TEST 8 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.biotechnology companies say that voluntary guideline for their industry are sufficient to ensure that no harm will result when a genetically altered organism is released into the environment. it is foolish, however, to rely on assurances from producers of genetically altered organisms that their products will not be harmful. therefore, a biotechnology company should be required to apply to an independent regulatory board composed of scientists outside the biotechnology industry for the right to sell newly created organisms.
which one of the following principles, if accepted, most strongly justifies drawing the conclusion above?
(a) voluntary guidelines are sufficient to regulate activities that pose little danger to the environment.
(b) people who engage in an activity and have a financial stake in that activity should not be the sole regulators of that activity.
(c) methods that result in harm to the environment must sometimes be used in order to avoid even greater harm.
(d) a company is obligated to ensure the effectiveness of its products but not their environmental safety.
(e) issues of environmental protection are so important that they should not be left to scientific experts.
2. zoo director: the city is in a financial crisis and must reduce its spending. nevertheless, at least one reduction measure in next years budget, cutting city zoos funding in half, is false economy. the zoo's current budget equals less than 1 percent of the city's deficit, so withdrawing support from the zoo does little to help the city's financial situation. furthermore, the zoo, which must close if its budget is cut, attracts tourists arid tax dollars to the city. finally, the zoo adds immeasurably to the city's cultural climate and thus makes the city an attractive place for business to locate.
which one of the following is the main conclusion of the zoo director's argument?
(a) reducing spending is the only means the city has of responding to the current financial crisis.
(b) it would be false economy for the city to cut the zoo's budget in half.
(c) city zoo's budget is only a very small portion of the city's entire budget.
(d) the zoo will be forced to close if its budget is cut.
(e) the city's educational and cultural climate will be irreparably damaged if the zoo is forced to close.
3. a car will not be affectionate toward people unless it is handled when it is a kitten. since the cat that paula plans to give to her friend was handled when it was a kitten. that car will be affectionate toward people.
the flawed reasoning in the argument above most closely parallels that in which one of the following?
(a) tulip bulbs will not produce flowers unless they are chilled for two months. since the tulip bulbs in the clay pot were not chilled for two months, these bulbs will not produce flowers.
(b) beets do not grow well unless the soil in which they are grown contains trace amounts of boron. since the beets in this plot are growing well, the soil in the plot must contain trace amounts of boron.
(c) fruit trees will not produce much fruit unless they are pruned properly. that the fruit trees at the local orchard produce a large amount of fruit proves that they have been pruned properly.
(d) cranberries will not thrive unless they are grown in bogs. since the cranberries in this area are not grown in bogs, these cranberries will not thrive.
(e) crass seeds will not germinate well unless they are pressed firmly into the ground. the grass seeds sown in this yard were pressed firmly into the ground, so they will germinate well.
4. until recently, anthropologists generally agreed that higher primates originated about 30 million years ago in the al fayyum region of egypt. however, a 40-million-year old fossilized fragment of a lower jawbone discovered in burma (now called myanmar) in 1978 was used to support the theory that the earliest higher primates originated in burma. however, the claim is premature, for __________
which one or the following, if rue, is the most logical completion of the paragraph above?
(a) there are no more primate species in burma than there are in egypt
(b) several anthropo
logists, using different dating methods, independently confirmed the estimated age of the jawbone fragment
(c) higher primates cannot be identified solely by their lower jawbones
(d) several prominent anthropologists do not believe that higher primates could have originated in either egypt or burma
(e) other archaeological expeditions in burma have unearthed higher-primate fossilized bone fragments that arc clearly older than 40 million years
5. the ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic anxieties and utopian fantasies. it is not surprising that both reactions have consistently proven to be misplaced. after all, the precise time when a century happens to end cannot have any special significance, since the gregorian calendar, though widely used, is only one among many that people have devised.
which one of the following, if true, could be substituted for the reason cited above while still preserving the force of the argument
(a) it is logically impossible for both reactions to be correct at the same time.
(b) what is a utopian fantasy to one group of people may well be for another group of people, a realization of their worst fears.
(c) the number system based on the number ten, in the absence of which one hundred years would not have the appearance of being a significant period of time, is by no means the only one that people have created.
(d) the firm expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen can make people behave in a manner that makes it less likely that something extraordinary will happen.
(e) since a century far exceeds the normal human life span people do not live long enough to learn from mistakes that they themselves made one hundred years before.
6. people who listen to certain recordings of music are in danger of being unduly influenced by spoken messages that have been recorded backwards on the records or tapes.
a consequence of the view above is that
(a) the spoken messages must be louder than the music on the recordings
(b) backwards messages can be added to a recording while still preserving all of the musical qualities of the recorded performance
(c) the recordings on which such messages appear are chosen for this purpose either because they are especially popular or because they introduce a trancelike state
(d) if such messages must be comprehended to exert influence, then people must be able to comprehend spoken messages recorded backwards
(e) when people listen to recorded music, they pay full attention to the music as it plays
7. advertisement: over 80 percent of the people who test-drive a zenith car end up buying one. so be warned: you should not test-drive a zenith unless you are prepared to buy one, because if you so much as drive a zenith around the block, there is a better than 80 percent chance you will choose to buy it.
if the advertisement is interpreted as implying that the quality of the car is unusually impressive, which one of the following, if true, most clearly casts doubt on that implication?
