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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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Brown tides are growths of algae on the sea's surface that prevent sunlight from reaching marine plants below, thereby destroying not only the plants but also the shellfish that live off these plants. Biologists recently isolated a virus that, when added to seawater, kills the algae that cause brown tides. Adding large quantities of this virus to waters affected by brown tides will therefore make it possible to save the populations of shellfish that inhabit those waters.
Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the conclusion of the argument?
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In persons with astigmatism, the clear outer layer of the eye is deformed in a way that impairs and sometimes distorts vision. The elongated figures in the paintings of El Greco (1541-1614) were so unusual that some critics sought to explain them by hypothesizing that without knowing it, El Greco had an astigmatism that caused everything to appear to him in the distorted way that
was characteristic of his painted figures.
The proposed explanation is most vulnerable to the criticism that it fails to
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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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In the last few years, plant scientists have been able to genetically engineer seeds to produce crops highly resistant to insect damage. Farmers growing crops with these seeds will be able to spend significantly less on pesticides. This cost reduction would more than make up for the higher cost of the genetically engineered seeds. Clearly, therefore, farmers who grow crops from genetically engineered seeds will be able to reduce their costs by using them.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?
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Educational Theorist: Recent editorials have called for limits on the amount of homework assigned to schoolchildren younger than 12. They point out that free-time activities play an important role in childhood development and that homework in large quantities can severely restrict children's free time, hindering their development. But the actual average homework time for children under 12-little more than 30 minutes per night-leaves plenty of free time. In reality, therefore, the editorials' rationale cannot justify the restriction they advocate.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously call into question the educational theorist's conclusion?
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Airline Representative: The percentage of flight delays caused by airline error decreased significantly this year. This indicates that airlines listened to complaints about preventable errors and addressed the problems. Although delays caused by weather and other uncontrollable factors will always be part of travel, preventable delays are clearly decreasing.
Which of the following most clearly points to a logical flaw in the representative 's reasoning?
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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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