TEST 10 CRITICAL REASONING 2_LSAT
section iv
time-35 minutes
25 questions
directions: the questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages. for some questions, more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. however, you are to choose the best answer; that is, the response that most accurately and completely answers the question. you should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous, or incompatible with the passage. after you have chosen the best answer, blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.
1. people who accuse the postal service of incompetence and inefficiency while complaining of the proposed five-cent increase in postal rates do not know a bargain when they see one. few experiences are more enjoyable than reading a personal letter from a friend. viewed in this way, postal service is so underpriced that a five-cent increase is unworthy of serious debate.
the reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
(a) suggests that the postal service is both competent and efficient, but does not establish how competence and efficiency should be measured
(b) claims that the proposed increase is insignificant but does not say at what level the increase would be worthy of serious debate
(c) confuses the value of the object delivered with the value of delivering that object
(d) appeals to an outside authority for support of a premise that should be established by argument
(e) fails to establish whether or not the critics of the postal service are employees of the postal service
2. when a study of aspirin’s ability to prevent heart attacks in humans yielded positive results, researchers immediately submitted those results to a medical journal, which published them six weeks later. had the results been published sooner, many of the heart attacks that occurred during the delay, could have been prevented.
the conclusion drawn above would be most undermined if it were true that
(a) the medical journal’s staff worked overtime in order to publish the study’s results as soon as possible
(b) studies of aspirin’s usefulness in reducing heart attacks in laboratory animals remain inconclusive
(c) people who take aspirin regularly suffer a higher-than-average incidence of stomach ulcers
(d) the medical journal’s official policy is to publish articles only after an extensive review process
(e) a person’s risk of suffering a heart attack drops only after that person has taken aspirin regularly for two years
3. it might seem that an airline could increase profits by reducing airfares on all its flights in order to encourage discretionary travel and thus fill planes. offers of across-the board discount fares have, indeed, resulted in the sale of large numbers of reduced-price tickets. nevertheless such offers have, in the past, actually cut the airline’s profits.
which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy described above?
(a) fewer than 10 percent of all air travelers make no attempt to seek out discount fares.
(b) fares or trips between a large city and a small city are higher than those for trips between two large cities even when the distances involved are the same.
(c) across-the-board discounts in fares tend to decrease revenues on flights that are normally filled, but they fail to attract passengers to unpopular flights.
(d) only a small number of people who have never before traveled by air are persuaded to do so on the basis of across-the board discount fares.
(e) it is difficult to devise an advertising campaign that makes the public aware of across-the-board discount fares while fully explaining the restrictions applied to those discount fares.
4. only if the electorate is moral and intelligent will a democracy function well.
which one of the following can be logically inferred from the claim above?
(a) if the electorate is moral and intelligent, then a democracy will function well.
(b) either a democracy does not function well or else the electorate is not moral or not intelligent.
(c) if the electorate is not moral or not intelligent, then a democracy will not function well.
(d) if a democracy does not function well, then the electorate is not moral or not intelligent.
(e) it cannot, at the same time, be true that the electorate is moral and intelligent and that a democracy will not function well.
5. infants younger than six months who have normal hearing can readily distinguish between acoustically similar sounds that are used as part of any language-not only those used in the language spoken by the people who raise them. young adults can readily distinguish between such sounds only in languages
that they regularly use. it is known that the physiological capacity to hear begins to deteriorate after infancy. so the observed difference in the abilities of infants and young adult to distinguish between acoustically similar speech sounds must be the result of the physiological deterioration of hearing.
the reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
(a) sets an arbitrary cutoff point of six months for the age below which infants are able to distinguish acoustically similar speech sounds
(b) does not explain the procedures used to measure the abilities of two very different populations
(c) ignores the fact that certain types of speech sounds occur in almost all languages
(d) assumes that what is true of a group of people taken collectively is also true of any individual with that group
(e) takes a factor that might contribute to an explanation of the observed difference as a sufficient explanation for that difference
6. the economies of some industrialized countries face the prospect of large labor shortages in the decades ahead. meanwhile, these countries will have a vast number of experienced and productive older workers who, as things stand, will be driven from the work force upon reaching the age of sixty-five by the widespread practice of requiring workers to retire at that age. therefore, if the discriminatory practice of mandatory retirement at age sixty-five were eliminated, the labor shortages facing these economies would be averted.
the argument assumes that
(a) older workers have acquired skills that are extremely valuable and that their younger colleagues lack
(b) workers in industrialized countries are often unprepared to face the economic consequences of enforced idleness
(c) a large number of workers in some industrialized countries would continue working beyond the age of sixty-five if workers in those countries were allowed to do so
(d) mandatory retirement at age sixty-five was first instituted when life expectancy was considerable lower than it is today
(e) a substantial proportion of the population of officially retired workers is actually engaged in gainful employment
7. the incidence in japan of most types of cancer is remarkable low compared to with in north america, especially considering that japan has a modern life-style, industrial pollution included. the cancer rates, however, for japanese people who immigrate to north america and adopt the diet of north americans approximate the higher cancer rates prevalent in north america.
if the statements above are true, they provide the most support for which one of the following?
(a) the greater the level of industrial pollution in a country, the higher that country’s cancer rate will tend to be.
(b) the stress of life in north america is greater than that of life in japan and predisposes to cancer.
(c) the staple foods of the japanese diet contain elements that cure cancer.
(d) the relatively low rate of cancer among people in japan does not result from a high frequency of a protective genetic trait among japanese people.
(e) the higher cancer rates of japanese immigrants to north america are caused by fats in the north american diet.