(a) test-drives of zenith cars are, according to zenith sales personnel, generally more extensive than a drive around the block and encounter varied driving conditions.
(b) usually dealers have enough zenith models in stock that prospective purchasers are able to test-drive the exact model that they are considering for purchase.
(c) those who take test-drives in cars are, in overwhelming proportions, people who have already decided to buy the model driven unless some fault should become evident.
(d) almost 90 percent of the people who purchase a car do not do so on the day they take a first test-drive but do so after another test-drive.
(e) in some zenith cars, a minor part has broken within the first year, and zenith dealers have issued notices to owners that the dealers will replace the part with a redesigned one at no cost to owners.
8. in malsenia sales of classical records are soaring. the buyers responsible for this boom are quite new to classical music and were drawn to it either by classical scores from television commercials or by theme tunes introducing major sports events on television. audiences at classical concerts, however, are continually shrinking in malsenia. it can be concluded from this that the new malsenian converts to classical music, having initially experienced this music as recorded music, are most comfortable with classical music as recorded music and really have no desire to hear live performances.
the argument assumes which one of the following?
(a) to sell well in malsenia, a classical record must include at least one piece familiar from television.
(b) at least some of the new malsenian buyers of classical records have available to them the opinion of attending classical concerts.
(
c) the number of classical concerts performed in malsenia has not decreased in response to smaller audiences.
(d) the classical records available in malsenia are, for the most part, not recordings of actual public concerts.
(e) classical concerts in malsenia are not limited to music that is readily available on recordings.
9. brain scans of people exposed to certain neurotoxins reveal brain damage identical to that found in people suffering from parkinson's disease. this fact shows not only that these neurotoxins cause this type of brain damage, but also that the brain damage itself causes parkinson's disease. thus brain scans can be used to determine who is likely to develop parkinson's disease.
the argument contains which one of the following reasoning errors?
(a) it fails to establish that other methods that can be used to diagnose parkinson's disease are less accurate than brain scans.
(b) it overestimates the importance of early diagnosis in determining appropriate treatments for people suffering from parkinson's disease.
(c) it mistakes a correlation between the type of brain damage described and parkinson's disease for a causal relation between the two.
(d) it assumes that people would want to know as early as possible whether they were likely to develop parkinson's disease.
{e} it neglects to specify how the information provided by brain scans could be used either in treating parkinson's disease or in monitoring the progression of the disease.
10. almost all of the books published in the past 150 years were printed on acidic paper. unfortunately, every kind of acidic paper gradually destroys itself due to its very acidity. this process of deterioration can be slowed if the books are stored in a cool, dry environment. techniques, which are now being developed, to deacidify books will probably be applied only to books with historical significance.
if all of the statements in the passage above are true, which one of the following must also be true!
(a) if a book was published in the past 50 years and is historically insignificant, it will probably deteriorate completely.
(b) almost all of the books published in the past 150 years will gradually destroy themselves.
(c) almost all of the books that gradually deteriorate are made of acidic paper.
(d) if a book is of historical significance and was printed before 150 years ago, it will be deacidified.
(e) books published on acidic paper in 1900 should now all be at about the same state of deterioration.
11. civil libertarian: the categorical prohibition of any nonviolent means of expression inevitably poisons a society's intellectual atmosphere therefore, those advocating censorship of all potentially offensive art are pursuing a course that is harmful to society.
censorship advocate: you're wrong, because many people are in agreement about what constitutes potentially offensive art.
the censorship advocate's rebuttal is flawed because it
(a) attempts to extract a general rule from a specific case
(b) extracts an erroneous principle from a commonly held belief
(c) attacks the civil libertarians character instead of the argument.
(d) relies on an irrelevant reason or rejecting the civil libertarians argument
(e) uses hyperbolic inflammatory language that obscures the issue at hand
12. although most species of nondomestic mammals in australia are marsupials, over 100 species- including seals, bats, and mice-are not marsupials but placentals. it is clear, however, that these placentals are not native to this island continent: all nonhuman placentals except the dingo, a dog introduced by the first humans that settled australia, are animals whose ancestors could swim tong distances, fly, or float on driftwood.
the conclusion above is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?
(a) some marsupials now found in australia might not be native to that continent, but rather might have been introduced to australia by some other means.
(b) humans who settled australia probably introduced many of the placental mammal species now present on that continent.
(c) the only australian placentals that could be native to australia would be animals whose ancestors could not have reached australia from elsewhere.
(d) no marsupials now found in australia can swim long distances. fly. or float on driftwood.
(e) seals, bats, and mice are typically found only in areas where there are no native marsupials.
13.. room air conditioners produced by japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by united states manufacturers.
. the average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by united states manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by japanes
e manufacturers.
which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?
(a) reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair.
(b) production facilities of firms designated as united states manufacturers are not all located in the united states.
(c) damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the united states or in japan.
(d) room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the united states than in japan.
(e) japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do united states manufacturers.
