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People who do regular volunteer work tend to live longer, on average, than people who do not. It has been found that "doing good," a category that certainly includes volunteer work, releases endorphins, the brain`s natural opiates, which induce in people a feeling of well-being. Clearly, there is a connection: Regular releases of endorphins must in some way help to extend people`s lives.Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the force of the evidence given as support for the hypothesis that endorphins promote longevity?
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A study compared a sample of Swedish people older than 75 who needed in-home assistance with a similar sample of Israel people. The people in the two samples received both informal assistance, provided by family and friends, and formal assistance, professionally provided. Although Sweden and Israel have equally well-funded and comprehensive systems for providing formal assistance, the study found that the people in the Swedish sample received more formal assistance, on average, than those in the Israeli sample.
Which of the following, if true, does most to explain the difference that the study?
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Film Director: It is true that certain characters and plot twists in my newly released film The Big Heist are similar to characters and plot twists in Thieves, a movie that came out last year. Pointing to these similarities, the film studio that produced Thieves is now accusing me of taking ideas from that film. The accusation is clearly without merit. All production work on The Big Heist was actually completed months before Thieves was released.
Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the directors position?
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In Mernia commercial fossil hunters often sell important fossils they have found, not to universities or museums, but to individual collectors, who pay much better but generally do not allow researchers access to their collections. To increase the number of fossils available for research, some legislators propose requiring all fossils that are found in Mernia to be sold only to universities or museums.Which of the following, if true, most strongly indicates that the legislators' proposal will fail to achieve its goal?
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Economist: Tropicorp, which constantly seeks profitable investment opportunities, has been buying and clearing sections of tropical forest for cattle ranching, although pastures newly created there become useless for grazing after just a few years. The company has not gone into rubber tapping, even though greater profits can be made from rubber tapping, which leaves the forest intact. Thus, some environmentalists argue that Tropicorp`s actions do not serve even its own economic interest. However, the initial investment required for a successful rubber-tapping operation is larger than that needed for a cattle ranch; there is a shortage of workers employable in rubber-tapping operations;and taxes are higher on profits from rubber tapping than on profits from cattle ranching.
Consequently, the environmentalists` conclusion is probably wrong.
In the economist`s argument, the two boldface portions play which of the following roles?
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Marketing executive for Magu Corporation: Whenever Magu opens a manufacturing facility in a new city, the company should sponsor, or make donations to, a number of nonprofit organizations in that city. Doing so would improve Magu's image in the community, and thus the money spent on such charitable ventures would lead to increased sales.
Which statement would, if true, point to the most serious weakness in the marketing executive's advice?
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Although the school would receive financial benefits if it had soft drink vending machines in the cafeteria, we should not allow them. Allowing soft drink machines there would not be in our students` interest. If our students start drinking more soft drinks, they will be less healthy.The argument depends on which of the following?
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Many athletes inhale pure oxygen after exercise in an attempt to increase muscular reabsorption of oxygen. Measured continuously after exercise, however, the blood lactate levels of athletes who inhale pure oxygen are practically identical, on average, to those of athletes who breathe normal air. The lower the blood lactate level is, the higher the muscular reabsorption of oxygen is.If the statements above are all true, they most strongly support which of the following conclusions?
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Historian: Fifteenth-century advances in mapmaking contributed to the rise of modern nation-states. In medieval Europe (from the fifth to the fifteenth century), sovereignty centered in cities and towns and radiated outward, with boundaries often ambiguously defined. The conceptual shift toward the modern state began in the late fifteenth century, when mapmakers learned to reflect geography accurately by basing maps on latitude-longitude grids. By the midseventeenth century, nearly all maps showed boundary lines.
Which of the following would, if true, most strengthen the historian's reasoning?
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Sascha: The attempt to ban parliament's right to pass directed-spending bills-bills that contain provisions specifically funding the favorite projects of some powerful politicians-is antidemocratic. Our nation's constitution requires that money be drawn from our treasury only when so stipulated by laws passed by parliament, the branch of government most directly representative of the citizens. This requirement is based on the belief that exercising the power to spend public resources involves the ultimate exercise of state authority and that therefore _________.
Which of the following most logically completes Sascha's argument?
