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GMAT

GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 25

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. June is taller than Kristin. Letty is taller than Maria. Maria is shorter than Nancy . Kristin and Nancy are exactly the same height. If the information above is true, which of the following must also be true?

A. Letty is taller than Nancy .
B. Letty is taller than June.
C. Kristin is shorter than Letty .
D. June is taller than Maria.
E. Kristin is shorter than Maria.

2. Psychologists conducted a series of experiments to test the effect upon schoolchildren of violence in films. In the first experiment, grammar school children were shown a film that included scenes of a male teenager engaging in violent acts against others, such as punching, pushing, and kicking. During a free-play session following the film viewing, 42 percent of the children were observed to engage in one or more violent acts similar to those in the film. In a second experiment, a different group of children was shown a similar film featuring a female teenager. Only 14 percent of the children were observed behaving violently afterward. The psychologists concluded that children are more likely to imitate violent behavior on film when a male model is shown than when a female model is shown. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the psychologists' conclusion?

A. In both experiments, the victims of the filmed violence included both males and females.
B. In the second experiment, 28 percent of the children appeared upset during the viewing the violent film scenes.
C. The first group included 19 male students and 20 female students; the second group included 20 male students and 21 female students.
D. In the first group, 58 percent of the children appeared bored during the showing of the film, and 12 percent fell asleep.
E. The percentage of children known to have discipline problems prior to the experiment was greater in the first group than in the second group.

3. To avoid a hostile takeover attempt, the board of directors of Wellco , Inc., a provider of life and health insurance, planned to take out large loans and use them to purchase a publishing company, a chocolate factory, and a nationwide chain of movie theaters. The directors anticipated that these purchase initially would plunge the corporation deep into debt, rendering it unattractive to those who wanted to take it over, but that steadily rising insurance rates would allow the company to pay off the debt within five years. Meanwhile, revenues from the three new businesses would enable the corporation as a whole to continue to meet its increased operating expenses. Ultimately, according o the directors' plan, the diversification would strengthen the corporation by varying the sources and schedules of its annual revenues. Which of the following, assuming that all are equally possible, would most enhance the chances of the plan's success?

A. A widespread drought decreases the availability of cacao beans, from which chocolate is manufacture, diving up chocolate prices worldwide.
B. New government regulations require a 30 percent across-the-board rate rollback of all insurance companies, to begin immediately and to be completed within a five-year period.
C. Congress enacts a statute, effective after six months, making it illegal for any parent not to carry health insurance coverage for his or her child.
D. Large-screen televisions drop dramatically in price due to surprise alterations in trade barriers with Japan; movie theater attendance dwindles as a consequence.
E. A new, inexpensive process is discovered for making paper pulp, and paper prices fall to 60 percent of their former level.

4. There are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt. Two million couples are currently waiting to adopt, but in 1982, the last year for which figures exist, there were only some 50,000 adoptions. Which of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the author's claim that there are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt?

A. The number of couples waiting to adopt has increased significantly in the last decade.
B. The number of adoptions in the current year is greater than the number of adoptions in any preceding year.
C. The number of adoptions in a year is approximately equal to the number of children available for adoption in that period.
D. People who seek to adopt children often go through a long process of interviews and investigation by adoption agencies.
E. People who seek to adopt children generally make very good parents.

5. Which of the following best completes the passage below? Established companies concentrate on defending what they already have. Consequently, they tend not to be innovative themselves and tend to underestimate the effects of the innovations of others. The clearest example of this defensive strategy is the fact that______

A. ballpoint pens and soft-tip markers have eliminated the traditional market for fountain pens, clearing the way for the marketing of fountain pens as luxury or prestige items
B. a highly successful automobile was introduced by the same company that had earlier introduced a model that had been a dismal failure
C. a once-successful manufacturer of slide rules reacted to the introduction of electronic calculators by trying to make better slide rules
D. one of the first models of modern accounting machines, designed for use in the banking industry, was purchased by a public library as well as by banks
E. the inventor of a commonly used anesthetic did not intend the product to be used by dentists, who currently account for almost the entire market for that drug

6. In 1985 in the country of Alissia , farmers brought to market a broccoli crop that was one-and-a-half times as large as the 1985 broccoli crop in its neighbor country, Barbera . Yet total quantities of broccoli available for sale to consumers in Alissia were smaller than were total quantities in Barbera in 1985. Which of the following, if true, in 1985, contributes most to an explanation of why there was less broccoli available for sale to consumers in Alissia than in Barbera ?

A. Barbera's farmers produced much more cabbage than did Alissia's farmers.
B. Barbera's farmers produced fewer heads of broccoli per acre than did Alissia's farmers.
C. Alissia exported a much higher proportion of its broccoli crop than did Barbera .
D. Broccoli was much more popular among consumers in Alissia than in Barbera .
E. Alissia had more land suitable for growing broccoli than did Barbera .

7. Which of the following best completes the argument below? One effect of the introduction of the electric refrigerator was a collapse in the market for ice. Formerly householders had bought ice to keep their iceboxes cool and the food stored in the iceboxes fresh. Now the iceboxes cool themselves. Similarly, the introduction of crops genetically engineered to be resistant to pests will______

A. increase the size of crop harvests
B. increase the cost of seeds
C. reduce demand for chemical pesticides
D. reduce the value of farmland
E. reduce the number of farmers keeping livestock

8. Which of the following, if true, best completes the argument below? Comparisons of the average standards of living of the citizens of two countries should reflect the citizens' comparative access to goods and services. Reliable figures in a country's own currency for the average income of its citizens are easily obtained. But it is difficult to get an accurate comparison of average standards of living from these figures, because______

A. there are usually no figures comparing how much of two different currencies must be spent in order to purchase a given quantity of goods and services
B. wage levels for the same job vary greatly from country to country, depending on cultural as well as on purely economic factors
C. these figures must be calculated by dividing the gross national product of a country by the size of its population
D. comparative access to goods and services is only one of several factors relevant in determining quality of life
E. the wealth, and hence the standard of living, of a country's citizens is very closely related to their income

9. Despite the approach of winter, oil prices to industrial customers are exceptionally low this year and likely to remain so. Therefore, unless the winter is especially severe, the price of natural gas to industrial customers is also likely to remain low. Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the conclusion above?

A. Long-term weather forecasts predict a mild winter.
B. The industrial users who consume most natural gas can quickly and cheaply switch to using oil instead.
C. The largest sources of supply for both oil and natural gas are in subtropical regions unlikely to be affected by winter weather.
D. The fuel requirements of industrial users of natural gas are not seriously affected by the weather.
E. Oil distribution is more likely to be affected by severe winter weather than is the distribution of natural gas.

10. Over the last century, paleontologists have used small differences between fossil specimens to classify triceratops into sixteen species. This classification is unjustified, however, since the specimens used to distinguish eleven of the species come from animals that lived in the same area at the same time. Which of the following, if true, would enable the conclusion of the argument to be properly drawn?

A. Not every species that lived in a given area is preserved as a fossil.
B. At least one individual of every true species of triceratops has been discovered as a fossil specimen.
C. No geographical area ever supports more than three similar species at the same time.
D. In many species, individuals display quite marked variation.
E. Differences between fossil specimens of triceratops that came from the same area are no less distinctive than differences between specimens that came from different areas.