8. a translation invariably reflects the writing style of the translator. sometimes when a long document needs to be translated quickly, several translators are put to work on the job, each assigned to translate part of the document. in these cases, the result is usually a translation marked by different and often incompatible writing styles. certain computer programs for language translation that work without the intervention of human translation can finish the job faster than human translators and produce a stylistically uniform translation with an 80 percent accuracy rate. therefore, when a long document needs to be translated quickly, it is better to use a computer translation program than human translators.
which one of the following issues would be least important to resolve in evaluating the argument?
(a) whether the problem of stylistic variety in human translation could be solved by giving stylistic guidelines to human translators
(b) whether numerical comparisons of the accuracy of translations can reasonably be made
(c) whether computer translation programs, like human translators, each have their own distinct writing style
(d) whether the computer translation contains errors of grammar and usage that drastically alter the meaning of the text
(e) how the accuracy rate of computer translation programs compares with that of human translators in relation to the users’ needs.
questions 9-10
myrna: people should follow diets in which fat represents no more than 30 percent of total calories, not the 37 percent the average diet in this country contains.
roland: if everyone in the country followed you recommendation during his or her entire life, just 0.2 percent would lengthen their live at all, and then only by an average of 3 months. modifying ort diet is not worthwhile. a lifetime of sacrifice spent eating an unappealing low-fat diet is too high a price to pay for the chance of extending that sacrifice for 3 months.
myrna: but for everyone who dies early from a high-fat diet, many more people suffer from serious chronic diseases because they followed such diets.
9. myrna responds to roland by
(a) disputing the correctness of the facts cited by roland and offering facts that she considers correct
(b) showing that the factors considered by roland are not the only ones relevant in evaluating her recommendation
(c) demonstrating that the statistics used by roland to dispute her recommendation are inaccurate
(d) suggesting that roland’s evidence derives from unreliable sources
(e) pointing out that roland’s argument assumes the very proposition it sets out to prove
10. roland’s argument assumes that
(a) it is desirable to live in such a way as to length life as much as possible
(b) a low-fat diet cannot readily be made appealing and satisfying to a person who follows it regularly
(c) diet is the only relevant factor to consider in computing influences on length of life
(d) the difference in tastiness between a diet in which fat represents 30 percent of total calories and one in which it represents 37 percent is not noticeable
(e) not everyone in the country eats the average diet
11. some critics claim that it is unfair that so many great works of art are housed in huge metropolitan museums, since the populations served by these museums already have access to a wide variety of important artwork. but this criticism is in principle unwarranted because the limited number of masterpieces makes wider distribution of them impractical. besides, if a masterpiece is to be fully appreciated, it must be seen alongside other works that provide a social and historical context for it.
which one of the following, if established, could most logically serve as the principle appealed to in the argument countering the critics’ claim?
(a) in providing facilities to the public, the goal should be to ensure that as many as possible of those people who could benefit from the facilities are able to do so.
(b) in providing facilities to the public, the goal should be to ensure that the greatest possible number of people gain the greatest benefit possible from them.
(c) it is unreasonable to enforce a redistribution of social goods that involves depriving some members of society of these goods in order to supply others
(d) for it to be reasonable to criticize an arrangement as unfair, there must be a more equitable arrangement that is practically attainable.
(e) a work of art should be displayed in conditions resembling as closely as possible those in which the work was originally intended to be displayed.
12. some accountants calculate with simple adding machines, and some use complex computers. one can perform more calculations in less time with a computer than with an adding machine. therefore, assuming the costs of using the two types of machines are equal, an accountant who uses a computer generally can earn more per hour than an accountant who uses an adding machine.
which one of the following is an assumption that would make the conclusion in the passage a logical one?
(a) more accountants use computers than use adding machines.
(b) the more hours an accountant spends on the job, the more money he or she will earn.
(c) the more calculations an accountant performs, the more money he or she will earn.
(d) an accountant who uses an adding machine can charge a higher hourly rate than one who uses a computer.
(e) in general, accountants vary in terms of the number of calculations they make and the amount of money they earn.
13. this summer, jennifer, who has worked at kvz manufacturing for just over three years, plans to spend with her family the entire four weeks of paid vacation to which she is entitled this year. anyone who has worked at kvz manufacturing for between one and four years is automatically entitled to exactly three weeks paid vacation each year but can apply up to half of any vacation time that remains unused at the end of one year to the next year’s vacation.
if the statements above are all true, which one of the following must also be true on the basis of them?
(a) jennifer did not use two weeks of the paid vacation time to which she was entitled past year.
(b) if jennifer continues to work for kvz manufacturing, she will only be entitled to three weeks paid vacation next year.
(c) the majority of kvz’s employ
ees use each year all of the paid vacation time to which they are entitled.
(d) last year jennifer took only one week of the paid vacation time to which she was entitled.
(e) kvz manufacturing sometimes allows extra vacation time to employees who need to spend more time with their families.
14. a careful review of hospital fatalities due to anesthesia during the last 20 years indicates that the most significant safety improvements resulted from better training of anesthetists. equipment that monitors a patient’s oxygen and carbon dioxide levels was not available in most operating rooms during the period under review. therefore, the increased use of such monitoring equipment in operating rooms will not significantly cut fatalities due to anesthesia.
a flaw in the argument is that
(a) the evidence cited to show that one factor led to a certain result is not sufficient to show that a second factor will not also lead to that result
(b) the reasons given in support of the conclusion presuppose the truth of that conclusion
(c) the evidence cited to show that a certain factor was absent when a certain result occurred does not show that the absence of that factor caused that result
(d) the evidence cited in support of the conclusion is inconsistent with other information that is provided.
