GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 1

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

1. French cuisine is highly regarded all over the world. Yet in Paris there are more American restaurants selling burgers and fries (which many people now class as ?junk food?) than there are in any other European capital city. Obviously the French are very fond of ?junk food?, and are not too proud to eat it.1.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author?s contention?

A. There are also a larger number of Lebanese restaurants in Paris than there are in other European capital cities
B. French Cordon Bleu cuisine is very expensive
C. The number of French tourists eating in New York burger restaurants is very low
D. Junk food is actually has high nutritional value when eaten in moderation
E. There are an unusually large number of American tourists in Paris who eat at burger joints

2. Mr. Lawson: We should adopt a national family policy that includes legislation requiring employers to provide paid parental leave and establishing government-sponsored day care. Such laws would decrease the stress levels of employees who have responsibility for small children. Thus, such laws would lead to happier, better-adjusted families. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion above?

A. An employee's high stress level can be a cause of unhappiness and poor adjustment for his or her family.
B. People who have responsibility for small children and who work outside the home have higher stress levels than those who do not.
C. The goal of a national family policy is to lower the stress levels of parents.
D. Any national family policy that is adopted would include legislation requiring employers to provide paid parental leave and establishing government-sponsored day care.
E. Most children who have been cared for in daycare centers are happy and well adjusted.

3. The ice on the front windshield of the car had formed when moisture condensed during the night. The ice melted quickly after the car was warmed up the next morning because the defrosting vent, which blows only on the front windshield, was turned on full force. Which of the following, if true, most seriously jeopardizes the validity of the explanation for the speed with which the ice melted?

A. The side windows had no ice condensation on them.
B. Even though no attempt was made to defrost the back window, the ice there melted at the same rate as did the ice on the front windshield.
C. The speed at which ice on a window melts increases as the temperature of the air blown on the window increases.
D. The warm air from the defrosting vent for the front windshield cools rapidly as it dissipates throughout the rest of the car.
E. The defrosting vent operates efficiently even when the heater, which blows warm air toward the feet or faces of the driver and passengers, is on.

4. Seven countries signed a treaty binding each of them to perform specified actions on a certain fixed date, with the actions of each conditional on simultaneous action taken by the other countries. Each country was also to notify the six other countries when it had completed its action. The simultaneous-action provision of the treaty leaves open the possibility that

A. the compliance date was subject to postponement, according to the terms of the treaty
B. one of the countries might not be required to make any changes or take any steps in order to comply with the treaty, whereas all the other countries are so required
C. each country might have a well-founded excuse, based on the provision, for its own lack of compliance
D. the treaty specified that the signal for one of the countries to initiate action was notification by the other countries that they had completed action
E. there was ambiguity with respect to the date after which all actions contemplated in the treaty are to be complete

5. ?Fast cycle time? is a strategy of designing a manufacturing organization to eliminate bottlenecks and delays in production. Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality. The reason is that the bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time. The claim about quality made above rests on a questionable presupposition that

A. any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring on a ?fast cycle? production line
B. the strategy of ?fast cycle time? would require fundamental rethinking of product design
C. the primary goal of the organization is to produce a product of unexcelled quality, rather than to generate profits for stockholders
D. ?fast cycle time? could be achieved by shaving time off each of the component processes in production cycle
E. ?fast cycle time? is a concept in business strategy that has not yet been put into practice in a factory

6. An experiment was done in which human subjects recognize a pattern within a matrix of abstract designs and then select another design that completes that pattern. The results of the experiment were surprising. The lowest expenditure of energy in neurons in the brain was found in those subjects who performed most successfully in the experiments. Which of the following hypotheses best accounts for the findings of the experiment?

A. The neurons of the brain react less when a subject is trying to recognize patterns than when the subject is doing other kinds of reasoning.
B. Those who performed best in the experiment experienced more satisfaction when working with abstract patterns than did those who performed less well.
C. People who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections.
D. The energy expenditure of the subjects brains increases when a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined.
E. The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest than is that of the general population.

7. Installing scrubbers in smokestacks and switching to cleaner-burning fuel are the two methods available to Northern Power for reducing harmful emissions from its plants. Scrubbers will reduce harmful emissions more than cleaner-burning fuels will. Therefore, by installing scrubbers, Northern Power will be doing the most that can be done to reduce harmful emissions from its plants. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Switching to cleaner-burning fuel will not be more expensive than installing scrubbers.
B. Northern Power can choose from among various kinds of scrubbers, some of which are more effective than others.
C. Northern Power is not necessarily committed to reducing harmful emissions from its plants.
D. Harmful emissions from Northern Power's plants cannot be reduced more by using both methods together than by the installation of scrubbers alone.
E. Aside from harmful emissions from the smokestacks of its plants, the activities of Northern Power do not cause significant air pollution.

8. Mayor: In each of the past five years, the city has cut school funding and each time school officials complained that the cuts would force them to reduce expenditures for essential services. But each time, only expenditures for nonessential services were actually reduced. So school officials can implement further cuts without reducing any expenditures for essential services. Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the mayor's conclusion?

A. The city's schools have always provided essential services as efficiently as they have provided nonessential services.
B. Sufficient funds are currently available to allow the city's schools to provide some nonessential services.
C. Price estimates quoted to the city's schools for the provision of nonessential services have not increased substantially since the most recent school funding cut.
D. Few influential city administrators support the funding of costly nonessential services in the city's schools.
E. The city's school officials rarely exaggerate the potential impact of threatened funding cuts.

9. After observing the Earth's weather patterns and the 11-year sunspot cycle of the Sun for 36 years, scientists have found that high levels of sunspot activity precede shifts in wind patterns that affect the Earth's weather. One can conclude that meteorologists will be able to improve their weather forecasts based on this information. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. Weather forecasts are more detailed today than they were 36 years ago.
B. Scientists can establish that sunspot activity directly affects the Earth's weather.
C. Evidence other than sunspot activity has previously enabled meteorologists to forecast the weather conditions that are predictable on the basis of sunspot activity.
D. Scientists have not determined why the sunspot activity on the Sun follows an 11-year cycle.
E. It has been established that predictable wind patterns yield predictable weather patterns.

10. Both Writewell and Express provide round-the-clock telephone assistance to any customer who uses their word-processing software. Since customers only call the hot lines when they find the software difficult to use, and the Writewell hot line receives four times as many calls as the Express hot line, Writewell's word-processing software must be more difficult to use than Express's. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

A. Calls to the Express hot line are almost twice as long, on average, as are calls to the Writewell hot line.
B. Express has three times the number of word-processing software customers that Writewell has.
C. Express receives twice as many letters of complaint about its word-processing software as Writewell receives about its word-processing software.
D. The number of calls received by each of the two hot lines has been gradually increasing.
E. The Writewell hot-line number is more widely publicized than the Express hot-line number.