16. Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the industry representative's position against the environmentalist's position?
(A) Recently a double-hulled tanker2 loaded with oil was punctured3 when it ran aground, but no oil was released.
(B) Proposed government regulation would mandate4 the creation of regional response teams within the Coast Guard to respond to oil spills and coordinate5 cleanup activities.
(C) Proposed legislation requires that new tankers6 have double hulls7 but that existing tankers either be refitted with double hulls in the next 20 years or else be retired8.
(D) Fumes9 can become trapped between the two hull1 layers of double-hulled tankers, and the risk of explosions chat could rupture10 the tankers hull is thereby11 increased.
(E) From now on, the oil industry will be required by recent legislation to finance a newly established oil-spill cleanup fund.
17. Biographer: Arnold's belief that every offer of assistance on the part of his colleagues was a disguised attempt to make him look inadequate12 and that no expression of congratulations on his promotion13 should be taken at face value may seem irrational14, in fact, this belief was a consequence of his early experiences with an admired older sister who always made fun of his ambitions and achievements. In light of this explanation, therefore, Arnold's stubborn belief that his colleagues were duplicitous emerges as clearly justified15.
The flawed reasoning in the biographer's argument is most similar to that in which one of the following?
(A) The fact that top executives generally have much larger vocabularies than do their subordinates explains why Sheldon's belief, instilled16 in him during his childhood, that developing a large vocabulary is the way to gel to the top in the world of business is completely justified.
(B) Emily suspected that apples are unhealthy ever since she almost choked to death while eating an apple when she was a child. Now, evidence that apples treated with certain pesticides17 can be health hazards shows that Emily's long-held belief is fully18 justified.
(C) As a child. Joan was severely19 punished whenever she played with her father's prize Siamese cat. Therefore, since this information makes her present belief that cats are not good pets completely understandable, that belief is justified.
(D) Studies show that when usually well-behaved children become irritable20, they often exhibit symptoms of viral infections the next day. The suspicion, still held by many adults, that misbehavior must always be paid for is thus both explained and justified.
(E) Sumayia's father and mother were both concert pianists, and as a child. Sumayia knew several other people trying to make careers as musicians. Thus Sumayia's opinion that her friend Anthony lacks the drive to be a successful pianist is undoubtedly21 justified.
18. The television documentary went beyond the save-the-wildlife pieties22 of some of those remote from East Africa and showed that in a country pressed for food, the elephant is a pest, and an intelligent pest at that. There appears to be no way to protect East African farms from the voracious23 foraging24 of night-raiding elephant herds25. Clearly this example illustrates26 that ______
Which one of the following most logically completes the paragraph?
(A) the preservation27 of wildlife may endanger human welfare
(B) it is time to remove elephants from the list of endangered species
(C) television documentaries are incapable28 of doing more than reiterating29 accepted pieties
(D) farmers and agricultural agents should work closely with wildlife conservationists before taking measures to control elephants
(E) it is unfair that people in any country should have to endure food shortages
Questions 19-20
Oxygen.18 is a heavier-than-normal isotope30 of oxygen. In a rain cloud, water molecules31 containing oxygen-18 are rarer than water molecules containing normal oxygen. But in rainfall, a higher proportion of all water molecules containing oxygen-18 than of all water molecules containing ordinary oxygen descends32 to earth. Consequently, scientists were surprised when measurements along the entire route of rain clouds' passage from above the Atlantic Ocean, the site of their original formation, across the Amazon forests, where it rains almost daily, showed that the oxygen-18 content of each of the clouds remained fairly constant.
19. Which one of the following statements, if true, best helps to resolve the conflict between scientists' expectations, based on the known behavior of oxygen-18, and the result of their measurements of the rain clouds' oxygen-IS content?
(A) Rain clouds above tropical forests are poorer in oxygen-18 than rain clouds above unforested regions.
(B) Like the oceans, tropical rain forests can create or replenish33 rain clouds in the atmosphere above them.
(C) The amount of rainfall over the Amazon rain forests is exactly the same as the amount of rain originally collected in the clouds formed above the Atlantic Ocean.
(D) The amount of rain recycled back into the atmosphere from the leaves of forest vegetation is exactly the same as the amount of ram34 in river runoffs that is not recycled into the atmosphere.
(E) Oxygen-18 is not a good indicator35 of the effect of tropical rain forests on the atmosphere above them.
20. Which one of the following inferences about an individual rain cloud is supported by the passage?
(A) Once it is formed Over the Atlantic, the rain cloud contains more ordinary oxygen than oxygen-18.
(B) Once it has passed over the Amazon, the rain cloud contains a greater-than-normal percentage of oxygen-18.
(C) The clouds rainfall contains more oxygen-18 than ordinary oxygen.
(D) During a rainfall, the cloud must surrender the same percentage of its ordinary oxygen as of its oxygen-18.
(E) During a rainfall, the cloud must surrender more of its oxygen-l8 than it retains