(e) the reason indicated for the claim that one event caused a second more strongly supports the claim that both events were independent effects of a third event
15. new types of washing machines designed to consume less energy also extract less water from laundry during their final spin cycles than do washing machines that consume somewhat more energy. the wetter the laundry, the more energy required to dry it in an automatic dryer. thus using these new types of washing machines could result in an overall increase in the energy needed to wash and dry a load of laundry.
in which one of the following is the pattern of reasoning most parallel to that in the argument above?
(a) the more skill required to operate a machine, the harder it is to find people able to do it, and thus the more those people must be paid. therefore, if a factory installs machines that require highly skilled operators, it must be prepared to pay higher wages.
(b) there are two routes between centerville and mapletown, and the scenic route is the longer route. therefore, a person who is not concerned with how long it will take to travel between centerville and mapletown will probably take the scenic route.
(c) the more people who work in the library’s reading room, the noisier the room becomes; and the noisier the working environment, the less efficiently people work. therefore, when many people are working in the reading room, those people are working less efficiently.
(d) pine is a less expensive wood than cedar but is more susceptible to rot. outdoor furniture made from wood susceptible to rot must be painter with more expensive paint. therefore, builder outdoor furniture from pine rather than cedar could increase the total cost of building and painting the furniture.
(e) the more weights added to an exercise machine, the greater the muscle strength needed to work out on the machine. up to a point, using more muscle strength can make a person stronger. thus an exercise machine with more weights can, but does not necessarily, make a person stronger.
questions 16-17
g: the group of works exhibited in this year’s metropolitan art show reveals a bias in favor of photographers. equal numbers of photographers, sculptors, and painters submitted works that met the traditional criteria for the show, yet more photographs were exhibited than either sculptures or paintings. as you know, each artist was allowed to submit work in one medium only.
h: how could there have been bias? all submitted works that met the traditional criteria-and only those works-were exhibited in the show.
16. if both g’s assertions and h’s assertion are true, which one of the following must also be true?
(a) more photographers than sculptors or painters submitted works to be considered for exhibition in the metropolitan art show.
(b) all the works submitted for the metropolitan art show met the traditional criteria for the show.
(c) the quality of photographs exhibited in the metropolitan art show was inferior to the quality of the sculptures or paintings exhibited.
(d) some of the photographs submitted for the metropolitan art show did not meet the traditional criteria for the show.
(e) more works that met the traditional criteria for the metropolitan art show were submitted by photographers than by sculptors or painters.
17. which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports g’s allegation of bias?
(a) if an artist has had one of his or her works exhibited in the metropoli
tan art show, that artist has an advantage in getting commissions and selling works over artists who have never had a work exhibited in the show.
(b) the fee for entering photographs in the metropolitan art show was $25 per work submitted, while the fee for each painting or sculpture submitted was $75.
(c) the committee that selected from the submitted works the ones to be exhibited in this year’s metropolitan art show had four members: one photographer, on sculptor, one painter, and one who works in all three media but is the least known of the four members.
(d) reviews of this year’s metropolitan art show that appeared in major newspapers and magazines tended to give more coverage to the photographs in the show than to the sculptures and paintings that were exhibited.
(e) in previous years, it has often happened that more paintings or more sculptures were exhibited in the metropolitan art show than photographs, even though the total number of works exhibited each year does not vary widely.
questions 18-19
marcus: for most ethical dilemmas the journalist is likely to face, traditional journalistic ethics is clear, adequate, and essentially correct. for example, when journalists have uncovered newsworthy information, they should go to press with it as soon as possible. no delay motivated by the journalists’ personal or professional interests is permissible.
anita: well, marcus, of course interesting and important information should be brought before the public-that is a journalist’s job. but in the typical case, where a journalist has some information but is in a quandary about whether it is yet important or “newsworthy,” this guidance is inadequate.
18. the point made by anita’s statements is most accurately expressed by which one of the following?
(a) marcus’s claim that traditional journalistic ethics is clear for most ethical dilemmas in journalism is incorrect.
(b) the ethical principle that marcus cites does not help the journalist in a typical kind of situation in which a decision needs to be made.
(c) the ethical principle that marcus cites does not help the journalist in a typical hind of situation in which a decision needs to be made.
(d) there are common situations in which a journalist must make a decision and in which no principle of journalistic ethics can be of help.
(e) traditional journalistic ethics amounts to no more than an unnecessarily convoluted description of the journalist’s job.
19. in order to conclude properly from anita’s statements that marcus’ general claim about traditional journalistic ethics is incorrect, if would have to be assumed that
(a) whether a piece of information is or is not newsworthy can raise ethical dilemmas for journalists.
(b) there are circumstances in which it would be ethically wrong for a journalist to go to press with legitimately acquired, newsworthy information.
(c) the most serious professional dilemmas that a journalist is likely to face are not ethical dilemmas
(d) there are no ethical dilemmas that a journalist is likely to face that would not be conclusively resolved by an adequate system of journalistic ethics
(e) for a system of journalistic ethics to be adequate it must be able to provide guidance in every case in which a journalist must make a professional decision
questions 20-21
of every 100 burglar alarms police answer, 99 are false alarms. this situation causes an enormous and dangerous drain on increasingly scarce public resources. each false alarm wastes an average of 45 minutes of police time. as a result police are consistently taken away from responding to other legitimate calls for service, and a disproportionate share of police service goes to alarm system users, who are mostly businesses and affluent homeowners. however, burglar alarm systems, unlike car alarm systems, are effective in deterring burglaries, so the only acceptable solution is to fine burglar alarm system owners the cost of 45 minutes of police time for each false alarm their systems generate.
