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GMAT

GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 9

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. Refer to the extract in the previous question

Which is the following is an assumption that the researchers apparently made in this study?

A. The women who participated in the study were sufficiently representative of modern women in general.
B. Male faces are, in general, attractive to women.
C. Visual images are important to women.
D. It is impossible to predict what features an ideal face would have.
E. Women in previous ages would have preferred more masculine men.

2. Dear Applicant: Thank you for your application. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you a position in our local government office for the summer. As you know, funding for summer jobs is limited, and it is impossible for us to offer jobs to all those who want them. Consequently, we are forced to reject many highly qualified applicants. Which of the following can be inferred from the letter?

A. The number of applicants for summer jobs in the government office exceeded the number of summer jobs available.
B. The applicant who received the letter was considered highly qualified.
C. Very little funding was available for summer jobs in the government office.
D. The application of the person who received the letter was considered carefully before being rejected.
E. Most of those who applied for summer jobs were considered qualified for the available positions.

3. Currently people in the United States eat, on the average, 1,431 pounds of food per year, 35 pounds more than in 1980. This increase is, at least in part, because people between the ages of 15 and 64 have accounted for an increasing share of the population. Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage above?

A. More than half of the current population of the United States is between the ages of 15 and 64.
B. The population has risen since 1980.
C. Children below the age of 15 require, on the average, more food than do people over the age of 64.
D. Before 1980 children below the age of 15 outnumbered people between the ages of 15 and 64.
E. Individuals between the ages of 15 and 64 consume, on the average, more food than do those younger or older.

4. This year the New Hampshire Division of Company X set a new record for annual sales by that division. This record is especially surprising since the New Hampshire Division has the smallest potential market and the lowest sales of any of Company X's divisions. Which of the following identifies a flaw in the logical coherence of the statement above?

A. If overall sales for Company X were sharply reduced, the New Hampshire Division's new sales record is irrelevant to the company's prosperity.
B. Since the division is competing against its own record, the comparison of its sales record with that of other divisions is irrelevant.
C. If this is the first year that the New Hampshire Division has been last in sales among Company X's divisions, the new record is not surprising at all.
D. If overall sales for Company X were greater than usual, it is not surprising that the New Hampshire Division was last in sales.
E. Since the New Hampshire Division has the smallest potential market, it is not surprising that it had the lowest sales.

5. Lark Manufacturing Company initiated a voluntary Quality Circles program for machine operators. Independent surveys of employee attitudes indicated that the machine operators participating in the program were less satisfied with their work situations after two years of the program's existence than they were at the program's start. Obviously, any workers who participate in a Quality Circles program will, as a result, become less satisfied with their jobs. Each of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion drawn above EXCEPT:

A. The second survey occurred during a period of recession when rumors of cutbacks and layoffs at Lark Manufacturing were plentiful.
B. The surveys also showed that those Lark machine operators who neither participated in Quality Circles nor knew anyone who did so reported the same degree of lessened satisfaction with their work situations as did the Lark machine operators who participated in Quality Circles.
C. While participating in Quality Circles at Lark Manufacturing, machine operators exhibited two of the primary indicators of improved job satisfaction: increased productivity and decreased absenteeism.
D. Several workers at Lark Manufacturing who had participated in Quality Circles while employed at other companies reported that, while participating in Quality Circles in their previous companies, their work satisfaction had increased.
E. The machine operators who participated in Quality Circles reported that, when the program started, they felt that participation might improve their work situations.

6. Of the countries that were the world's twenty largest exporters in 1953, four had the same share of total world exports in 1984 as in 1953. Theses countries can therefore serve as models for those countries that wish to keep their share of the global export trade stable over the years. Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the suitability of those four countries as models in the sense described?

A. Many countries wish to increase their share of world export trade, not just keep it stable.
B. Many countries are less concerned with exports alone than with he balance between exports and imports.
C. With respect to the mix of products each exports, the four countries are very different from each other.
D. Of the four countries, two had a much larger, and two had a much smaller, share of total world exports in 1970 than in 1984.
E. The exports of the four countries range from 15 percent to 75 percent of the total national output.

7. A greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S than in Town T. Therefore, the citizens of Town S are better informed about major world events than are the citizens of Town T. Each of the following, if true, weakens the conclusion above EXCEPT:

A. Town S has a larger population than Town T.
B. Most citizens of Town T work in Town S and buy their newspapers there.
C. The average citizen of Town S spends less time reading newspapers than does the average citizen of Town T.
D. A weekly newspaper restricted to the coverage of local events is published in Town S.
E. The average newsstand price of newspapers sold in Town S is lower than the average price of newspapers sold in Town T.

8. Less than 50 percent of a certain tropical country's wildlands remains intact. Efforts are under way to restore biological diversity in that country by restoring some destroyed wild habitats and extending some relatively intact portions of forests. However, opponents argue that these efforts are not needed because there is still plenty of wildland left. Which of the following, if true, most significantly weakens the argument of the opponents of conservation efforts?

A. As much, if not more, effort is required to restore a wild habitat as to preserve an intact habitat.
B. The opponents of restoration efforts are, for the most part, members of the wealthier classes in their own villages and cities.
C. Existing conservation laws have been very effective in preserving biological diversity within the wildlands that remain intact.
D. For many tropical species native to that country, the tropical wildlands that are still relatively intact do not provide appropriate habitats for reproduction.
E. If a suitable population of plants and animals is introduced and is permitted to disperse and grow, tropical habitats can most certainly be restored.

9. In Swartkans territory, archaeologists discovered charred bone fragments dating back 1 million years. Analysis of the fragments, which came from a variety of animals, showed that they had been heated to temperatures no higher than those produced in experimental campfires made from branches of white stinkwood, the most common tree around Swartkans . Which of the following, if true, would, together with the information above, provide the best basis for the claim that the charred bone fragments are evidence of the use of fire by early hominids?

A. The white stinkwood tree is used for building material by the present-day inhabitants of Swartkans .
B. Forest fires can heat wood to a range of temperatures that occur in campfires.
C. The bone fragments were fitted together by the archaeologists to form the complete skeletons of several animals.
D. Apart from the Swartkans discovery, there is reliable evidence that early hominids used fire as many as 500 thousand years ago.
E. The bone fragments were found in several distinct layers of limestone that contained primitive cutting tools known to have been used by early hominids.

10. Last year the worldwide paper industry used over twice as much fresh pulp (pulp made directly from raw plant fibers) as recycled pulp (pulp made from wastepaper). A paper-industry analyst has projected that by 2010 the industry will use at least as much recycled pulp annually as it does fresh pulp, while using a greater quantity of fresh pulp than it did last year. If the information above is correct and the analyst's projections prove to be accurate, which of the following projections must also be accurate?

A. In 2010 the paper industry will use at least twice as much recycled pulp as it did last years.
B. In 2010 the paper industry will use at least twice as much total pulp as it did last year.
C. In 2010 the paper industry will produce more paper from a given amount of pulp than it did last year.
D. As compared with last year, in 2010 the paper industry will make more paper that contains only recycled pulp.
E. As compared with last year, in 2010 the paper industry will make less paper that contains only fresh pulp.