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Boreal owls range over a much larger area than do other owls of similar size. Scientists have hypothesized that it is scarcity of prey that leads the owls to range so widely. This hypothesis would be hard to confirm directly, since it is not possible to produce a sufficiently accurate count of the populations of small mammals inhabiting the forests where boreal owls live. Careful study of owl behavior has, however, shown that boreal owls do range over larger areas when they live in regions where food of the sort eaten by small mammals is comparatively sparse. This indicates that the scientists` hypothesis is not sheer speculation.
In the argument given, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?
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Cognitive scientist: Using the pioneering work of comparative psychologist Gordon Gallup as a model, several studies have investigated animals' capacityfor mirror self-recognition (MSR). Most animals exposed to a mirror respond only with social behavior, such as aggression. However, in the case of the great apes, repeated exposure to mirrors leads to self-directed behaviors, such as exploring the inside of the mouth, suggesting that these animals recognize thereflection as an image of self. The implication of these studies is that the great apes have a capacity for self-awareness unique among nonhuman species.
The cognitive scientist makes which of the following assumptions in the argument above?
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Last year a record number of new manufacturing jobs were created. Will this year bring another record? Well, any new manufacturing job is created either within an existing company or by the start-up of a new company. Within existing firms, new jobs have been created this year at well below last year`s record pace. At the same time, there is considerable evidence that the number of new companies starting up will be no higher this year than it was last year and there is no reason to think that the new companies starting up this year will create more jobs per company than did last year`s start-ups. So clearly, the number of new jobs created this year will fall short of last year`s record.
In the argument given, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
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A study of ticket sales at a summer theater festival found that people who bought tickets to individual plays had a no-show rate of less than 1 percent, while those who paid in advance for all ten plays being performed that summer had a no-show rate of nearly 30 percent. This may be at least in part because the greater the awareness customers retain about the cost of an item, the more likely they are to use it.Which of the following would, if true, best serve as an alternative explanation of the results of the study?
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Although there is no record of poet Edmund Spenser`s parentage, we do know that as a youth Spenser attended the Merchant Tailors` School in London for a period between 1560 and 1570. Records from this time indicate that the Merchant Tailors` Guild then had only three members named Spenser: Robert Spenser, listed as a gentleman; Nicholas Spenser, elected the Guild`s Warden in 1568; and John Spenser, listed as a "journeyman cloth-maker." Of these, the last was likely the least affluent of the three-and most likely Edmund`s father, since school accounting records list Edmund as a scholar who attended the school at a reduced fee.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
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Hea Sook: One should not readily believe urban legends. Most legends are propagated because the moral lesson underlying them supports a political agenda. People will repeat a tale if it fits their purpose. They may not deliberately spread untruths, but neither are they particularly motivated to investigate deeply to determine if the tale they are telling is true.
Kayla: But people would not repeat stories that they did not believe were true. Therefore, one can safely assume that if a story has been repeated by enough people then it is more likely to be true.
Kayla's reply is most vulnerable to the criticism that it
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Rainwater contains hydrogen of a heavy form called deuterium. The deuterium content of wood reflects the deuterium content of rainwater available to trees during their growth. Wood from trees that grew between 16,000 and 24,000 years ago in North America contains significantly more deuterium than wood trees growing today. But water trapped in several North American caves that formed during that same early period contains significantly less deuterium than rainwater in North America today.Which of the following, if true, most helps to reconcile the two findings?
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Enforcement of local speed limits through police monitoring has proven unsuccessful in the town of Ardane. In many nearby towns, speed humps (raised areas of pavement placed across residential streets, about 300 feet apart) have reduced traffic speeds on residential streets by 20 to 25 percent. In order to reduce traffic speed and thereby enhance safety residential neighborhoods, Ardane's transportation commission plans to install multiple speed humps in those neighborhoods.
Which of the following, if true, identifies a potentially serious drawback to the plan for installing speed humps in Ardane?
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Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?NowNews, although still the most popular magazine covering cultural events in Kalopolis, has recently suffered a significant drop in advertising revenue because of falling circulation. Many readers have begun buying a competing magazine that, at 50 cents per copy, costs less than NowNews at $1.50 per copy. In order to boost circulation and thus increase advertising revenue, NowNews`s publisher has proposed making it available at no charge, but this proposal has a serious drawback, since ________.
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Archaeologist: Researchers excavating a burial site in Cyprus found a feline skeleton lying near a human skeleton. Both skeletons were in the same sediment at the same depth and equally well-preserved, suggesting that the feline and human were buried together about 9,500 years ago. This shows that felines were domesticated around the time farming began, when they would have been useful in protecting stores of grain from mice.Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the archaeologist`s argument?
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