20. the statement that burglar alarm systems, unlike car alarm systems, are effective in deterring burglaries plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
(a) it justifies placing more restrictions on owners of burglar alarms than on owners of car alarms.
(b) it provides background information needed to make plausible the claim that the number of burglar alarms police are called on to answer is great enough to be a drain on public resources.
(c) it provides a basis for excluding as unacceptable one obvious alternative to the proposal of fining owners of burglar alarm systems for false alarms.
(d) it gives a reason why police might be more inclined to respond to burglar alarms than to car alarms.
(e) it explains why a disproportionate number of the burgla
r alarms responded to by police come from alarm systems owned by businesses.
21. on the basis of the premises advanced, which one of the following principles, if established, would provide the most justification for the concluding recommendation?
(a) no segment of a community should be permitted to engage in a practice that has been shown to result in a disproportionate share of police service being devoted to that segment of the community.
(b) when public resources are in short supply, any individual who wants special services from public agencies such as police and fire departments should be required to pay for those services if he or she can afford to do so.
(c) police departments are not justified in improving service to one segment of the community at the expense of other segments of the community unless doing so reduces the crime level throughout the entire area served.
(d) anyone who directly benefits from a service provided by public employees should be required to reimburse the general public fund an amount equivalent to the average cost providing that service.
(e) if receipt of a service results in the waste of scarce public resources and people with other legitimate needs are disadvantaged in consequence, the recipient of that service should compensate the public for the resources wasted.
22. when butterfat was considered nutritious and healthful, a law was enacted requiring that manufacturers use the term “imitation butter” to indicate butter whose butterfat content had been diminished through the addition of water. today, it is known that the high cholesterol content of butterfat makes it harmful to human health. since the public should be encouraged to eat foods with lower rather than higher butterfat content and since the term “imitation” with its connotations of falsity deters many people from purchasing products so designated, manufactures who wish to give reduced-butterfat butter the more appealing name of “lite butter” should be allowed to do so.
which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument?
(a) the manufactures who prefer to use the word “lite” instead of “imitation” are motivated principally by the financial interest of their stock holders.
(b) the manufacturers who wish to call their product “lite butter” plan to change the composition of the product so that it contains more water than it now does.
(c) some individuals who need to reduce their intake of cholesterol are not deterred from using the reduced-butterfat product by the negative connotations of the term “imitation.”
(d) cholesterol is only one of many factors that contribute to the types of health problems with which the consumption of excessive amounts of cholesterol is often associated.
(e) most people deterred from eating “imitation butter” because of its name choose alternatives with a lower butterfat content than this product has.
23. farm animals have certain behavioral tendencies that result from the evolutionary history of these species. by imposing on these animals a type of organization that conflicts with their behavioral tendencies, current farm-management practices cause the animals more pain and distress than do practices that more closely conform to the animals’ behavioral tendencies. because the animals tend to resist this type of organization, current practices can also be less efficient than those other farm-management practices.
if the statements above are true, which one of the following can be properly inferred from them?
(a) some of the behavioral tendencies of farm animals can be altered by efficient farm-management practices.
(b) in order to implement efficient farm-management practices, it is necessary to be familiar with the evolutionary history of farm animals.
(c) in order to create farm-management practices that cause less pain and distress to farm animals, a significant loss of efficiency will be required.
(d) farm-management practices that cause the least amount pf pain and distress to farm animals are also the most efficient management practices.
(e) some changes in farm-management practices that lessen the pain and distress experienced by farm animals can result in gains in efficiency.
24. it now seems clear that the significant role initially predicted for personal computers in the classroom has not become fact. one need only look to the dramatic decline in sales of computers for classroom use in the past year for proof that the fad has passed.
which one of the following arguments contains flawed reasoning parallel to that in the argument above?
(a) clearly government legislation mandating the reduction of automobile emissions has been at least partially successful, as is demonstrated by the fact that the air of the 20 largest cities now contains smaller amounts of the major polluta
nts mentioned in the legislation than it did before the legislation was passed.
(b) mechanical translation from one language into another, not merely in narrow contexts such as airline reservations but generally, is clearly an idea whose time has come. since experts have be4en working on the problem for 40 years, it is now time for the accumulated expertise to achieve a breakthrough.
(c) sales of computers for home use will never reach the levels optimistically projected by manufacturers. the reason is that home use was envisioned as encompassing tasks, such as menu planning and checkbook reconciliation, that most homemakers perform in much simpler ways than using a computer would require.
(d) it is apparent that consumers have tired of microwave ovens as quickly as they initially came to accept this recent invention. in contrast to several years of increasing sales following the introduction of microwave ovens, sales of microwave ovens flattened last year indicating that consumers have found relatively little use for these devices.
(e) creating incentives for a particular kind of investment inevitably engenders boom-and-bust cycles. the evidence is in the recent decline in the value of commercial real estate, which shows that, although the government can encourage people to put up buildings, it cannot guarantee that those buildings will be fully rented or sold.
25. scientists attempting to replicate certain controversial results reported by a group of experienced researchers failed to get the same results as those reported. the conclusion drawn from this by the scientists who conducted the replication experiments was that the originally reported results had been due to faulty measurements.
the argument of the scientists who conducted the replication experiments assumes that
(a) the original experiments had not been described in sufficient detail to make an exact replication possible
(b) the fact that originally reported results aroused controversy made it highly likely that they were in error
(c) the theoretical principles called into question by the originally reported results were themselves based on weak evidence
(d) the replication experiments were not so likely as the original experiments to be marred by faulty measurements
(e) the researchers who originally reported the controversial results had themselves observed those results only once.
time-35 minutes
25 questions
directions: the questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages. for some questions, more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. however, you are to choose the best answer; that is, the response that most accurately and completely answers the question. you should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous, or incompatible with the passage. after you have chosen the best answer, blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.
