Any tax relief received by the solar industry would not benefit the homeowner who installs a solar-energy system. Even though homeowners would pay a lower price for solar-energy system installations because of this tax relief, with the government paying the balance, government revenues come from the public. The argument above is based on which of the following assumptions?

A. The tax relief would cause the homeowner to lose, through taxes or reduced government benefits or both, an amount at least equal to the reduction in the price of that homeowner's solar-energy system installation.
B. The tax relief that would be received by solar-energy industries would not be offered at the same time as any tax relief for other industries.
C. Advertisements of the solar-energy industry, by failing to identify the source of government revenues explicitly to the public, mask the advantage the industry receives from the public.
D. Homeowners generally believe that they benefit from any tax relief offered to the solar-energy industry.
E. Tax relief would encourage solar industries to sell solar-energy systems at higher prices.

10. The recent decline in land prices has hurt many institutions that had invested heavily in real estate. Last year, before the decline began, a local college added 2,000 acres to its holdings. The college, however, did not purchase the land but received it as a gift. Therefore the price decline will probably not affect the college. Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the conclusion above?

A. The 2,000 acres that the college was given last year are located within the same community as the college itself.
B. The college usually receives more contributions of money than of real estate.
C. Land prices in the region in which the college is located are currently higher than the national average.
D. Last year, the amount that the college allocated to pay for renovations included money it expected to receive by selling some of its land this year.
E. Last year, the college paid no property taxes on land occupied by college buildings but instead paid fees to compensate the local government for services provided.