|
OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
The difference in average annual income in favor of employees who have college degrees, compared with those who do not have such degrees, doubled between 1980 and 1990. Some analysts have hypothesized that increased competition between employers for employees with college degrees drove up income for such employees.Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the explanation described above?
|
|
OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Proposed new safety rules for the Beach City airport would lengthen considerably the minimum time between takeoffs from the airport. In consequence, the airport would be able to accommodate 10 percent fewer flights than currently use the airport daily. The city`s operating budget depends heavily on taxes generated by tourist spending, and most of the tourists come by plane. Therefore, the proposed new safety rules, if adopted, will reduce the revenue available for the operating budget.The argument depends on assuming which of the following?
|
|
OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
The introduction of the new drugs into the market is frequently prevented by a shortage of human subjects for the clinical trials needed to show that the drugs are safe and effective. Since the lives and health of people in future generations may depend on treatments that are currently experimental, practicing physicians are morally in the wrong when, in the absence of any treatment proven to be effective, they fail to encourage suitable patients to volunteer for clinical trials.Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the conclusion of the argument?
|
|
OG17 OG15 OG16 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
As a construction material, bamboo is as strong as steel and sturdier than concrete. Moreover, in tropical areas bamboo is a much less expensive construction material than either steel or concrete and is always readily available. In tropical areas, therefore, building with bamboo makes better economic sense than building with steel or concrete, except where land values are high.Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain exception noted above?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Scientists have modified feed corn genetically, increasing its resistance to insect pests. Farmers who tried out the genetically modified corn last season applied less insecticide to their corn fields and still got yields comparable to those they would have gotten with ordinary corn. Ordinary corn seed, however, costs less, and what these farmers saved on insecticide rarely exceeded their extra costs for seed. Therefore, for most feed-corn farmers, switching to genetically modified seed would be unlikely to increase profits.Which of the following would it be most useful to know in order to evaluate the argument?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17 GWD
|
Community activist: If Morganville wants to keep its central shopping district healthy, it should prevent the opening of a huge SaveAll discount department store on the outskirts of Morganville. Records from other small towns show that whenever SaveAll has opened a store outside the central shopping district of a small town, within five years the town has experienced the bankruptcies of more than a quarter of the stores in the shopping district.The answer to which of the following would be most useful for evaluating the community activist`s reasoning?
|
|
OG15 OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Debater: The average amount of overtime per month worked by an employee in the manufacturing division of the Haglut Corporation is 14 hours. Most employees of the Haglut Corporation work in the manufacturing division. Furthermore, the average amount of overtime per month worked by any employee in the company generally does not fluctuate much from month to month. Therefore, each month, most employees of the Haglut Corporation almost certainly work at least some overtime.The debater's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which of these grounds?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
In the past the country of Malvernia has relied heavily on imported oil. Malvernia recently implemented a program to convert heating systems from oil to natural gas. Malvernia currently produces more natural gas each year than it uses, and oil production in Malvernian oil fields is increasing at a steady pace. If these trends in fuel production and usage continue, therefore, Malvernian reliance on foreign sources for fuel is likely to decline soon.Which of the following would it be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?
|
|
OG15 OG16 OG17 GWD OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Exposure to certain chemicals commonly used in elementary schools as cleaners or pesticides causes allergic reactions in some children. Elementary school nurses in Renston report that the proportion of schoolchildren sent to them for treatment of allergic reactions to those chemicals has increased significantly over the past ten years. Therefore, either Renston's schoolchildren have been exposed to greater quantities of the chemicals, or they are more sensitive to them than schoolchildren were ten years ago.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17
|
Although the earliest surviving Greek inscriptions written in an alphabet date from the eighth century B.C., the fact that the text of these Greek inscriptions sometimes runs from right to left and sometimes from left to right indicates that the Greeks adopted alphabetic writing at least two centuries before these inscriptions were produced. After all, the Greeks learned alphabetic writing from the Phoenicians, and presumably, along with the alphabet, they also adopted the then-current Phoenician practice with respect to the direction of text. And although Phoenician writing was originally inconsistent in direction, by the eighth century B.C. Phoenician was consistently written from right to left and had been for about two centuries.In the argument given, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
|
|
OG15 OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Normally, the pineal gland governs a person's sleep-wake cycle by secreting melatonin in response to the daily cycle of light and darkness as detected by the eye. Nonetheless, many people who are totally blind due to lesions in the visual cortex of the brain easily maintain a 24-hour sleep-wake cycle. So the neural pathway by which the pineal gland receives information from the eye probably does not pass through the visual cortex.For purposes of evaluating the argument it would be useful to establish which of the following?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17 GWD OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
In countries where automobile insurance includes compensation for whiplash injuries sustained in automobile accidents, reports of having suffered such injuries are twice as frequent as they are in countries where whiplash is not covered. Presently, no objective test for whiplash exists, so it is true that spurious reports of whiplash injuries cannot be readily identified. Nevertheless, these facts do not warrant the conclusion drawn by some commentators, that in the countries with the higher rates of reported whiplash injuries, half of the reported cases are spurious. Clearly, in countries where automobile insurance does not include compensation for whiplash, people often have little incentive to report whiplash injuries that they actually have suffered.In the argument given, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?