1. people who accuse the postal service of incompetence and inefficiency while complaining of the proposed five-cent increase in postal rates do not know a bargain when they see one. few experiences are more enjoyable than reading a personal letter from a friend. viewed in this way, postal service is so underpriced that a five-cent increase is unworthy of serious debate.
the reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
(a) suggests that the postal service is both competent and efficient, but does not establish how competence and efficiency should be measured
(b) claims that the proposed increase is insignificant but does not say at what level the increase would be worthy of serious debate
(c) confuses the value of the object delivered with the value of delivering that object
(d) appeals to an outside authority for support of a premise that should be established by argument
(e) fails to establish whether or not the critics of the postal service are employees of the postal service
2. when a study of aspirin’s ability to prevent heart attacks in humans yielded positive results, researchers immediately submitted those results to a medical journal, which published them six weeks later. had the results been published sooner, many of the heart attacks that occurred during the delay, could have been prevented.
the conclusion drawn above would be most undermined if it were true that
(a) the medical journal’s staff worked overtime in order to publish the study’s results as soon as possible
(b) studies of aspirin’s usefulness in reducing heart attacks in laboratory animals remain inconclusive
(c) people who take aspirin regularly suffer a higher-than-average incidence of stomach ulcers
(d) the medical journal’s official policy is to publish articles only after an extensive review process
(e) a person’s risk of suffering a heart attack drops only after that person has taken aspirin regularly for two years
3. it might seem that an airline could increase profits by reducing airfares on all its flights in order to encourage discretionary travel and thus fill planes. offers of across-the board discount fares have, indeed, resulted in the sale of large numbers of reduced-price tickets. nevertheless such offers have, in the past, actually cut the airline’s profits.
which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy described above?
(a) fewer than 10 percent of all air travelers make no attempt to seek out discount fares.
(b) fares or trips between a large city and a small city are higher than those for trips between two large cities even when the distances involved are the same.
(c) across-the-board discounts in fares tend to decrease revenues on flights that are normally filled, but they fail to attract passengers to unpopular flights.
(d) only a small number of people who have never before traveled by air are persuaded to do so on the basis of across-the board discount fares.
(e) it is difficult to devise an advertising campaign that makes the public aware of across-the-board discount fares while fully explaining the restrictions applied to those discount fares.
4. only if the electorate is moral and intelligent will a democracy function well.
which one of the following can be logically inferred from the claim above?
(a) if the electorate is moral and intelligent, then a democracy will function well.
(b) either a democracy does not function well or else the electorate is not moral or not intelligent.
(c) if the electorate is not moral or not intelligent, then a democracy will not function well.
(d) if a democracy does not function well, then the electorate is not moral or not intelligent.
(e) it cannot, at the same time, be true that the electorate is moral and intelligent and that a democracy will not function well.
5. infants younger than six months who have normal hearing can readily distinguish between acoustically similar sounds that are used as part of any language-not only those used in the language spoken by the people who raise them. young adults can readily distinguish between such sounds only in languages
that they regularly use. it is known that the physiological capacity to hear begins to deteriorate after infancy. so the observed difference in the abilities of infants and young adult to distinguish between acoustically similar speech sounds must be the result of the physiological deterioration of hearing.
the reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
(a) sets an arbitrary cutoff point of six months for the age below which infants are able to distinguish acoustically similar speech sounds
(b) does not explain the procedures used to measure the abilities of two very different populations
(c) ignores the fact that certain types of speech sounds occur in almost all languages
(d) assumes that what is true of a group of people taken collectively is also true of any individual with that group
(e) takes a factor that might contribute to an explanation of the observed difference as a sufficient explanation for that difference
6. the economies of some industrialized countries face the prospect of large labor shortages in the decades ahead. meanwhile, these countries will have a vast number of experienced and productive older workers who, as things stand, will be driven from the work force upon reaching the age of sixty-five by the widespread practice of requiring workers to retire at that age. therefore, if the discriminatory practice of mandatory retirement at age sixty-five were eliminated, the labor shortages facing these economies would be averted.
the argument assumes that
(a) older workers have acquired skills that are extremely valuable and that their younger colleagues lack
(b) workers in industrialized countries are often unprepared to face the economic consequences of enforced idleness
(c) a large number of workers in some industrialized countries would continue working beyond the age of sixty-five if workers in those countries were allowed to do so
(d) mandatory retirement at age sixty-five was first instituted when life expectancy was considerable lower than it is today
(e) a substantial proportion of the population of officially retired workers is actually engaged in gainful employment
7. the incidence in japan of most types of cancer is remarkable low compared to with in north america, especially considering that japan has a modern life-style, industrial pollution included. the cancer rates, however, for japanese people who immigrate to north america and adopt the diet of north americans approximate the higher cancer rates prevalent in north america.
if the statements above are true, they provide the most support for which one of the following?
(a) the greater the level of industrial pollution in a country, the higher that country’s cancer rate will tend to be.
(b) the stress of life in north america is greater than that of life in japan and predisposes to cancer.
(c) the staple foods of the japanese diet contain elements that cure cancer.
(d) the relatively low rate of cancer among people in japan does not result from a high frequency of a protective genetic trait among japanese people.
(e) the higher cancer rates of japanese immigrants to north america are caused by fats in the north american diet.
