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GWD PREP2012
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Historian: In the Drindian Empire, censuses were conducted annually to determine the population of each village. Village census records for the last half of the 1600's are remarkably complete. This very completeness makes one point stand out; in five different years, villages overwhelmingly reported significant population declines. Tellingly, each of those five years immediately followed an increase in a certain Drindian tax. This tax, which was assessed on villages, was computed by the central government using the annual census figures. Obviously, whenever the tax went up, villages had an especially powerful economic incentive to minimize the number of people they recorded; and concealing the size of a village's population from government census takers would have been easy. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that the reported declines did not happen.In the historian's argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
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PREP2012
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The passage suggests that the debate among physicists mentioned in the first sentence has arisen in part because
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PREP2012
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Sculpted boulders found at Lepenski Vir, an example of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, includes 15 figures with human features similar to Upper Paleolithic forms and to Middle Eastern Nantufian stone figurines.
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GWD PREP2012
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Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about the Hopis' geographic situation between 1680 and 1880?
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PREP2012
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Narwhals can be called whales of the ice: in icy channels, ponds, and ice-shielded bays they seek sanctuary from killer whales, their chief predator, and their annual migrations following the seasonal rhythm of advancing and retreating ice.
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PREP2012 GWD
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In 1992 outlaw fishing boats began illegally harvesting lobsters from the territorial waters of the country of Belukia. Soon after, the annual tonnage of lobster legally harvested in Belukian waters began declining; in 1996, despite there being no reduction in the level of legal lobster fishing activity, the local catch was 9,000 tons below pre-1992 levels. It is therefore highly likely that the outlaw fishing boats harvested about 9,000 tons of lobster illegally that year.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
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GWD PREP2012
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Printwell's Ink Jet Division manufactures ink-jet printers and the ink cartridges they use. Sales of its ink-jet printers have increased. Monthly revenues from those sales, however, have not increased, because competition has forced Printwell to cut the prices of its printers. Unfortunately, Printwell has been unable to bring down the cost of manufacturing a printer. Thus, despite the increase in printer sales, the Ink Jet Division must be contributing less to the company's profits than it used to.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
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PREP2012
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The author of the passage mentions the control of ceremonies by particular Hopi clans most in order to
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PREP2012
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Naked mole rats form colonies of approximately twenty animals, each of which consists of a single reproductive female and workers that defend her.
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GWD PREP2012
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Agricultural societies cannot exist without staple crops. Several food plants, such as kola and okra, are known to have been domesticated in western Africa, but they are all supplemental, not staple, foods. All the recorded staple crops grown in western Africa were introduced from elsewhere, beginning, at some unknown date, with rice and yams. Therefore, discovering when rice and yams were introduced into western Africa would establish the earliest date at which agricultural societies could have arisen there.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
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PREP2012
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The passage suggests that sociocultural change in Hopi society between 1680 and 1880 was
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PREP2012
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Although beavers can still be found throughout the western United States, their number has declined compared with the eighteenth century, when the abundance of beavers lured armies of European trappers into the Rocky Mountain region to slaughter them for their pelts.
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GWD PREP2012
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The passage is primarily concerned with
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PREP2012
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In order to conserve the energy and heat they need to spend the entire winter sitting motionless over incubating eggs, male emperor penguins huddle over the nests in groups, thereby reducing the rate at which they burn energy so that it is 25 percent lower than it would be for isolated birds.
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PREP2012
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The percentage of households with an annual income of more than $40,000 is higher in Merton County than in any other county. However, the percentage of households with an annual income of $60,000 or more is higher in Sommer County.If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true?
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GWD PREP2012
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The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the explanation outlined in highlight text?
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PREP2012
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Unlike amateur clammers, who usually dig clams by hand during the summer, professional clammers work year-round, using all-weather instruments such as the hydraulic dredge or a 20-foot-Iona implement known as a bull rake.
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PREP2012
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A product that represents a clear technological advance over competing products can generally command a high price. Surprisingly, perhaps, the strategy to maximize overall profit from a new product is to charge less than the greatest price the market will bear. Many companies charge the maximum possible price for such a product, because they want to make as much profit as they can and technological advances tend to be quickly surpassed. The drawback is that large profits on the new product give competitors a strong incentive to quickly match the new product's capabilities.In the argument above, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
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GWD PREP2012
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Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province's highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.
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PREP2012
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According to information in the passage, the term "de-skilling" refers to the
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