Though looking less distinctive than many of their highly sought-after purebred counterparts, mixed-breed dogs, born from genetically disparate parents—they usually display various physical characteristics from each parent—often they are healthier and thus increasingly popular.

A certain car travels 18 miles per gallon of gas on city streets and 30 miles per gallon of gas on the highway. Damaris drives the car to work during the week and travels on city streets and on the highway. She drives the car on the highway more miles than she drives on city streets. How many miles does Damaris drive to work on the highway?

(1) Damaris drives a total of 26 miles to work.

(2) The car Damaris drives uses 1 gallon of gas to get to work.

Some individuals have an allergic sensitivity to certain proteins, some of which are found in the rubber most often used to make surgical gloves. However, because Manufacturer X does not use those types of rubber in its gloves, individuals who need to use surgical gloves but are allergic to those proteins can use the gloves made by Manufacturer X without risking an allergic reaction.

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

Nabil: Ongoing implementation of the city’s new directive regarding the updating of transit infrastructure to comply with recent environmental guidelines will cost the department of transportation $10 million annually. As a result, other services will be cut and deficits will increase. Therefore, this directive will significantly reduce the city’s operating budget. Natasha: The $10 million will be partially recouped by a rate increase for use of the city’s public transit services. While costs will rise, revenue will also increase.

Natasha responds to Nabil by

The multiple chambers of a cow’s stomach exist to process nutrition from high-fiber plant matter. This process is only necessary because this plant matter is difficult to digest. Therefore, paleontologists’ discovery that the three-toed dinosaur Rumindolus possessed similar multi-chambered stomachs evidences the theory that Rumindolus fed on similarly difficult-to-digest vegetation.

In the passage, the author develops the argument by

Nepenthes lowii, a pitcher plant in southeast Asia, primarily relies on insects as a source of food, but in winter, as the insect population declines, it has to supplement its diet by digesting the droppings of a species of tree shrew. Droppings, however, are not reliably available in the plant’s habitat, and Nepenthes lowii requires substantial amounts of these in order to survive the season. One possible explanation is that tree shrew droppings contain significantly more nutrients and amino acids than the insects the plant typically consumes.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation given for the plant’s winter diet?

Political correspondent: The theory of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) dictates that any country threatened by another country armed with nuclear weapons should then arm itself with nuclear weapons as a deterrent to that other country’s nuclear attack. If every country were to adopt this policy, no country would be without nuclear arms.

The political correspondent’s argument relies on which of the following assumptions?

In municipalities where home insurance delivers compensation for property destruction resulting from damage caused by natural events such as tornadoes or hurricanes (known as “acts of god”), reports of incurring such losses are a little more than three times as common as they are in municipalities where “acts of god” are not compensated. At the moment, there is no definitive way to measure whether a given event is an “act of god.” Regardless, it would be unreasonable to say, like many commentators, that in municipalities where increased numbers of “acts of god” are being reported, more than half of the reported instances are falsified. Obviously, in municipalities where home insurance does not offer compensation for property loss as a result of “acts of god,” homeowners have little reason to report “acts of god” from which they have suffered and are not helped to recover in any official capacity.

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

Although the earliest records we have of Arabic sources using the numeral zero date back to 773 C.E., the fact that the Arabic civilization had been performing advanced mathematical operations for a century before that indicates that they understood the concept of numerical zero long before they ever put it in writing. After all, Indians and Babylonians had both developed the concept independently before then, and the Arabic people could reasonably be expected to have acquired similar concepts. And although there is a dearth of writing indicating the exchange, by the 6th century C.E. Arabs had been in close contact with Indian civilization for a prolonged period.

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

Prolonged exposure to exceptionally violent or chaotic circumstances can cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in some individuals. Psychiatrists in Virginia indicate that the proportion of patients coming to them for treatment of symptoms related to PTSD has increased enormously over the previous five years. Thus, either Virginia has become a much more violent and chaotic place over the last five years or individuals are more sensitive to violence and chaos than they were five years ago.

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

Previously, the nation of Diaturna made heavy use of imported iron in its steel foundries. Recently, Diaturna adopted legislation that would shift its industrial emphasis from the production of steel to the production of aluminum, which does not require iron. At present, Diaturna harvests more aluminum ore than it uses for industrial purposes, and iron procurement from Diaturnan mines is increasing at a predictable rate. If this shift in mining and production continues, therefore, Diaturnan dependence on foreign countries for metal production will soon decline.

Which of the following would it be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?

Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

Lumber companies produce about the same amount of wood every year and charge a premium for their product when construction is in its peak season, but they have to charge less during periods when the construction industry is experiencing a lull. Thus, in periods when little new construction is happening, companies keep a portion of their product in factory warehouses, hoping to sell for a better price at a later point. The rate of construction this year was the highest in a decade. Nevertheless, it is possible that a part of the most recent production run will be warehoused, because _______.

Last spring, a chili pepper garden was opened on a campground in an area with a significant raccoon population. Since raccoons are attracted to the remnants of human food, campgrounds would usually attract raccoons, yet no raccoon encounters were reported by campers. Capsaicin, a chemical present in most chili peppers, is used in sprays engineered to repel raccoons, so it is reasonable to think that the capsaicin in the chili pepper garden kept the raccoons at bay.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

The EPA released a report on Wednesday indicating that increasing incidence of algal blooms in a lake close to Eleusis is linked to fertilizer washed into the water from nearby farms after periods of heavy rain. To prevent reoccurrence of the blooms, the agency implemented regulations that will go into effect in two years mandating the use of another fertilizer shown not to cause algal blooms if introduced into water sources.

Though area farmers anticipate making the switch within one year, the agency does not expect that the incidence of algal blooms will decline before its regulations take effect, because _______.

Community representative: Paper bags are substantially less expensive than plastic bags. And plastic is not biodegradable, which means that using plastic bags clutters up landfills and pollutes the environment. Customers can preserve the environment by making exclusive use of paper bags, and we can encourage them to do so by informing them that this is the case. Thus, we can save money on shopping bags by drawing attention to this advantage paper bags have over plastic.

Which of the following, if true, would most indicate a vulnerability of the community representative’s argument?

Many companies in the software industry are known for maintaining stressful, highly competitive work environments, often driving overworked employees to quit or to burn out. MuaDiB Softworks, however, is widely known for easing employees’ workplace stress through its pleasant office environment. MuaDiB attributes this reputation to its preference for traditional, enclosed offices over the open office layouts in vogue among other software companies.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports MuaDiB’s explanation of its reputation for easing employees’ workplace stress?

The two-week hunting trip undertaken by twelve-year-old Inuit boys on North Baffin Island is not necessary to the community’s survival, but they are still considered important rites of passage by the Inuits, who have extended the tradition to include young girls.

Eager to hire the financial analyst with such impressive credentials, it was planned by the hiring manager to offer him a large signing bonus.

Over the past decade, the average number of seats added to a manufacturer’s most popular model of jet was greater than what the jet manufacturing industry average did for this period, but their seat width and legroom area shrank faster than other manufacturers.

Laws making it more difficult to discharge debt can reduce the rates of bankruptcy. However, because some debtors have no recourse but to file for bankruptcy, those laws should only apply in circumstances where discharging debt is unnecessary. In fact, the only individuals who should be subject to those laws are those for whom declaring bankruptcy would be a form of fraud.

Which of the following conclusions could be most properly drawn from the information given above?