8. a translation invariably reflects the writing style of the translator. sometimes when a long document needs to be translated quickly, several translators are put to work on the job, each assigned to translate part of the document. in these cases, the result is usually a translation marked by different and often incompatible writing styles. certain computer programs for language translation that work without the intervention of human translation can finish the job faster than human translators and produce a stylistically uniform translation with an 80 percent accuracy rate. therefore, when a long document needs to be translated quickly, it is better to use a computer translation program than human translators.
which one of the following issues would be least important to resolve in evaluating the argument?
(a) whether the problem of stylistic variety in human translation could be solved by giving stylistic guidelines to human translators
(b) whether numerical comparisons of the accuracy of translations can reasonably be made
(c) whether computer translation programs, like human translators, each have their own distinct writing style
(d) whether the computer translation contains errors of grammar and usage that drastically alter the meaning of the text
(e) how the accuracy rate of computer translation programs compares with that of human translators in relation to the users’ needs.
questions 9-10
myrna: people should follow diets in which fat represents no more than 30 percent of total calories, not the 37 percent the average diet in this country contains.
roland: if everyone in the country followed you recommendation during his or her entire life, just 0.2 percent would lengthen their live at all, and then only by an average of 3 months. modifying ort diet is not worthwhile. a lifetime of sacrifice spent eating an unappealing low-fat diet is too high a price to pay for the chance of extending that sacrifice for 3 months.
myrna: but for everyone who dies early from a high-fat diet, many more people suffer from serious chronic diseases because they followed such diets.
9. myrna responds to roland by
(a) disputing the correctness of the facts cited by roland and offering facts that she considers correct
(b) showing that the factors considered by roland are not the only ones relevant in evaluating her recommendation
(c) demonstrating that the statistics used by roland to dispute her recommendation are inaccurate
(d) suggesting that roland’s evidence derives from unreliable sources
(e) pointing out that roland’s argument assumes the very proposition it sets out to prove
10. roland’s argument assumes that
(a) it is desirable to live in such a way as to length life as much as possible
(b) a low-fat diet cannot readily be made appealing and satisfying to a person who follows it regularly
(c) diet is the only relevant factor to consider in computing influences on length of life
(d) the difference in tastiness between a diet in which fat represents 30 percent of total calories and one in which it represents 37 percent is not noticeable
(e) not everyone in the country eats the average diet
11. some critics claim that it is unfair that so many great works of art are housed in huge metropolitan museums, since the populations served by these museums already have access to a wide variety of important artwork. but this criticism is in principle unwarranted because the limited number of masterpieces makes wider distribution of them impractical. besides, if a masterpiece is to be fully appreciated, it must be seen alongside other works that provide a social and historical context for it.
which one of the following, if established, could most logically serve as the principle appealed to in the argument countering the critics’ claim?
(a) in providing facilities to the public, the goal should be to ensure that as many as possible of those people who could benefit from the facilities are able to do so.
(b) in providing facilities to the public, the goal should be to ensure that the greatest possible number of people gain the greatest benefit possible from them.
(c) it is unreasonable to enforce a redistribution of social goods that involves depriving some members of society of these goods in order to supply others
(d) for it to be reasonable to criticize an arrangement as unfair, there must be a more equitable arrangement that is practically attainable.
(e) a work of art should be displayed in conditions resembling as closely as possible those in which the work was originally intended to be displayed.
12. some accountants calculate with simple adding machines, and some use complex computers. one can perform more calculations in less time with a computer than with an adding machine. therefore, assuming the costs of using the two types of machines are equal, an accountant who uses a computer generally can earn more per hour than an accountant who uses an adding machine.
which one of the following is an assumption that would make the conclusion in the passage a logical one?
(a) more accountants use computers than use adding machines.
(b) the more hours an accountant spends on the job, the more money he or she will earn.
(c) the more calculations an accountant performs, the more money he or she will earn.
(d) an accountant who uses an adding machine can charge a higher hourly rate than one who uses a computer.
(e) in general, accountants vary in terms of the number of calculations they make and the amount of money they earn.
13. this summer, jennifer, who has worked at kvz manufacturing for just over three years, plans to spend with her family the entire four weeks of paid vacation to which she is entitled this year. anyone who has worked at kvz manufacturing for between one and four years is automatically entitled to exactly three weeks paid vacation each year but can apply up to half of any vacation time that remains unused at the end of one year to the next year’s vacation.
if the statements above are all true, which one of the following must also be true on the basis of them?
(a) jennifer did not use two weeks of the paid vacation time to which she was entitled past year.
(b) if jennifer continues to work for kvz manufacturing, she will only be entitled to three weeks paid vacation next year.
(c) the majority of kvz’s employ
ees use each year all of the paid vacation time to which they are entitled.
(d) last year jennifer took only one week of the paid vacation time to which she was entitled.
(e) kvz manufacturing sometimes allows extra vacation time to employees who need to spend more time with their families.
14. a careful review of hospital fatalities due to anesthesia during the last 20 years indicates that the most significant safety improvements resulted from better training of anesthetists. equipment that monitors a patient’s oxygen and carbon dioxide levels was not available in most operating rooms during the period under review. therefore, the increased use of such monitoring equipment in operating rooms will not significantly cut fatalities due to anesthesia.
a flaw in the argument is that
(a) the evidence cited to show that one factor led to a certain result is not sufficient to show that a second factor will not also lead to that result
(b) the reasons given in support of the conclusion presuppose the truth of that conclusion
(c) the evidence cited to show that a certain factor was absent when a certain result occurred does not show that the absence of that factor caused that result
(d) the evidence cited in support of the conclusion is inconsistent with other information that is provided.