14. in 1980 there was growing concern that the protective ozone layer over the antarctic might be decreasing and thereby allowing so much harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth that polar marine life would be damaged. some government officials dismissed these concerns, since statistics indicated that global atmospheric ozone levels remained constant.
the relevance of the evidence cited by the government officials in support of their position would be most seriously undermined if it were true that
(a) most species of plant and animal life flourish in warm climates rather than in the polar regions
(b) decreases in the amount of atmospheric ozone over the antarctic ice cap tend to be seasonal rather than constant
(c) decreases in the amount of atmospheric ozone were of little concern before l980.
(d) quantities of atmospheric ozone shifted away from the polar caps, correspondingly increasing ozone levels in other regions
(e) even where the amount of atmospheric ozone is normal, some ultraviolet light reaches the earth's surface
15. goodbody, inc., is in the process of finding tenants for its newly completed parrot quay commercial development, which will make available hundreds of thousands of square feet of new office space on what was formerly derelict property outside the financial center of the city. surprisingly enough, the coming recession though it will hurt most of the city's businesses, should help goodbody to find tenants.
which one of the following, if true, does most to help resolve the apparent paradox?
(a) businesses forced to economize by the recession will want to take advantage of the lower rents available outside the financial center.
(b) public transportation links the financial center with the area around parrot quay.
(c) the area in which the parrot quay development is located became derelict after the heavy industry that used to be there closed down in a previous recession.
(d) many of goodbody's other properties are in financial center and will become vacant if the recession is severe enough to force goodbody's tenants out of business.
(e) the recession is likely to have the most severe effect not on service industries, which require a lot of office space, but on manufacturers.
questions 16-17
dr. kim: electronic fetal monitors, now routinely used in hospital delivery rooms to check fetal heartbeat, are more intrusive than ordinary stethoscopes and do no more to improve the chances that a healthy baby will be born. therefore, the additional cost of electronic monitoring is unjustified and such monitor-jog should be discontinued.
dr. anders: i disagree. although you and i know that both methods are capable of providing the same information, electronic monitoring has been well worth the cost. doctors now know the warning signs they need to listen for with stethoscopes, but only because of what was learned from using electronic monitors.
16. which one of the following principles, if accepted, would provide the most support for dr. kim's contention that the use of electronic fetal monitors should be discontinued?
(a) hospitals should discontinue the routine use of a monitoring method whenever an alternative method that provides more information becomes available.
(b) monitoring procedures should be routinely used in delivery rooms only if they provide information of a kind that is potentially useful in ensuring that a healthy baby will be born.
(c) when two methods available to hospitals provide the same kind of information, the more intrusive method should not be used.
(d) when the use of a medical device has enabled doctors to learn something that improves the chances that babies will be born healthy, that device is well worth its cost.
(e) routinely used medical procedures should be reevaluated periodically to be sure that these procedures provide reliable information.
17. as a reply to dr. kim's argument, dr. anders' response is inadequate because it
(a) misses the point at issue
(b) assumes what it sets out to prove
(c) confuses high cost with high qualit
y
(d) overestimates the importance of technology to modem medicine
(e) overlooks the fact that a procedure can be extensively used without being the best procedure available
18. professor hartley's new book on moral philosophy contains numerous passages that can be found verbatim in an earlier published work by hartley's colleague, professor lawrence. therefore in view of the fact that these passages were unattributed in hartley's book. hartley has been dishonest in not acknowledging the intellectual debt owed to lawrence.
which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument is based?
(a) hartley could not have written the new book without the passages in question.
(b) while writing the new book, hartley had access to the manuscript of lawrence s book.
(c) a book on moral philosophy should contain only material representing the author's own convictions.
(d) lawrence did not get the ideas in the passages in question or did not get their formulations originally from hartley.
(e) hartley considered the passages in question to be the best possible expressions of the ideas they contain.
19. people who receive unsolicited advice from someone whose advantage would be served if that advice is taken should regard the proffered advice with skepticism unless there is good reason to think that their interests substantially coincide with those of the advice giver in the circumstance in question.
this principle, if accepted, would justify which one of the following judgments?
(a) after learning by chance that harriet is looking for a secure investment for her retirement savings. floyd writes to her recommending the r&m company as an especially secure investment. but since floyd is the sole owner of r&m, harrier should reject his advice out of hand and invest the savings elsewhere.
(b) while shopping for a refrigerator. ramon is approached by a salesperson who, on the basis of her personal experience, warns him against the least expensive model. however, the salesperson's commission increases with the price of the refrigerator sold, so ramon should not reject the least expensive model on the salesperson's advice alone.
(c) mario wants to bring pastry to yvette's party, and when he consults her yvette suggests that he bring his favorite chocolate fudge brownies from the local bakery. however, since yvette also prefers those brownies to any other pastry, mario would be wise to check with others before following her recommendation.
(d) sara overhears ron talking about a course he will be teaching and interrupts to recommend a textbook for his course. however, even though sara and ron each wrote a chapter of' this textbook, since the book's editor is a personal friend of sara's, ron should investigate further before deciding whether it is the best textbook for his course.
(e) mel is buying fish for soup. joel, who owns the fish market where mel is a regular and valued customer, suggests a much less expensive fish than the fish mel herself prefers. since if mel follows joel's advice, joel will make less profit on the sale than he would have otherwise. mel should follow his recommendation.
