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GMAT - Critical Reasoning - Test 37

in Critical Reasoning

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

1. In 1986, the city of Los Diablos had 20 days on which air pollution reached unhealthful amounts and a smog alert was put into effect. In early 1987, new air pollution control measures were enacted, but the city had smog alerts on 31 days that year and on 39 days the following year. In 1989, however, the number of smog alerts in Los Diablos dropped to sixteen. The main air pollutants in Los Diablos are ozone and carbon monoxide, and since 1986 the levels of both have been monitored by gas spectrography . Which of the following statements, assuming that each is true, would be LEAST helpful in explaining the air pollution levels in Los Diablos between 1986 and 1989?

A. The 1987 air pollution control measures enacted in Los Diablos were put into effect in November of 1988.
B. In December of 1988 a new and far more accurate gas spectrometer was invented.
C. In February of 1989, the Pollution Control Board of Los Diablos revised the scale used to determine the amount of air pollution considered unhealthful.
D. In 1988 the mayor of Los Diablos was found to have accepted large campaign donations from local industries and to have exempted those same industries from air pollution control measures.
E. Excess ozone and carbon monoxide require a minimum of two years to break down naturally in the atmosphere above a given area.

2. A newly discovered disease is thought to be caused by a certain bacterium. However, recently released data notes that the bacterium thrives in the presence of a certain virus, implying that it is actually the virus that causes the new disease. Which of the following pieces of evidence would most support the data's implication?

A. In the absence of the virus, the disease has been observed to follow infection by the bacterium.
B. The virus has been shown to aid the growth of bacterium, a process which often leads to the onset of the disease.
C. The virus alone has been observed in many cases of the disease.
D. In cases where the disease does not develop, infection by the bacterium is usually preceded by infection by the virus.
E. Onset of the disease usually follows infection by both the virus and the bacterium.

3. A year after the start an experiment to decrease crime in two high-crime subway stations by the installation of closed-circuit televisions, the experiment is being discontinued, city officials say the program has led to an increase in crime, citing the fact that following the installation, both stations showed increases in the number of crimes reported. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the claim of the city officials that the program has led to an increase in crime?

A. The two subway stations had been chosen on the basis subway stations was higher than that of other high-crime subway stations not equipped with closed-circuit-television.
B. The rate of increase in crimes reported for two subway stations was higher than that of other high-crime subway stations not equipped with closed-circuit television.
C. The percentage of all crimes committed at the two subway stations that were reported rose as a result of increased instances of observations of crime on the closed-circuit televisions.
D. The year in which the experiment was conducted was a year in which the total number of crimes reported in the city fell.
E. Closed-circuit televisions installed in shops and stores throughout the city have proved to be useful in the prevention of shoplifting and burglaries.

4. Y has been believed to cause Z. A new report, noting that Y and Z are often observed to be preceded by X, suggests that X, not Y, may be the cause of Z. Which of the following further observations would best support the new report's suggestion?

A. In cases where X occurs but Y does not, X is usually followed by Z.
B. In cases where X occurs, followed by Y, Y is usually followed by Z.
C. In cases where Y occurs but X does not, Y is usually followed by Z.
D. In cases where Y occurs but Z does not, Y is usually preceded by X.
E. In cases where Z occurs, it is usually preceded by X and Y.

5. Six months or so after getting a video recorder, many early buyers apparently lost interest in obtaining videos to watch on it. The trade of businesses selling and renting videos is still buoyant, because the number of homes with video recorders is still growing. But clearly, once the market for video recorders is saturated, businesses distributing videos face hard times. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion above?

A. The market for video recorders would not be considered saturated until there was one in 80 percent of homes.
B. Among the items handled by video distributors are many films specifically produced as video features.
C. Few of the early buyers of video recorders raised any complaints about performance aspects of the new product.
D. The early buyers of a novel product are always people who are quick to acquire novelties, but also often as quick to tire of them.
E. In a shrinking market, competition always intensifies and marginal businesses fail.