(e) the reason indicated for the claim that one event caused a second more strongly supports the claim that both events were independent effects of a third event
15. new types of washing machines designed to consume less energy also extract less water from laundry during their final spin cycles than do washing machines that consume somewhat more energy. the wetter the laundry, the more energy required to dry it in an automatic dryer. thus using these new types of washing machines could result in an overall increase in the energy needed to wash and dry a load of laundry.
in which one of the following is the pattern of reasoning most parallel to that in the argument above?
(a) the more skill required to operate a machine, the harder it is to find people able to do it, and thus the more those people must be paid. therefore, if a factory installs machines that require highly skilled operators, it must be prepared to pay higher wages.
(b) there are two routes between centerville and mapletown, and the scenic route is the longer route. therefore, a person who is not concerned with how long it will take to travel between centerville and mapletown will probably take the scenic route.
(c) the more people who work in the library’s reading room, the noisier the room becomes; and the noisier the working environment, the less efficiently people work. therefore, when many people are working in the reading room, those people are working less efficiently.
(d) pine is a less expensive wood than cedar but is more susceptible to rot. outdoor furniture made from wood susceptible to rot must be painter with more expensive paint. therefore, builder outdoor furniture from pine rather than cedar could increase the total cost of building and painting the furniture.
(e) the more weights added to an exercise machine, the greater the muscle strength needed to work out on the machine. up to a point, using more muscle strength can make a person stronger. thus an exercise machine with more weights can, but does not necessarily, make a person stronger.
questions 16-17
g: the group of works exhibited in this year’s metropolitan art show reveals a bias in favor of photographers. equal numbers of photographers, sculptors, and painters submitted works that met the traditional criteria for the show, yet more photographs were exhibited than either sculptures or paintings. as you know, each artist was allowed to submit work in one medium only.
h: how could there have been bias? all submitted works that met the traditional criteria-and only those works-were exhibited in the show.
16. if both g’s assertions and h’s assertion are true, which one of the following must also be true?
(a) more photographers than sculptors or painters submitted works to be considered for exhibition in the metropolitan art show.
(b) all the works submitted for the metropolitan art show met the traditional criteria for the show.
(c) the quality of photographs exhibited in the metropolitan art show was inferior to the quality of the sculptures or paintings exhibited.
(d) some of the photographs submitted for the metropolitan art show did not meet the traditional criteria for the show.
(e) more works that met the traditional criteria for the metropolitan art show were submitted by photographers than by sculptors or painters.
17. which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports g’s allegation of bias?
(a) if an artist has had one of his or her works exhibited in the metropoli
tan art show, that artist has an advantage in getting commissions and selling works over artists who have never had a work exhibited in the show.
(b) the fee for entering photographs in the metropolitan art show was $25 per work submitted, while the fee for each painting or sculpture submitted was $75.
(c) the committee that selected from the submitted works the ones to be exhibited in this year’s metropolitan art show had four members: one photographer, on sculptor, one painter, and one who works in all three media but is the least known of the four members.
(d) reviews of this year’s metropolitan art show that appeared in major newspapers and magazines tended to give more coverage to the photographs in the show than to the sculptures and paintings that were exhibited.
(e) in previous years, it has often happened that more paintings or more sculptures were exhibited in the metropolitan art show than photographs, even though the total number of works exhibited each year does not vary widely.
questions 18-19
marcus: for most ethical dilemmas the journalist is likely to face, traditional journalistic ethics is clear, adequate, and essentially correct. for example, when journalists have uncovered newsworthy information, they should go to press with it as soon as possible. no delay motivated by the journalists’ personal or professional interests is permissible.
anita: well, marcus, of course interesting and important information should be brought before the public-that is a journalist’s job. but in the typical case, where a journalist has some information but is in a quandary about whether it is yet important or “newsworthy,” this guidance is inadequate.
18. the point made by anita’s statements is most accurately expressed by which one of the following?
(a) marcus’s claim that traditional journalistic ethics is clear for most ethical dilemmas in journalism is incorrect.
(b) the ethical principle that marcus cites does not help the journalist in a typical kind of situation in which a decision needs to be made.
(c) the ethical principle that marcus cites does not help the journalist in a typical hind of situation in which a decision needs to be made.
(d) there are common situations in which a journalist must make a decision and in which no principle of journalistic ethics can be of help.
(e) traditional journalistic ethics amounts to no more than an unnecessarily convoluted description of the journalist’s job.
19. in order to conclude properly from anita’s statements that marcus’ general claim about traditional journalistic ethics is incorrect, if would have to be assumed that
(a) whether a piece of information is or is not newsworthy can raise ethical dilemmas for journalists.
(b) there are circumstances in which it would be ethically wrong for a journalist to go to press with legitimately acquired, newsworthy information.
(c) the most serious professional dilemmas that a journalist is likely to face are not ethical dilemmas
(d) there are no ethical dilemmas that a journalist is likely to face that would not be conclusively resolved by an adequate system of journalistic ethics
(e) for a system of journalistic ethics to be adequate it must be able to provide guidance in every case in which a journalist must make a professional decision
questions 20-21
of every 100 burglar alarms police answer, 99 are false alarms. this situation causes an enormous and dangerous drain on increasingly scarce public resources. each false alarm wastes an average of 45 minutes of police time. as a result police are consistently taken away from responding to other legitimate calls for service, and a disproportionate share of police service goes to alarm system users, who are mostly businesses and affluent homeowners. however, burglar alarm systems, unlike car alarm systems, are effective in deterring burglaries, so the only acceptable solution is to fine burglar alarm system owners the cost of 45 minutes of police time for each false alarm their systems generate.
