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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 7

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. The ancient city of Cephesa was not buried by an eruption of Mt. Amnos in A.D. 310, as some believe. The eruption in the year 310 damaged the city, but it did not destroy it. Cephesa survived for another century before it finally met its destruction in another eruption around A.D. 415. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author's claim that the city of Cephesa was not buried by the eruption of Mt. Amnos in A.D. 310?

A. The city of Cephesa is mentioned in a historical work known to have been written in A.D. 400.
B. Coins bearing the image of an emperor who lived around A.D. 410 have been discovered in the ruins of Cephesa , which were preserved by the cinders and ashes that buried the city.
C. Geological evidence shows that the eruption of Mt. Amnos in A.D. 415 deposited a 10-foot-thick layer of lava on the city of Cephesa .
D. Artworks from the city of Cephesa have been found in the ruins of another city known to have been destroyed in A.D. 420.
E. A historical work written in A.D. 430 refers to the eruption of Mt. Amnos in A.D. 415.

2. Two groups of laboratory mice were injected with cancerous cells. One group's cages were rotated in a disorienting manner. Two-thirds of these mice developed cancers. One-tenth of the mice in stationary cages developed cancers. The researchers concluded that stress enhances the development of cancer in laboratory mice. The researchers' conclusion logically depends on which of the following assumptions?

A. Rotating the cages in disorienting manner produced stress in the mice in those cages.
B. The injections given to the two groups of mice were not of equal strength.
C. Injecting the mice with cancerous cells caused stress in the mice.
D. Even without the injections the mice in the rotated cages would have developed cancers.
E. Even the rotation of cages in a manner that is not disorienting is likely to produce stress in mice in those cages.

3. According to a recent study, fifteen corporations in the United States that follow a credo of social responsibility are also very profitable. Because of their credos, these fifteen corporations give generously to charity, follow stringent environmental-protection policies, and have vigorous affirmative-action programs. Which of the following can be correctly inferred from the statements above?

A. Following a credo of social responsibility helps to make a corporation very profitable.
B. It is possible for a corporation that follows a credo of social responsibility to be very profitable.
C. A corporation that gives generously to charity must be doing so because of its credo of social responsibility.
D. Corporations that are very profitable tend to give generously to charity.
E. Corporations that have vigorous affirmative-action programs also tend to follow stringent environmental-protection policies.

4. After the national speed limit of 55 miles per hour was imposed in 1974, the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway fell abruptly as a result. Since then, however, the average speed of vehicles on highways has risen, but the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway has continued to fall. Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?

A. The speed limit alone is probably not responsible for the continued reduction in highway deaths in the years after 1974.
B. People have been driving less since 1974.
C. Driver-education courses have been more effective since 1974 in teaching drivers to drive safely.
D. In recent years highway patrols have been less effective in catching drivers who speed.
E. The change in the speed limit cannot be responsible for the abrupt decline in highway deaths in 1974.

5. The number of people diagnosed as having a certain intestinal disease has dropped significantly in a rural county this year, as compared to last year, Health officials attribute this decrease entirely to improved sanitary conditions at water-treatment plants, which made for cleaner water this year and thus reduced the incidence of the disease. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the health officials' explanation for the lower incidence of the disease?

A. Many new water-treatment plants have been built in the last five years in the rural county.
B. Bottled spring water has not been consumed in significantly different quantities by people diagnosed as having the intestinal disease, as compared to people who did not contract the disease.
C. Because of a new diagnostic technique, many people who until this year would have been diagnosed as having the intestinal disease are now correctly diagnosed as suffering from intestinal ulcers.
D. Because of medical advances this year, far fewer people who contract the intestinal disease will develop severe cases of the disease.
E. The water in the rural county was brought up to the sanitary standards of the water in neighboring counties ten years ago.

6. Guitar strings often go ?dead??become less responsive and bright in tone?after a few weeks of intense use. A researcher whose son is a classical guitarist hypothesized that dirt and oil, rather than changes in the material properties of the string, were responsible. Which of the following investigations is most likely to yield significant information that would help to evaluate the researcher's hypothesis?

A. Determining if a metal alloy is used to make the strings used by classical guitarists
B. Determining whether classical guitarists make their strings go dead faster than do folk guitarists
C. Determining whether identical lengths of string, of the same gauge, go dead at different rates when strung on various brands of guitars
D. Determining whether a dead string and a new string produce different qualities of sound
E. Determining whether smearing various substances on new guitar strings causes them to go dead

7. Most consumers do not get much use out of the sports equipment they purchase. For example, seventeen percent of the adults in the United States own jogging shoes, but only forty-five percent of the owners jog more than once a year, and only seventeen percent jog more than once a week. Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the claim that most consumers get little use out of the sports equipment they purchase?

A. Joggers are most susceptible to sports injuries during the first six months in which they jog.
B. Joggers often exaggerate the frequency with which they jog in surveys designed to elicit such information.
C. Many consumers purchase jogging shoes for use in activities other than jogging.
D. Consumers who take up jogging often purchase an athletic shoe that can be used in other sports.
E. Joggers who jog more than once a week are often active participants in other sports as well.

8. Financing for a large construction project was provided by a group of banks. When the money was gone before the project was completed, the banks approved additional loans. Now, with funds used up again and completion still not at hand, the banks refuse to extend further loans, although without those loans, the project is doomed. Which of the following, if true, best explains why the bank's current reaction is different from their reaction in the previous instance of depletion of funds?

A. The banks have reassessed the income potential of the completed project and have concluded that total income generable would be less than total interest due on the old plus the needed new loans.
B. The banks have identified several other projects that offer faster repayment of the principal if loans are approved now to get those projects started.
C. The banks had agreed with the borrowers that the construction loans would be secured by the completed project.
D. The cost overruns were largely due to unforeseeable problems that arose in the most difficult phase of the construction work.
E. The project stimulated the development and refinement of several new construction techniques, which will make it easier and cheaper to carry out similar projects in the future.

9. Civil trials often involve great complexities that are beyond the capacities of jurors to understand. As a result, jurors' decisions in such trials are frequently incorrect. Justice would therefore be better served if the more complex trials were decided by judges rather than juries. The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

A. A majority of civil trials involve complexities that jurors are not capable of understanding.
B. The judges who would decide complex civil trials would be better able to understand the complexities of those trials than jurors are.
C. The judges who would preside over civil trials would disallow the most complex sorts of evidence from being introduced into those trials.
D. Jurors' decisions are frequently incorrect even in those civil trials that do not involve great complexities.
E. The sole reason in favor of having juries decide civil trials is the supposition that their decisions will almost always be correct.

10. The cotton farms of Country Q became so productive that the market could not absorb all that they produced. Consequently, cotton prices fell. The government tried to boost cotton prices by offering farmers who took 25 percent of their cotton acreage out of production direct support payments up to a specified maximum per farm. The government's program, if successful, will not be a net burden on the budget. Which of the following, if true, is the best basis for an explanation of how this could be so?

A. Depressed cotton prices meant operating losses for cotton farms, and the government lost revenue from taxes on farm profits.
B. Cotton production in several counties other than Q declined slightly the year that the support-payment program went into effect in Q.
C. The first year that the support-payment program was in effect, cotton acreage in Q was 5% below its level in the base year for the program.
D. The specified maximum per farm meant that for very large cotton farms the support payments were less per acre for those acres that were withdrawn from production than they were for smaller farms.
E. Farmers who wished to qualify for support payments could not use the cotton acreage that was withdrawn from production to grow any other crop.