20. last year the county park system failed to generate enough revenue to cover its costs. any business should be closed if it is unprofitable, but county parks are not businesses. therefore, the fact that county parks are unprofitable does not by itself justify closing them.
the pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most closely paralleled in which one of the following?
(a) a prime-time television series should be canceled if it fails to attract a large audience, but the small audience attracted by the documentary series is not sufficient reason to cancel it, since it does not air during prime time.
(b) although companies that manufacture and market automobiles in the united states must meet stringent air-quality standards, the okesa company should be exempt from these standards since it manufactures bicycles in addition to automobiles.
(c) although the province did not specifically intend to prohibit betting on horse races when it passed a law prohibiting gambling, such betting should be regarded as being prohibited because it is a form of gambling.
(d) even though cockatiels are not, strictly speaking, members of the parrot family, they should be fed the same diet as most parrots since the cockatiel's dietary needs are so similar to those of parrots01.
(e) since minors are not subject to the same criminal laws as are adults, they should not be subject to the same sorts of punishments as those that apply to adults.
21. jane: professor harper's ideas for modifying the design of guitars are of no value because there is no general agreement among musicians as to what a guitar should sound like and. consequently, no widely acce
pted basis for evaluating the merits of a guitar's sound.
mark: what's more, harper's ideas have had enough time to be adopted if they really resulted in superior sound. it took only ten years for the torres design for guitars to be almost universally adopted because of the improvement it makes in tonal quality.
which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between jane's argument and mark's argument?
(a) mark's argument shows how a weakness in jane's argument can be overcome.
(b) mark's argument has a premise in common with jane's argument
(c) mark and jane use similar techniques to argue for different conclusions.
(d) mark's argument restates jane's argument in other terms.
(e) mark's argument and jane's argument are based on conflicting suppositions.
questions 22-23
doctors in britain have long suspected that patients who wear tinted eyeglasses are abnormally prone to depression and hypochondria. psychological tests given there to hospital patients admitted for physical complaints like heart pain and digestive distress confirmed such a relationship. perhaps people whose relationship to the world is psychologically painful choose such glasses to reduce visual stimulation, which is perceived as irritating. at any rate, it can be concluded that when such glasses are worn, it is because the wearer has a tendency to be depressed or hypochondriacal
22. the argument assumes which one of the following?
(a) depression is not caused in some cases by an organic condition of the body.
(b) wearers do not think of the tinted glasses as a means of distancing themselves from ocher people.
(c) depression can have many causes, including actual conditions about which it is reasonable for anyone to be depressed.
(d) for hypochondriacs wearing tinted glasses, the glasses serve as a visual signal to others that the wearer's health is delicate.
(e) the tinting does not dim light to the eye enough to depress the wearer's mood substantially.
23. each of the following, if true, weakens the argument except:
(a) some people wear tinted glasses not because they choose to do so but because a medical condition of their eyes forces them to do so.
(b) even a depressed or hypochondriacal person can have valid medical complaints, so a doctor should perform all the usual objective tests in diagnosing such persons.
(c) the confirmatory tests were not done for places such as western north america where the usual quality of light differs from that prevailing in britain.
(d) fashions with respect to wearing tinted glasses differ in different parts of the world.
(e) at the hospitals where the tests were given, patients who were admitted for conditions less ambiguous than heart pain or digestive distress did not show the relationship between tinted glasses and depression or hypochondria.
24. the only fossilized bones of large prey found in and around settlements of early humans bear teeth marks of nonhuman predators on areas of the skeleton that had the most meal, and cut marks made by humans on the areas that had the least meat. the predators that hunted large prey invariably are the meatiest parts of the carcasses, leaving uneaten remains behind.
if the information above is true, it provides the most support for which one of the following?
(a) early humans were predators of small prey, not of large prey.
(b) early humans ate fruits and edible roots as well as meat
(c) early humans would have been more effective hunters of large prey if they had hunted in large groups rather than individually.
(d) early humans were not hunters of large prey but scavenged the uneaten remains of prey killed by other predators.
(e) early humans were nomadic, and their settlements followed the migratory patterns of predators of large prey.
25. george: a well-known educator claims that children who are read to when they are very young are more likely to enjoy reading when they grow up than are children who were not read to. but this claim is clearly false. my cousin emory was regularly read to as a child and as an adult he seldom reads for pleasure, whereas no one read to me and reading is now my favorite form of relaxation.
ursula: you and emory prove nothing in this case. your experience is enough to refute the claim that all avid adult readers were read to as children, but what the educator said about reading to children is not that sort of claim.
which one of the following describes a flaw in georges reasoning?
(a) he treats his own experience and the experiences of other members of his own family as though they have more weight as evidence than do the experiences of other people.
(b) he does not distinguish between the quality and the quantity of the books that adults read to em
ory when emory was a child.
(c) he overlooks the well-known fact that not all reading is equally relaxing.
(d) he fails to establish that the claim made by this particular educator accurately reflects the position held by the majority of educators.
(e) he attempts to refute a general claim by reference to nonconforming cases, although the claim is consistent with the occurrence of such cases.