20. the statement that burglar alarm systems, unlike car alarm systems, are effective in deterring burglaries plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
(a) it justifies placing more restrictions on owners of burglar alarms than on owners of car alarms.
(b) it provides background information needed to make plausible the claim that the number of burglar alarms police are called on to answer is great enough to be a drain on public resources.
(c) it provides a basis for excluding as unacceptable one obvious alternative to the proposal of fining owners of burglar alarm systems for false alarms.
(d) it gives a reason why police might be more inclined to respond to burglar alarms than to car alarms.
(e) it explains why a disproportionate number of the burgla
r alarms responded to by police come from alarm systems owned by businesses.
21. on the basis of the premises advanced, which one of the following principles, if established, would provide the most justification for the concluding recommendation?
(a) no segment of a community should be permitted to engage in a practice that has been shown to result in a disproportionate share of police service being devoted to that segment of the community.
(b) when public resources are in short supply, any individual who wants special services from public agencies such as police and fire departments should be required to pay for those services if he or she can afford to do so.
(c) police departments are not justified in improving service to one segment of the community at the expense of other segments of the community unless doing so reduces the crime level throughout the entire area served.
(d) anyone who directly benefits from a service provided by public employees should be required to reimburse the general public fund an amount equivalent to the average cost providing that service.
(e) if receipt of a service results in the waste of scarce public resources and people with other legitimate needs are disadvantaged in consequence, the recipient of that service should compensate the public for the resources wasted.
22. when butterfat was considered nutritious and healthful, a law was enacted requiring that manufacturers use the term “imitation butter” to indicate butter whose butterfat content had been diminished through the addition of water. today, it is known that the high cholesterol content of butterfat makes it harmful to human health. since the public should be encouraged to eat foods with lower rather than higher butterfat content and since the term “imitation” with its connotations of falsity deters many people from purchasing products so designated, manufactures who wish to give reduced-butterfat butter the more appealing name of “lite butter” should be allowed to do so.
which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument?
(a) the manufactures who prefer to use the word “lite” instead of “imitation” are motivated principally by the financial interest of their stock holders.
(b) the manufacturers who wish to call their product “lite butter” plan to change the composition of the product so that it contains more water than it now does.
(c) some individuals who need to reduce their intake of cholesterol are not deterred from using the reduced-butterfat product by the negative connotations of the term “imitation.”
(d) cholesterol is only one of many factors that contribute to the types of health problems with which the consumption of excessive amounts of cholesterol is often associated.
(e) most people deterred from eating “imitation butter” because of its name choose alternatives with a lower butterfat content than this product has.
23. farm animals have certain behavioral tendencies that result from the evolutionary history of these species. by imposing on these animals a type of organization that conflicts with their behavioral tendencies, current farm-management practices cause the animals more pain and distress than do practices that more closely conform to the animals’ behavioral tendencies. because the animals tend to resist this type of organization, current practices can also be less efficient than those other farm-management practices.
if the statements above are true, which one of the following can be properly inferred from them?
(a) some of the behavioral tendencies of farm animals can be altered by efficient farm-management practices.
(b) in order to implement efficient farm-management practices, it is necessary to be familiar with the evolutionary history of farm animals.
(c) in order to create farm-management practices that cause less pain and distress to farm animals, a significant loss of efficiency will be required.
(d) farm-management practices that cause the least amount pf pain and distress to farm animals are also the most efficient management practices.
(e) some changes in farm-management practices that lessen the pain and distress experienced by farm animals can result in gains in efficiency.
24. it now seems clear that the significant role initially predicted for personal computers in the classroom has not become fact. one need only look to the dramatic decline in sales of computers for classroom use in the past year for proof that the fad has passed.
which one of the following arguments contains flawed reasoning parallel to that in the argument above?
(a) clearly government legislation mandating the reduction of automobile emissions has been at least partially successful, as is demonstrated by the fact that the air of the 20 largest cities now contains smaller amounts of the major polluta
nts mentioned in the legislation than it did before the legislation was passed.
(b) mechanical translation from one language into another, not merely in narrow contexts such as airline reservations but generally, is clearly an idea whose time has come. since experts have be4en working on the problem for 40 years, it is now time for the accumulated expertise to achieve a breakthrough.
(c) sales of computers for home use will never reach the levels optimistically projected by manufacturers. the reason is that home use was envisioned as encompassing tasks, such as menu planning and checkbook reconciliation, that most homemakers perform in much simpler ways than using a computer would require.
(d) it is apparent that consumers have tired of microwave ovens as quickly as they initially came to accept this recent invention. in contrast to several years of increasing sales following the introduction of microwave ovens, sales of microwave ovens flattened last year indicating that consumers have found relatively little use for these devices.
(e) creating incentives for a particular kind of investment inevitably engenders boom-and-bust cycles. the evidence is in the recent decline in the value of commercial real estate, which shows that, although the government can encourage people to put up buildings, it cannot guarantee that those buildings will be fully rented or sold.
25. scientists attempting to replicate certain controversial results reported by a group of experienced researchers failed to get the same results as those reported. the conclusion drawn from this by the scientists who conducted the replication experiments was that the originally reported results had been due to faulty measurements.
the argument of the scientists who conducted the replication experiments assumes that
(a) the original experiments had not been described in sufficient detail to make an exact replication possible
(b) the fact that originally reported results aroused controversy made it highly likely that they were in error
(c) the theoretical principles called into question by the originally reported results were themselves based on weak evidence
(d) the replication experiments were not so likely as the original experiments to be marred by faulty measurements
(e) the researchers who originally reported the controversial results had themselves observed those results only once.
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