That future teachers do not always select the most rigorous preparation programs cannot truly be said that they are at fault: The National Council on Teacher Quality, a think tank that advocates for higher standards for classroom teachers, only began publishing comprehensive program rankings in 2013.

Society recognizes the accomplishments of exceptional individuals, whether in music, art, or science. It is generally believed that these individuals owe their success to an innate level of genius. However, studies reveal that most of those who perform at an expert level have followed strict regimens of deliberate practice beginning in childhood. Because by the time these exceptional individuals begin to make their contributions they have often been practicing for a minimum of ten years, the studies indicate that the reason certain individuals become experts is not inborn talent, but rather because they have dedicated extensive amounts of time to rehearsing and sharpening their skills.

In the argument given, the two sections in boldface play which of the following roles?

Commuter: I often listen to the radio, and observe that the quality of music played on 1980s flashback programs is generally higher than that of pop music from today’s era. It must be the case that musicians in the ‘80s possessed more creativity, technical skill, and passion than those performing today.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the critic’s argument?

Although real estate values in the rural village of Cornville have dropped because of the new unavailability of medical facilities, prices will not stay low for long. In the five years since the closure of a hospital in the city of Scoville, property values have gradually returned to the levels they held before the closure of the hospital.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

Guidebook author: The castle at Aines, France, was constructed in the sixteenth century, and was recently restored. The preservation spokesperson has affirmed that the landscaping almost exactly replicates the type of garden that would have been common in the sixteenth century. Although the style of the landscape artist who designed the garden is very similar to that of the modern landscape artist Nomura Tekkan, Tekkan’s own style is directly inspired by traditional sixteenth-century French landscaping.

The evidence given would best serve to support an argument that

Trowbridge Corporation has recently switched from storing data on local servers to storing data on the cloud. Now it remains to be seen whether the switch will save Trowbridge Corporation money. It is certain that it will, because it is far more expensive to house and maintain data storage hardware than it is to sign up for cloud-based data storage and pay per annual user, given that the amount of data being stored remains roughly the same.

In the argument above, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?

A major retail clothing chain hopes to improve its earnings with heavy promotion of their logo-branded merchandise during the holiday season. The promotion costs will decrease its profit margin in the short term, but because the brand has high status appeal the corporate office believes that customers will want to show off their affiliation. Over the long term, the chain anticipates that the new buyers drawn by the promotion will become repeat customers.

In evaluating the plan’s chances of success, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

The foundation of game theory maintains that the outcomes of behavioral relations between individuals can be predicted by calculations and will be ever more reliably modeled as study of the field continues.

According to the passage, if the researchers had NOT known that Mayan city dwellers were typically buried near their homes the researchers would have concluded that

Realtors and advocates for responsible housing policies declare that the real estate market may require more regulation than used to be thought comfortable.

People all over the world cultivate plants for food and for sale, but a surprising consequence of selective breeding has been the alteration of fruits and vegetables, and, after many generations, they are changed significantly in taste and appearance.

Uncomfortable with parsing the enormous quantities of data aggregated through their new collection methods, actuaries are assisting many of the organizations who employ them to analyze information that would have been previously difficult to handle.

The signatories of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) agreed to limit trade restrictions between nations party to the treaty, but certain signatories have lately indicated that they will suspend all tariffs in the near future, but only if nations who are not party to NAFTA, including Russia, China, and Germany, were to reduce the impact of particular non-competitive trade policies.

Law enforcement experts expect that citizens will be similarly likely to neglect the new law as the previous one.

Despite the near-total eradication of the formerly commonplace measles, it is so devastating that even minor outbreaks have become a historic health crisis for afflicted areas.

Because Johnson’s research is unreliable, any perceived relationship of the consuming of coconut oil and living longer is entirely unpersuasive.

The shockingly widespread distribution of genes throughout the Dacia region can, partially, be interpreted as a consequence of the large-scale migrations in late antiquity that saw Vandals and Visigoths spread across the continent.

Many sectors of the economy are beginning to use technology to automate functions that were previously performed by human workers. As a result, many economists expect that unemployment will increase in these sectors as demand falls for both “skilled” and “unskilled” labor. However, one company that is using automation plans to profit by moving workers whose tasks are becoming automated into customer service, which cannot be performed accurately by machines.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the prediction that the company’s plan will succeed?

Fast food industry representative: Many people blame fast food alone for the rise in obesity in the United States over the past thirty years. Yet clearly, sedentary lifestyles have also played a major role in this trend. In the past thirty years, the number of people who report exercising less than twice a week has risen sharply, and studies show that a sedentary lifestyle is the most accurate predictor of obesity.

In the fast food industry representative’s argument, the portion in boldface plays which of the following roles?

When driving with headlights on at their normal setting, cars equipped with High-Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights emit extremely bright light that far exceeds the amount normally required for driving at night and can temporarily blind other drivers. Because the use of these headlights increases the risk of accidents, legislation is needed to regulate their sale.

Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the argument above?