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.biotechnology companies say that voluntary guideline for their industry are sufficient to ensure that no harm will result when a genetically altered organism is released into the environment. it is foolish, however, to rely on assurances from producers of genetically altered organisms that their products will not be harmful. therefore, a biotechnology company should be required to apply to an independent regulatory board composed of scientists outside the biotechnology industry for the right to sell newly created organisms.
which one of the following principles, if accepted, most strongly justifies drawing the conclusion above?
(a) voluntary guidelines are sufficient to regulate activities that pose little danger to the environment.
(b) people who engage in an activity and have a financial stake in that activity should not be the sole regulators of that activity.
(c) methods that result in harm to the environment must sometimes be used in order to avoid even greater harm.
(d) a company is obligated to ensure the effectiveness of its products but not their environmental safety.
(e) issues of environmental protection are so important that they should not be left to scientific experts.
2. zoo director: the city is in a financial crisis and must reduce its spending. nevertheless, at least one reduction measure in next years budget, cutting city zoos funding in half, is false economy. the zoo's current budget equals less than 1 percent of the city's deficit, so withdrawing support from the zoo does little to help the city's financial situation. furthermore, the zoo, which must close if its budget is cut, attracts tourists arid tax dollars to the city. finally, the zoo adds immeasurably to the city's cultural climate and thus makes the city an attractive place for business to locate.
which one of the following is the main conclusion of the zoo director's argument?
(a) reducing spending is the only means the city has of responding to the current financial crisis.
(b) it would be false economy for the city to cut the zoo's budget in half.
(c) city zoo's budget is only a very small portion of the city's entire budget.
(d) the zoo will be forced to close if its budget is cut.
(e) the city's educational and cultural climate will be irreparably damaged if the zoo is forced to close.
3. a car will not be affectionate toward people unless it is handled when it is a kitten. since the cat that paula plans to give to her friend was handled when it was a kitten. that car will be affectionate toward people.
the flawed reasoning in the argument above most closely parallels that in which one of the following?
(a) tulip bulbs will not produce flowers unless they are chilled for two months. since the tulip bulbs in the clay pot were not chilled for two months, these bulbs will not produce flowers.
(b) beets do not grow well unless the soil in which they are grown contains trace amounts of boron. since the beets in this plot are growing well, the soil in the plot must contain trace amounts of boron.
(c) fruit trees will not produce much fruit unless they are pruned properly. that the fruit trees at the local orchard produce a large amount of fruit proves that they have been pruned properly.
(d) cranberries will not thrive unless they are grown in bogs. since the cranberries in this area are not grown in bogs, these cranberries will not thrive.
(e) crass seeds will not germinate well unless they are pressed firmly into the ground. the grass seeds sown in this yard were pressed firmly into the ground, so they will germinate well.
4. until recently, anthropologists generally agreed that higher primates originated about 30 million years ago in the al fayyum region of egypt. however, a 40-million-year old fossilized fragment of a lower jawbone discovered in burma (now called myanmar) in 1978 was used to support the theory that the earliest higher primates originated in burma. however, the claim is premature, for __________
which one or the following, if rue, is the most logical completion of the paragraph above?
(a) there are no more primate species in burma than there are in egypt
(b) several anthropo
logists, using different dating methods, independently confirmed the estimated age of the jawbone fragment
(c) higher primates cannot be identified solely by their lower jawbones
(d) several prominent anthropologists do not believe that higher primates could have originated in either egypt or burma
(e) other archaeological expeditions in burma have unearthed higher-primate fossilized bone fragments that arc clearly older than 40 million years
5. the ends of modern centuries have been greeted with both apocalyptic anxieties and utopian fantasies. it is not surprising that both reactions have consistently proven to be misplaced. after all, the precise time when a century happens to end cannot have any special significance, since the gregorian calendar, though widely used, is only one among many that people have devised.
which one of the following, if true, could be substituted for the reason cited above while still preserving the force of the argument
(a) it is logically impossible for both reactions to be correct at the same time.
(b) what is a utopian fantasy to one group of people may well be for another group of people, a realization of their worst fears.
(c) the number system based on the number ten, in the absence of which one hundred years would not have the appearance of being a significant period of time, is by no means the only one that people have created.
(d) the firm expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen can make people behave in a manner that makes it less likely that something extraordinary will happen.
(e) since a century far exceeds the normal human life span people do not live long enough to learn from mistakes that they themselves made one hundred years before.
6. people who listen to certain recordings of music are in danger of being unduly influenced by spoken messages that have been recorded backwards on the records or tapes.
a consequence of the view above is that
(a) the spoken messages must be louder than the music on the recordings
(b) backwards messages can be added to a recording while still preserving all of the musical qualities of the recorded performance
(c) the recordings on which such messages appear are chosen for this purpose either because they are especially popular or because they introduce a trancelike state
(d) if such messages must be comprehended to exert influence, then people must be able to comprehend spoken messages recorded backwards
(e) when people listen to recorded music, they pay full attention to the music as it plays
7. advertisement: over 80 percent of the people who test-drive a zenith car end up buying one. so be warned: you should not test-drive a zenith unless you are prepared to buy one, because if you so much as drive a zenith around the block, there is a better than 80 percent chance you will choose to buy it.
if the advertisement is interpreted as implying that the quality of the car is unusually impressive, which one of the following, if true, most clearly casts doubt on that implication?