6. A program instituted in a particular state allows parents to prepay their children's future college tuition at current rates. The program then pays the tuition annually for the child at any of the state's public colleges in which the child enrolls. Parents should participate in the program as a means of decreasing the cost for their children's college education. Which of the following, if true, is the most appropriate reason for parents not to participate in the program?

A. The parents are unsure about which pubic college in the state the child will attend.
B. The amount of money accumulated by putting the prepayment funds in an interest-bearing account today will be greater than the total cost of tuition for any of the pubic colleges when the child enrolls.
C. The annual cost of tuition at the state's pubic colleges is expected to increase at a faster rate than the annual increase in the cost of living.
D. Some of the state's public colleges are contemplating large increases in tuition next year.
E. The prepayment plan would not cover the cost of room and board at any of the state's public colleges.

7. Small-business groups are lobbying to defeat proposed federal legislation that would substantially raise the federal minimum wage. This opposition is surprising since the legislation they oppose would, for the first time, exempt all small businesses from paying any minimum wage. Which of the following, if true, would best explain the opposition of small-business groups to the proposed legislation?

A. Under the current federal minimum-wage law, most small businesses are required to pay no less than the minimum wage to their employees.
B. In order to attract workers, small companies must match the wages offered by their larger competitors, and these competitors would not be exempt under the proposed laws.
C. The exact number of companies that are currently required to pay no less than the minimum wage but that would be exempt under the proposed laws is unknown.
D. Some states have set their own minimum wages?in some cases, quite a bit above the level of the minimum wage mandated by current federal law?for certain key industries.
E. Service companies make up the majority of small businesses and they generally employ more employees per dollar of revenues than do retail or manufacturing businesses.

8. The amount of time it takes for most of a worker's occupational knowledge and skills to become obsolete has been declining because of the introduction of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). Given the rate at which AMT is currently being introduced in manufacturing, the average worker's old skills become obsolete and new skills are required within as little as five years. Which of the following plans, if feasible, would allow a company to prepare most effectively for the rapid obsolescence of skills described above?

A. The company will develop a program to offer selected employees the opportunity to receive training six years after they were originally hired.
B. The company will increase its investment in AMT every year for a period of at least five years.
C. The company will periodically survey its employees to determine how the introduction of AMT has affected them.
D. Before the introduction of AMT, the company will institute an educational program to inform its employees of the probable consequences of the introduction of AMT.
E. The company will ensure that it can offer its employees any training necessary for meeting their job requirements.

9. Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my division with Vitech computers. General manager: Why? Division manager: It costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech . General manager: But that is not a good enough reason. We can simply hire only people who already know how to use the Microton computer. Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the general manager's objection to the replacement of Microton computers with Vitechs ?

A. Currently all employees in the company are required to attend workshops on how to use Microton computers in new applications.
B. Once employees learn how to use a computer, they tend to change employers more readily than before.
C. Experienced users of Microton computers command much higher salaries than do prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers.
D. The average productivity of employees in the general manager's company is below the average productivity of the employees of its competitors.
E. The high costs of replacement parts make Vitech computers more expensive to maintain than Microton computers.

10. Damaged nerves in the spinal cord do not regenerate themselves naturally, nor even under the spur of nerve-growth stimulants. The reason, recently discovered, is the presence of nerve-growth inhibitors in the spinal cord. Antibodies that deactivate those inhibitors have now been developed. Clearly, then, nerve repair will be a standard medical procedure in the foreseeable future. Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the accuracy of the prediction above?

A. Prevention of the regeneration of damaged nerves is merely a by-product of the main function in the human body of the substances inhibiting nerve growth.
B. Certain nerve-growth stimulants have similar chemical structures to those of the antibodies against nerve-growth inhibitors.
C. Nerves in the brain are similar to nerves in the spinal cord in their inability to regenerate themselves naturally.
D. Researchers have been able to stimulate the growth of nerves not located in the spinal cord by using only nerve-growth stimulants.
E. Deactivating the substances inhibiting nerve growth for an extended period would require a steady supply of antibodies.