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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 23

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. The committee on sexual discrimination in the workplace has highlighted Supremo Company as a chief offender. Of the twenty senior executives in the firm, only one is a woman. And of the forty junior executives, only five are female.

Supremo could best defend itself against the charges by showing that

A. male and female executives at the same level have the same qualifications
B. they pay the same salary to senior men and senior women
C. ten times more men than women apply for jobs with the company
D. the work pressures and long hours make jobs with the company unattractive to married women
E. all job applicants who were rejected had fewer qualifications than those accepted

2. In 1980, a Danish ten- ?re coin minted in 1747 was sold at auction for $8,000. Eleanor Bixby owns another Danish ten- ?re coin minted in 1747. When she puts it on the market next week, it will fetch a price over $18,000. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion drawn above?

A. Since 1980, the average price for rare coins has increased by over 150 percent.
B. There are only four coins like the one in question in the entire world.
C. Since 1980, the consumer price index has risen by over 150 percent.
D. In 1986, a previously unknown cache of one hundred coins just like the one in question was found.
E. Thirty prominent, wealthy coin collectors are expected to bid for Bixby's coin.

3. Although custom prosthetic bone replacements produced through a new computer-aided design process will cost more than twice as much as ordinary replacements, custom replacements should still be cost-effective. Not only will surgery and recovery time be reduced, but custom replacements should last longer, thereby reducing the need for further hospital stays. Which of the following must be studied in order to evaluate the argument presented above?

A. The amount of time a patient spends in surgery versus the amount of time spent recovering from surgery
B. The amount by which the cost of producing custom replacements has declined with the introduction of the new technique for producing them
C. The degree to which the use of custom replacements is likely to reduce the need for repeat surgery when compared with the use of ordinary replacements
D. The degree to which custom replacements produced with the new technique are more carefully manufactured than are ordinary replacements
E. The amount by which custom replacements produced with the new technique will drop in cost as the production procedures become standardized and applicable on a larger scale

4. The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big American steel mills. In fact, the quotas will help ?mini-mills? flourish in the United States. Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas. Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

A. Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.
B. Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.
C. American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.
D. Domestic ?mini-mills? consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills.
E. Domestic ?mini-mills? produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.

5. A famous singer recently won a lawsuit against an advertising firm for using another singer in a commercial to evoke the famous singer's well-known rendition of a certain song. As a result of the lawsuit, advertising firms will stop using imitators in commercials. Therefore, advertising costs will rise, since famous singers' services cost more than those of their imitators. The conclusion above is based on which of the following assumptions?

A. Most people are unable to distinguish a famous singer's rendition of a song from a good imitator's rendition of the same song.
B. Commercials using famous singers are usually more effective than commercials using imitators of famous singers.
C. The original versions of some well-known songs are unavailable for use in commercials.
D. Advertising firms will continue to use imitators to mimic the physical mannerisms of famous singers.
E. The advertising industry will use well-known renditions of songs in commercials.

6. A certain mayor has proposed a fee of five dollars per day on private vehicles entering the city, claiming that the fee will alleviate the city's traffic congestion. The mayor reasons that, since the fee will exceed the cost of round-trip bus fare from many nearby points, many people will switch from using their cars to using the bus. Which of the following statements, if true, provides the best evidence that the mayor's reasoning is flawed?

A. Projected increases in the price of gasoline will increase the cost of taking a private vehicle into the city.
B. The cost of parking fees already makes it considerably more expensive for most people to take a private vehicle into the city than to take a bus.
C. Most of the people currently riding the bus do not own private vehicles.
D. Many commuters opposing the mayor's plan have indicated that they would rather endure traffic congestion than pay a five-dollar-per day fee.
E. During the average workday, private vehicles owned and operated by people living within the city account for twenty percent of the city's traffic congestion.

7. When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then asked whether they can hear the hypnotist, they reply, ?No.? Some theorists try to explain this result by arguing that the selves of hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts, and that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies. Which of the following challenges indicates the most serious weakness in the attempted explanation described above?

A. Why does the part that replies not answer, ?Yes??
B. Why are the observed facts in need of any special explanation?
C. Why do the subjects appear to accept the hypnotist's suggestion that they are deaf?
D. Why do hypnotized subjects all respond the same way in the situation described?
E. Why are the separate parts of the self the same for all subjects?

8. There are fundamentally two possible changes in an economy that will each cause inflation unless other compensating changes also occur. These changes are either reductions in the supply of goods and services or increases in demand. In a prebanking economy the quantity of money available, and hence the level of demand, is equivalent to the quantity of gold available. If the statements above are true, then it is also true that in a prebanking economy

A. any inflation is the result of reductions in the supply of goods and services
B. if other factors in the economy are unchanged, increasing the quantity of gold available will lead to inflation
C. if there is a reduction in the quantity of gold available, then, other things being equal, inflation must result
D. the quantity of goods and services purchasable by a given amount of gold is constant
E. whatever changes in demand occur, there will be compensating changes in the supply of goods and services

9. Generally scientists enter their field with the goal of doing important new research and accept as their colleagues those with similar motivation. Therefore, when any scientist wins renown as an expounder of science to general audiences, most other scientists conclude that this popularizer should no longer be regarded as a true colleague. The explanation offered above for the low esteem in which scientific popularizers are held by research scientists assumes that

A. serious scientific research is not a solitary activity, but relies on active cooperation among a group of colleagues
B. research scientists tend not to regard as colleagues those scientists whose renown they envy
C. a scientist can become a famous popularizer without having completed any important research
D. research scientists believe that those who are well known as popularizers of science are not motivated to do important new research
E. no important new research can be accessible to or accurately assessed by those who are not themselves scientists

10. Fresh potatoes generally cost about $2 for a 10-pound bag, whereas dehydrated instant potatoes cost, on average, about $3 per pound. It can be concluded that some consumers will pay 15 times as much for convenience, since sales of this convenience food continue to rise. Which of the following, if true, indicates that there is a major flaw in the argument above?

A. Fresh potatoes bought in convenient 2-pound bags are about $1 a bag, or 2 1/2 times more expensive than fresh potatoes bought in 10-pound bags.
B. Since fresh potatoes are 80 percent water, one pound of dehydrated potatoes is the equivalent of 5 pounds of fresh potatoes.
C. Peeled potatoes in cans are also more expensive than the less convenient fresh potatoes.
D. Retail prices of dehydrated potatoes have declined by 20 percent since 1960 to the current level of about $3 a pound.
E. As a consequence of labor and processing costs, all convenience foods cost more than the basic foods from which they are derived.