(a) test-drives of zenith cars are, according to zenith sales personnel, generally more extensive than a drive around the block and encounter varied driving conditions.
(b) usually dealers have enough zenith models in stock that prospective purchasers are able to test-drive the exact model that they are considering for purchase.
(c) those who take test-drives in cars are, in overwhelming proportions, people who have already decided to buy the model driven unless some fault should become evident.
(d) almost 90 percent of the people who purchase a car do not do so on the day they take a first test-drive but do so after another test-drive.
(e) in some zenith cars, a minor part has broken within the first year, and zenith dealers have issued notices to owners that the dealers will replace the part with a redesigned one at no cost to owners.
8. in malsenia sales of classical records are soaring. the buyers responsible for this boom are quite new to classical music and were drawn to it either by classical scores from television commercials or by theme tunes introducing major sports events on television. audiences at classical concerts, however, are continually shrinking in malsenia. it can be concluded from this that the new malsenian converts to classical music, having initially experienced this music as recorded music, are most comfortable with classical music as recorded music and really have no desire to hear live performances.
the argument assumes which one of the following?
(a) to sell well in malsenia, a classical record must include at least one piece familiar from television.
(b) at least some of the new malsenian buyers of classical records have available to them the opinion of attending classical concerts.
(
c) the number of classical concerts performed in malsenia has not decreased in response to smaller audiences.
(d) the classical records available in malsenia are, for the most part, not recordings of actual public concerts.
(e) classical concerts in malsenia are not limited to music that is readily available on recordings.
9. brain scans of people exposed to certain neurotoxins reveal brain damage identical to that found in people suffering from parkinson's disease. this fact shows not only that these neurotoxins cause this type of brain damage, but also that the brain damage itself causes parkinson's disease. thus brain scans can be used to determine who is likely to develop parkinson's disease.
the argument contains which one of the following reasoning errors?
(a) it fails to establish that other methods that can be used to diagnose parkinson's disease are less accurate than brain scans.
(b) it overestimates the importance of early diagnosis in determining appropriate treatments for people suffering from parkinson's disease.
(c) it mistakes a correlation between the type of brain damage described and parkinson's disease for a causal relation between the two.
(d) it assumes that people would want to know as early as possible whether they were likely to develop parkinson's disease.
{e} it neglects to specify how the information provided by brain scans could be used either in treating parkinson's disease or in monitoring the progression of the disease.
10. almost all of the books published in the past 150 years were printed on acidic paper. unfortunately, every kind of acidic paper gradually destroys itself due to its very acidity. this process of deterioration can be slowed if the books are stored in a cool, dry environment. techniques, which are now being developed, to deacidify books will probably be applied only to books with historical significance.
if all of the statements in the passage above are true, which one of the following must also be true!
(a) if a book was published in the past 50 years and is historically insignificant, it will probably deteriorate completely.
(b) almost all of the books published in the past 150 years will gradually destroy themselves.
(c) almost all of the books that gradually deteriorate are made of acidic paper.
(d) if a book is of historical significance and was printed before 150 years ago, it will be deacidified.
(e) books published on acidic paper in 1900 should now all be at about the same state of deterioration.
11. civil libertarian: the categorical prohibition of any nonviolent means of expression inevitably poisons a society's intellectual atmosphere therefore, those advocating censorship of all potentially offensive art are pursuing a course that is harmful to society.
censorship advocate: you're wrong, because many people are in agreement about what constitutes potentially offensive art.
the censorship advocate's rebuttal is flawed because it
(a) attempts to extract a general rule from a specific case
(b) extracts an erroneous principle from a commonly held belief
(c) attacks the civil libertarians character instead of the argument.
(d) relies on an irrelevant reason or rejecting the civil libertarians argument
(e) uses hyperbolic inflammatory language that obscures the issue at hand
12. although most species of nondomestic mammals in australia are marsupials, over 100 species- including seals, bats, and mice-are not marsupials but placentals. it is clear, however, that these placentals are not native to this island continent: all nonhuman placentals except the dingo, a dog introduced by the first humans that settled australia, are animals whose ancestors could swim tong distances, fly, or float on driftwood.
the conclusion above is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?
(a) some marsupials now found in australia might not be native to that continent, but rather might have been introduced to australia by some other means.
(b) humans who settled australia probably introduced many of the placental mammal species now present on that continent.
(c) the only australian placentals that could be native to australia would be animals whose ancestors could not have reached australia from elsewhere.
(d) no marsupials now found in australia can swim long distances. fly. or float on driftwood.
(e) seals, bats, and mice are typically found only in areas where there are no native marsupials.
13.. room air conditioners produced by japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by united states manufacturers.
. the average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by united states manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by japanes
e manufacturers.
which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?
(a) reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair.
(b) production facilities of firms designated as united states manufacturers are not all located in the united states.
(c) damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the united states or in japan.
(d) room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the united states than in japan.
(e) japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do united states manufacturers.
