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GMAT

GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 42

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. Josh has twenty years of typing experience behind him; therefore, if you are looking for an efficient typist to enter your data into the new system, you need look no further.

The speaker assumes that

A. Twenty years of practice ensures typing efficiency
B. The type of typing required for the new system is identical to what Josh has been doing
C. Josh?s job profile is the best that the new employer is going to get
D. Josh is an outstandingly fast and accurate typist
E. Josh will fit well into the new office

2. At one time, European and Japanese companies tried to imitate their American rivals. Today, American appliance manufacturers import European scientists to lead their research staffs; American automakers design cars that mimic the styling of German, Italian, and French imports; and American electronics firms boast in their advertising of ?Japanese-style? devotion to quality and reliability. In the world of high technology, America has lost the battle for international prestige. Each of the following statements, if true, would help to support the claim above EXCEPT:

A. An American camera company claims in its promotional literature to produce cameras ?as fine as the best Swiss imports.?
B. An American maker of stereo components designs its products to resemble those of a popular Japanese firm.
C. An American manufacturer of video games uses a brand name chosen because it sounds like a Japanese word.
D. An American maker of televisions studies German-made televisions in order to adopt German manufacturing techniques.
E. An American maker of frozen foods advertises its dinners as ?Real European-style entrees prepared by fine French and Italian chefs.?

3. A young man eager to become a master swordsman journeyed to the home of the greatest teacher of swordsmanship in the kingdom. He asked the teacher, ?How quickly can you teach me to be a master swordsman?? The old teacher replied, ?It will take ten years.? Unsatisfied, the young man asked, ?What if I am willing to work night and day, every day of the year?? the teacher replied, ?In that case, it will take twenty years.? The teacher's main point is that an important quality of a master swordsman is

A. humility
B. willingness to work hard
C. respect for one's elders
D. patience
E. determination

4. A private bus company gained greater profits and provided bus service to the area at lower fares by running buses more frequently and stimulating greater ridership. Hoping to continue these financial trends, the company plans to replace all older buses with new, larger buses, including some double-decker buses,. The plan of the bus company as described above assumes all of the following EXCEPT

A. the demand for bus service in the company's area of service will increase in the future
B. increased efficiency and revenues will compensate for any new expenses the company incurs
C. the new buses will be sufficiently reliable to ensure the company a net financial gain once they are in place
D. driving the new buses will be no more difficult than driving the buses they are to replace
E. the larger, double-decker buses will not face obstacles such as height and weight restrictions in the bus company's area of service

5. Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace. Both are required simultaneously since standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country's standard of living. If the facts stated in the passage above are true, a proper test of a country's ability to be competitive is its ability to

A. balance its trade while its standard of living rises
B. balance its trade while its standard of living falls
C. increase trade deficits while its standard of living rises
D. decrease trade deficits while its standard of living falls
E. keep its standard of living constant while trade deficits rise

6. Adult female rats who have never before encountered rat pups will start to show maternal behaviors after being confined with a pup for about seven days. This period can be considerably shortened by disabling the female's sense of smell or by removing the scent-producing glands of the pup. Which of the following hypotheses best explains the contrast described above?

A. The sense of smell in adult female rats is more acute than that in rat pups.
B. The amount of scent produced by rat pups increases when they are in the presence of a female rat that did not bear them.
C. Female rats that have given birth are more affected by olfactory cues than are female rats that have never given birth.
D. A female rat that has given birth shows maternal behavior toward rat pups that she did not bear more quickly than does a female rat that has never given birth.
E. The development of a female rat's maternal interest in a rat pup that she did not bear is inhibited by the odor of the pup.

7. An overly centralized economy, not the changes in the climate, is responsible for the poor agricultural production in Country X since its new government came to power. Neighboring Country Y has experienced the same climatic conditions, but while agricultural production has been falling in Country X, it has been rising in Country Y. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

A. Industrial production also is declining in Country X.
B. Whereas Country Y is landlocked, Country X has a major seaport.
C. Both Country X and Country Y have been experiencing drought conditions.
D. The crops that have always been grown in Country X are different from those that have always been grown in Country Y.
E. Country X's new government instituted a centralized economy with the intention of ensuring an equitable distribution of goods.

8. Among the more effective kinds of publicity that publishers can get for a new book is to have excerpts of it published in a high-circulation magazine soon before the book is published. The benefits of such excerption include not only a sure increase in sales but also a fee paid by the magazine to the book's publisher. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?

A. The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book.
B. Because the financial advantage of excerpting a new book in a magazine usually accrues to the book's publisher, magazine editors are unwilling to publish excerpts from new books.
C. In calculating the total number of copies that a book has sold, publishers include sales of copies of magazines that featured an excerpt of the book.
D. The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published.
E. Books that are suitable for excerpting in high-circulation magazines sell more copies than books that are not suitable for excerpting.

9. Two experimental garden plots were each planted with the same number of tomato plants. Magnesium salts were added to the first plot but not to the second. The first plot produced 20 pounds of tomatoes and the second plot produced 10 pounds. Since nothing else but water was added to either plot, the higher yields in the first plot must have been due to the magnesium salts. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. A small amount of the magnesium salts from the first plot leached into the second plot.
B. Tomato plants in a third experimental plot, to which a high-nitrogen fertilizer was added, but no magnesium salts, produced 15 pounds of tomatoes.
C. Four different types of tomatoes were grown in equal proportions in each of the plots.
D. Some weeds that compete with tomatoes cannot tolerate high amounts of magnesium salts in the soil.
E. The two experimental plots differed from each other with respect to soil texture and exposure to sunlight.

10. Any serious policy discussion about acceptable levels of risk in connection with explosions is not well served if the participants fail to use the word ?explosion? and use the phrase ?energetic disassembly? instead. In fact, the word ?explosion? elicits desirable reactions, such as a heightened level of attention, whereas the substitute phrase does not. Therefore, of the two terms, ?explosion? is the one that should be used throughout discussions of this sort. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument above depends?

A. In the kind of discussion at issue, the advantages of desirable reactions to the term ?explosion? outweigh the drawbacks, if any, arising from undesirable reactions to that term.
B. The phrase ?energetic disassembly? has not so far been used as a substitute for the word ?explosion? in the kind of discussion at issue.
C. In any serious policy discussion, what is said by the participants is more important than how it is put into words.
D. The only reason that people would have for using ?energetic disassembly? in place of ?explosion? is to render impossible any serious policy discussion concerning explosions.
E. The phrase ?energetic disassembly? is not necessarily out of place in describing a controlled rather than an accidental explosion.