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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 4

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. Which of the following best completes the passage below? the most serious flaw in television's coverage of election campaigns is its tendency to focus on the horse-race side of politics?that is, to concentrate on the question ?Who's winning?? at the expense of substantive coverage of the issues and the candidates' positions on them. The endless interviews with campaign managers, discussions of campaign strategies, and, especially, the obsession with opinion polls have surrounded elections with the atmosphere of a football game or a prizefight. To reform this situation, a first step might well be______

A. a shortening of the length of election campaigns to a period of six weeks
B. a stringent limit on campaign spending
C. a reduction in the television coverage of opinion polls during election campaigns
D. the publication and distribution of voter-education literature to inform the public about each candidate's position on the major issues
E. a limit on the length and number of political advertisements broadcast on television

2. With Proposition 13, if you bought your house 11 years ago for $75,000, your property tax would be approximately $914 a year (1 percent of $75,000 increased by 2 percent each year for 11 years); and if your neighbor bought an identical house next door to you for $200,000 this year, his tax would be $2,000 (1 percent of $200,000). Without Proposition 13, both you and your neighbor would pay $6,000 a year in property taxes (3 percent of $200,000). Which of the following is the conclusion for which the author most likely is arguing in the passage above?

A. Proposition 13 is unconstitutional because it imposes an unequal tax on properties of equal value.
B. If Proposition 13 is repealed, every homeowner is likely to experience a substantial increase in property taxes.
C. By preventing inflation from driving up property values, Proposition 13 has saved homeowners thousands of dollars in property taxes.
D. If Proposition 13 is not repealed, identical properties will continue to be taxed at different rates.
E. Proposition 13 has benefited some homeowners more than others.

3. The upcoming presidential election in the West African republic of Ganelon is of grave concern to the U.S. State Department. Ganelon presently has strong political and military ties to the United States . However, the Socialist party is widely expected to win the election, leading to fears that Ganelon will soon break away from the pro-American bloc and adopt a nonaligned or openly anti-American stance. Which of the following is an assumption made in the passage above?

A. A Socialist party government in Ganelon is more likely to oppose the United States than is a non-Socialist party government.
B. The people of the United States recognize their nation's interest in the political stability of West Africa .
C. A weakening of U.S. political ties with Ganelon could have serious consequences for U.S. relations with other African nations.
D. The Socialist party leaders in Ganelon believe that their nation's interests would best be served by an alliance with anti-American forces.
E. The Socialist party will win the upcoming election in Ganelon .

4. It's time we stopped searching for new statistics to suggest that we are not spending enough on education. In fact, education spending increased 30 percent overall during the last decade. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

A. Despite increased spending on education, enrollment in our elementary and secondary schools declined about 4 percent during the last ten years.
B. Our spending on gasoline increased more than 100 percent during the last decade.
C. When adjusted for inflation, our per-pupil expenditure on education this year is less than it was ten years ago.
D. Eleven other economically developed nations spend more on education than we do.
E. The achievement levels of our students have been declining steadily since 1960, and the last decade produced no reversal in this trend.

5. A government agency that reimburses its clients for bills they have paid for medical care has had this year's budget cut. To save money without cutting reimbursements or otherwise harming clients financially, it plans to delay reimbursements to clients for forty days, thereby earning $180 million per year in interest on the reimbursement money. Which of the following, if true, is the best criticism of the agency's plan?

A. Hospitals and physicians typically hold patients responsible for the ultimate payment of their bills.
B. The agency cannot save money by cutting staff because it is already understaffed.
C. Some clients borrow money to pay their medical bills; they will pay forty extra days of interest on these loans.
D. Some clients pay their medical bills immediately, but they often take more than forty days to file with the agency for reimbursement.
E. The agency's budget was cut by more than $180 million last year.

6. Millions of identical copies of a plant can be produced using new tissue-culture and cloning techniques. If plant propagation by such methods in laboratories proves economical, each of the following, if true, represents a benefit of the new techniques to farmers EXCEPT:

A. The techniques allow the development of superior strains to take place more rapidly, requiring fewer generations of plants grown to maturity.
B. It is less difficult to care for plants that will grow at rates that do not vary widely.
C. Plant diseases and pests, once they take hold, spread more rapidly among genetically uniform plants than among those with genetic variations.
D. Mechanical harvesting of crops is less difficult if plants are more uniform in size.
E. Special genetic traits can more easily be introduced into plant strains with the use of the new techniques.

7. The price the government pays for standard weapons purchased from military contractors is determined by a pricing method called ?historical costing.? Historical costing allows contractors to protect their profits by adding a percentage increase, based on the current rate of inflation, to the previous year's contractual price. Which of the following statements, if true, is the best basis for a criticism of historical costing as an economically sound pricing method for military contracts?

A. The government might continue to pay for past inefficient use of funds.
B. The rate of inflation has varied considerably over the past twenty years.
C. The contractual price will be greatly affected by the cost of materials used for the products.
D. Many taxpayers question the amount of money the government spends on military contracts.
E. The pricing method based on historical costing might not encourage the development of innovative weapons.

8. Some people have questioned the judge's objectivity in cases of sex discrimination against women. But the record shows that in sixty percent of such cases, the judge has decided in favor of the women. This record demonstrates that the judge has not discriminated against women in cases of sex discrimination against women. The argument above is flawed in that it ignores the possibility that

A. a large number of the judge's cases arose out of allegations of sex discrimination against women
B. many judges find it difficult to be objective in cases of sex discrimination against women
C. the judge is biased against women defendants or plaintiffs in cases that do not involve sex discrimination
D. the majority of the cases of sex discrimination against women that have reached the judge's court have been appealed from a lower court
E. the evidence shows that the women should have won in more than sixty percent of the judge's cases involving sex discrimination against women

9. The only purpose for which a particular type of tape is needed is to hold certain surgical wounds closed for ten days?the maximum time such wounds need tape. Newtape is a new brand of this type of tape. Newtape's salespeople claim that Newtape will improve healing because Newtape adheres twice as long as the currently used tape does. Which of the following statements, if true, would most seriously call into question the claim made by Newtape's salespeople?

A. Most surgical wounds take about ten days to heal.
B. Most surgical tape is purchased by hospitals and clinics rather than by individual surgeons.
C. The currently used tape's adhesiveness is more than sufficient to hold wounds closed for ten days.
D. Neither Newtape nor the currently used tape adheres well to skin that has not been cleaned.
E. Newtape's adhesion to skin that has been coated with a special chemical preparation is only half as good as the currently used tape's adhesion to such coated skin.

10. The proportion of women among students enrolled in higher education programs has increased over the past decades. This is partly shown by the fact that in 1959, only 11 percent of the women between twenty and twenty-one were enrolled in college, while in 1981, 30 percent of the women between twenty and twenty-one were enrolled in college. To evaluate the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1959 and 1981 with regard to which of the following characteristics?

A. The percentage of women between twenty and twenty-one who were not enrolled in college
B. The percentage of women between twenty and twenty-five who graduated from college
C. The percentage of women who, after attending college, entered highly paid professions
D. The percentage of men between twenty and twenty-one who were enrolled in college
E. The percentage of men who graduated from high school