14. in 1980 there was growing concern that the protective ozone layer over the antarctic might be decreasing and thereby allowing so much harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth that polar marine life would be damaged. some government officials dismissed these concerns, since statistics indicated that global atmospheric ozone levels remained constant.
the relevance of the evidence cited by the government officials in support of their position would be most seriously undermined if it were true that
(a) most species of plant and animal life flourish in warm climates rather than in the polar regions
(b) decreases in the amount of atmospheric ozone over the antarctic ice cap tend to be seasonal rather than constant
(c) decreases in the amount of atmospheric ozone were of little concern before l980.
(d) quantities of atmospheric ozone shifted away from the polar caps, correspondingly increasing ozone levels in other regions
(e) even where the amount of atmospheric ozone is normal, some ultraviolet light reaches the earth's surface
15. goodbody, inc., is in the process of finding tenants for its newly completed parrot quay commercial development, which will make available hundreds of thousands of square feet of new office space on what was formerly derelict property outside the financial center of the city. surprisingly enough, the coming recession though it will hurt most of the city's businesses, should help goodbody to find tenants.
which one of the following, if true, does most to help resolve the apparent paradox?
(a) businesses forced to economize by the recession will want to take advantage of the lower rents available outside the financial center.
(b) public transportation links the financial center with the area around parrot quay.
(c) the area in which the parrot quay development is located became derelict after the heavy industry that used to be there closed down in a previous recession.
(d) many of goodbody's other properties are in financial center and will become vacant if the recession is severe enough to force goodbody's tenants out of business.
(e) the recession is likely to have the most severe effect not on service industries, which require a lot of office space, but on manufacturers.
questions 16-17
dr. kim: electronic fetal monitors, now routinely used in hospital delivery rooms to check fetal heartbeat, are more intrusive than ordinary stethoscopes and do no more to improve the chances that a healthy baby will be born. therefore, the additional cost of electronic monitoring is unjustified and such monitor-jog should be discontinued.
dr. anders: i disagree. although you and i know that both methods are capable of providing the same information, electronic monitoring has been well worth the cost. doctors now know the warning signs they need to listen for with stethoscopes, but only because of what was learned from using electronic monitors.
16. which one of the following principles, if accepted, would provide the most support for dr. kim's contention that the use of electronic fetal monitors should be discontinued?
(a) hospitals should discontinue the routine use of a monitoring method whenever an alternative method that provides more information becomes available.
(b) monitoring procedures should be routinely used in delivery rooms only if they provide information of a kind that is potentially useful in ensuring that a healthy baby will be born.
(c) when two methods available to hospitals provide the same kind of information, the more intrusive method should not be used.
(d) when the use of a medical device has enabled doctors to learn something that improves the chances that babies will be born healthy, that device is well worth its cost.
(e) routinely used medical procedures should be reevaluated periodically to be sure that these procedures provide reliable information.
17. as a reply to dr. kim's argument, dr. anders' response is inadequate because it
(a) misses the point at issue
(b) assumes what it sets out to prove
(c) confuses high cost with high qualit
y
(d) overestimates the importance of technology to modem medicine
(e) overlooks the fact that a procedure can be extensively used without being the best procedure available
18. professor hartley's new book on moral philosophy contains numerous passages that can be found verbatim in an earlier published work by hartley's colleague, professor lawrence. therefore in view of the fact that these passages were unattributed in hartley's book. hartley has been dishonest in not acknowledging the intellectual debt owed to lawrence.
which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument is based?
(a) hartley could not have written the new book without the passages in question.
(b) while writing the new book, hartley had access to the manuscript of lawrence s book.
(c) a book on moral philosophy should contain only material representing the author's own convictions.
(d) lawrence did not get the ideas in the passages in question or did not get their formulations originally from hartley.
(e) hartley considered the passages in question to be the best possible expressions of the ideas they contain.
19. people who receive unsolicited advice from someone whose advantage would be served if that advice is taken should regard the proffered advice with skepticism unless there is good reason to think that their interests substantially coincide with those of the advice giver in the circumstance in question.
this principle, if accepted, would justify which one of the following judgments?
(a) after learning by chance that harriet is looking for a secure investment for her retirement savings. floyd writes to her recommending the r&m company as an especially secure investment. but since floyd is the sole owner of r&m, harrier should reject his advice out of hand and invest the savings elsewhere.
(b) while shopping for a refrigerator. ramon is approached by a salesperson who, on the basis of her personal experience, warns him against the least expensive model. however, the salesperson's commission increases with the price of the refrigerator sold, so ramon should not reject the least expensive model on the salesperson's advice alone.
(c) mario wants to bring pastry to yvette's party, and when he consults her yvette suggests that he bring his favorite chocolate fudge brownies from the local bakery. however, since yvette also prefers those brownies to any other pastry, mario would be wise to check with others before following her recommendation.
(d) sara overhears ron talking about a course he will be teaching and interrupts to recommend a textbook for his course. however, even though sara and ron each wrote a chapter of' this textbook, since the book's editor is a personal friend of sara's, ron should investigate further before deciding whether it is the best textbook for his course.
(e) mel is buying fish for soup. joel, who owns the fish market where mel is a regular and valued customer, suggests a much less expensive fish than the fish mel herself prefers. since if mel follows joel's advice, joel will make less profit on the sale than he would have otherwise. mel should follow his recommendation.