|
|
OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Last year a global disturbance of weather patterns disrupted harvests in many of the world`s important agricultural areas. Worldwide production of soybeans, an important source of protein for people and livestock alike, was not adversely affected, however. Indeed, last year`s soybean crop was actually slightly larger than average. Nevertheless, the weather phenomenon is probably responsible for a recent increase in the world price of soybeans.Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest justification for the attribution of the increase in soybean prices to the weather phenomenon?
|
|
OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Most of the year, the hermit thrush, a North American songbird, eats a diet consisting mainly of insects, but in autumn, as the thrushes migrate to their Central and South American wintering grounds, they feed almost exclusively on wild berries. Wild berries, however, are not as rich in calories as insects, yet thrushes need to consume plenty of calories in order to complete their migration. One possible explanation is that berries contain other nutrients that thrushes need for migration and that insects lack.Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation given for the thrush`s diet during migration?
|
|
OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
A certain cultivated herb is one of a group of closely related plants that thrive in soil with high concentrations of metals that are toxic to most other plants. Agronomists studying the growth of this herb have discovered that it produces large amounts of histidine, an amino acid that, in test-tube solutions, renders these metals chemically inert. Hence, the herb`s high histidine production must be the key feature that allows it to grow in metal-rich soils.In evaluating the argument, it would be most important to determine which of the following?
|
|
OG12 OG16 OG17 GWD OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Many people suffer an allergic reaction to certain sulfites, including those that are commonly added to wine as preservatives. However, since there are several wine makers who add sulfites to none of the wines they produce, people who would like to drink wine but are allergic to sulfites can drink wines produced by these wine makers without risking an allergic reaction to sulfites.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17
|
Businesses are suffering because of a lack of money available for development loans. To help businesses, the government plans to modify the income-tax structure in order to induce individual taxpayers to put a larger portion of their incomes into retirement savings accounts, because as more money is deposited in such accounts, more money becomes available to borrowers.Which of the following, if true, raises the most serious doubt regarding the effectiveness of the government`s plan to increase the amount of money available for development loans for businesses?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17 OG18 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
A new law gives ownership of patents-documents providing exclusive right to make and sell an invention-to universities, not the government, when those patents result from government-sponsored university research. Administrators at Logos University plan to sell any patents they acquire to corporations in order to fund programs to improve undergraduate teaching.Which of the following, if true, would cast the most doubt on the viability of the college administrators` plan described above?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG16 OG17
|
Environmentalist: The commissioner of the Fish and Game Authority would have the public believe that increases in the number of marine fish caught demonstrate that this resource is no longer endangered. This is a specious argument, as unsound as it would be to assert that the ever-increasing rate at which rain forests are being cut down demonstrates a lack of danger to that resource. The real cause of the increased fish-catch is a greater efficiency in using technologies that deplete resources.The environmentalist`s statements, if true, best support which of the following as a conclusion?
|
|
OG12 OG15 OG18 OG17 OG19 OG20 OG2022
|
Since it has become known that several of a bank's top executives have been buying shares in their own bank, the bank's depositors, who had been worried by rumors that the bank faced impending financial collapse, have been greatly relieved. They reason that, since top executives evidently have faith in the bank`s financial soundness, those worrisome rumors must be false. Such reasoning might well be overoptimistic, however, since corporate executives have been known to buy shares in their own company in a calculated attempt to dispel negative rumors about the company's health.In the argument given, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?
|