Time—35 minutes

24 Questions

Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages. For some questions more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. However you are to choose the best answer that is me response that most accurately¹ and completely answers the question. You should not make assumptions that are bycommonsense standards implausible superfluous² or incompatible³ with the passage. After you have chosen the best answer blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.

1. Director of Ace⁴ Manufacturing Company: Our management consultant⁵ proposes that we reassign staff so that all employees are doing both what they like to do and what they do well. This, she says, will "increase productivity by fully⁶ exploiting our available resources." But Ace Manufacturing has a long-standing commitment not to exploit its workers. Therefore, implementing⁷ her recommendations would cause us to violate our own policy.

The director's argument for rejecting the management consultant's proposal is most vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds?

(A) failing to distinguish two distinct senses of a key term
(B) attempting to defend an action on the ground that it is frequently carried out
(C) defining a term by pointing to an atypical example of something to which the term applies
(D) drawing a conclusion that simply restates one of the premises⁸ of the argument
(E) calling something by a less offensive term than the term that is usually used to name that thing

2. A large number of drivers routinely violate highway speed limits. Since driving at speeds that exceed posted limits is a significant factor in most accidents, installing devices in all cars that prevent those cars from traveling faster than the speed limit would prevent most accidents.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) A person need not be a trained mechanic to install the device properly.
(B) Most accidents are caused by inexperienced drivers.
(C) A driver seldom needs to exceed the speed limit to avoid an accident when none of the other drivers involved are violating the speed limit.
(D) Most drivers who exceed the speed limit do so unintentionally.
(E) Even if the fines for speed-limit violations⁹ were increased, the number of such violations would still not be reduced.

3. In a recession, a decrease in consumer spending causes many businesses to lay off workers or even to close, Workers who lose their jobs in a recession usually cannot find new jobs. The result is an increase in the number of people who are jobless. Recovery from a recession is defined by an increase in consumer spending and an expansion of business activity that creates a need for additional workers. But businesspeople generally have little confidence in the econnomy after a recession and therefore delay hiring additional workers as long as possible.

The statements above, if true, provide most support for which one of the following conclusions?

(A) Recessions are usually caused by a decrease in businesspeople's confidence in the economy.
(B) Governmental intervention¹⁰ is required in order for an economy to recover from a recession.
(C) Employees of businesses that close during a recession make up the majority of the workers who lose their jobs during that recession.
(D) Sometimes recovery from a recession does not promptly¹¹ result in a decrease in the number of people who are jobless.
(E) Workers who lose their jobs during a recession are likely to get equally good jobs when the economy recovers.

4. Scientists analyzine air bubbles that had been trapped in Antarctic ice during the Earth's last ice age found that the ice-age atmosphere had contained unusually large amounts of ferrous material and surprisingly small amounts of carbon dioxide. One scientist noted¹² that alage absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The scientist hypothesized that the ferrous material, which was contained in atmospheric¹³ dust, had promoted a great increase in the population of Antarctic algae¹⁴ such as diatoms.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously undermine the scientist's hypothesis?

(A) Diatoms are a microscopie form of algae that has remained largely unchanged since the last ice age.
(B) Computer mosels suggest that a large increase in ferrous material today could greatly promote the growth of oceanic alage.
(C) The dust found in the air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice contained other minerais in addition to the ferrous material.
(D) Sediment¹⁵ from the ocean floor near Antarctica refiects no increas, during the last ice age, in the rate at which the shells that diatoms leave when they die accumulated.
(E) Alage that currently grow in the oceans near Antarctica do not appear to be harmed by even a large increase in exposure to ferrous material.

5. Adults who work outside the home spend, on average, 100 minutes less time each week in preparing dinner than adults who do not work outside the home. But, contrary to expectation, comparisons show that the dinners eaten at home by the two groups of adults do not differ significantly with respect to nutritional¹⁶ value, variety of menus, or number of courses.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy¹⁷ in the information above?

(A) The fat content of the dinners eaten at home by adults who do not work outside the home is 25 percent higher than national guidelines recommend
(B) Adults who do not work outside the home tend to prepare breakfast more often than adults who work outside the home.
(C) Adults who work outside the home spend 2 hours less time per day on all household responsibilities, including dinner preparation, than do adults who do not work outside the home.
(D) Adults who work outside the home eat dinner at do home 20 percent less often than do adults who not work outside the home.
(E) Adults who work outside the home are less likely to plan dinner menus well in advance than are adults who do not work outside the home.

6. Legislator: Your agency is responsible for regulating an industry shaken by severe scandals. You were given funds to hire 500 investigators¹⁸ to examine the scandals, but you hired no more than 400. I am forced to conclude that you purposely limited hiring in an attempt to prevent the full extent of the scandals from being revealed.

Regulator: We tried to hire the 500 investigators but the starting salaries for these positions had been frozen so low by the legislature that it was impossible to attract enough qualified¹⁹ applicants²⁰.

The regulator responds to the legislator's criticism by

(A) shifting the blame for the scandals to the legislature
(B) providing information that challenges the conclusion drawn²¹ by the legislator
(C) claiming that compliance²² with the legislature's mandate²³ would have been an insufficient²⁴ response
(D) repharasing the legislator's conclusion in terms more favorable to the regulator
(E) showing that the legislator's statements are self-contradictory.

7. A commonly accepted myth is that left-handed people are more prone²⁵ to cause accidents than are right-handed people. But this is, in fact, just a myth, as is indicated by the fact that more household accidents are caused by right-handed people than are caused by left-handed people.

The reasoning is flawed because the argument.

(A) makes a distinction where there is no real difference between the things distinguished
(B) takes no account of the relative frequency of left-handed people in the population as a whole
(C) uses the word "accidents" in two different senses
(D) ignores the possibility that some hosehold accidents are caused by more than one person
(E) gives wholly irrelevant²⁶ evidence and simply disparages²⁷ an opposing position by calling it a "myth".