20. last year the county park system failed to generate enough revenue to cover its costs. any business should be closed if it is unprofitable, but county parks are not businesses. therefore, the fact that county parks are unprofitable does not by itself justify closing them.
the pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most closely paralleled in which one of the following?
(a) a prime-time television series should be canceled if it fails to attract a large audience, but the small audience attracted by the documentary series is not sufficient reason to cancel it, since it does not air during prime time.
(b) although companies that manufacture and market automobiles in the united states must meet stringent air-quality standards, the okesa company should be exempt from these standards since it manufactures bicycles in addition to automobiles.
(c) although the province did not specifically intend to prohibit betting on horse races when it passed a law prohibiting gambling, such betting should be regarded as being prohibited because it is a form of gambling.
(d) even though cockatiels are not, strictly speaking, members of the parrot family, they should be fed the same diet as most parrots since the cockatiel's dietary needs are so similar to those of parrots01.
(e) since minors are not subject to the same criminal laws as are adults, they should not be subject to the same sorts of punishments as those that apply to adults.
21. jane: professor harper's ideas for modifying the design of guitars are of no value because there is no general agreement among musicians as to what a guitar should sound like and. consequently, no widely acce
pted basis for evaluating the merits of a guitar's sound.
mark: what's more, harper's ideas have had enough time to be adopted if they really resulted in superior sound. it took only ten years for the torres design for guitars to be almost universally adopted because of the improvement it makes in tonal quality.
which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between jane's argument and mark's argument?
(a) mark's argument shows how a weakness in jane's argument can be overcome.
(b) mark's argument has a premise in common with jane's argument
(c) mark and jane use similar techniques to argue for different conclusions.
(d) mark's argument restates jane's argument in other terms.
(e) mark's argument and jane's argument are based on conflicting suppositions.
questions 22-23
doctors in britain have long suspected that patients who wear tinted eyeglasses are abnormally prone to depression and hypochondria. psychological tests given there to hospital patients admitted for physical complaints like heart pain and digestive distress confirmed such a relationship. perhaps people whose relationship to the world is psychologically painful choose such glasses to reduce visual stimulation, which is perceived as irritating. at any rate, it can be concluded that when such glasses are worn, it is because the wearer has a tendency to be depressed or hypochondriacal
22. the argument assumes which one of the following?
(a) depression is not caused in some cases by an organic condition of the body.
(b) wearers do not think of the tinted glasses as a means of distancing themselves from ocher people.
(c) depression can have many causes, including actual conditions about which it is reasonable for anyone to be depressed.
(d) for hypochondriacs wearing tinted glasses, the glasses serve as a visual signal to others that the wearer's health is delicate.
(e) the tinting does not dim light to the eye enough to depress the wearer's mood substantially.
23. each of the following, if true, weakens the argument except:
(a) some people wear tinted glasses not because they choose to do so but because a medical condition of their eyes forces them to do so.
(b) even a depressed or hypochondriacal person can have valid medical complaints, so a doctor should perform all the usual objective tests in diagnosing such persons.
(c) the confirmatory tests were not done for places such as western north america where the usual quality of light differs from that prevailing in britain.
(d) fashions with respect to wearing tinted glasses differ in different parts of the world.
(e) at the hospitals where the tests were given, patients who were admitted for conditions less ambiguous than heart pain or digestive distress did not show the relationship between tinted glasses and depression or hypochondria.
24. the only fossilized bones of large prey found in and around settlements of early humans bear teeth marks of nonhuman predators on areas of the skeleton that had the most meal, and cut marks made by humans on the areas that had the least meat. the predators that hunted large prey invariably are the meatiest parts of the carcasses, leaving uneaten remains behind.
if the information above is true, it provides the most support for which one of the following?
(a) early humans were predators of small prey, not of large prey.
(b) early humans ate fruits and edible roots as well as meat
(c) early humans would have been more effective hunters of large prey if they had hunted in large groups rather than individually.
(d) early humans were not hunters of large prey but scavenged the uneaten remains of prey killed by other predators.
(e) early humans were nomadic, and their settlements followed the migratory patterns of predators of large prey.
25. george: a well-known educator claims that children who are read to when they are very young are more likely to enjoy reading when they grow up than are children who were not read to. but this claim is clearly false. my cousin emory was regularly read to as a child and as an adult he seldom reads for pleasure, whereas no one read to me and reading is now my favorite form of relaxation.
ursula: you and emory prove nothing in this case. your experience is enough to refute the claim that all avid adult readers were read to as children, but what the educator said about reading to children is not that sort of claim.
which one of the following describes a flaw in georges reasoning?
(a) he treats his own experience and the experiences of other members of his own family as though they have more weight as evidence than do the experiences of other people.
(b) he does not distinguish between the quality and the quantity of the books that adults read to em
ory when emory was a child.
(c) he overlooks the well-known fact that not all reading is equally relaxing.
(d) he fails to establish that the claim made by this particular educator accurately reflects the position held by the majority of educators.
(e) he attempts to refute a general claim by reference to nonconforming cases, although the claim is consistent with the occurrence of such cases.
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