section 6
time –30 minutes
25 questions
1.joyce: three years ago the traffic commission
modified our town's busiest intersection for
better visibility, a commendable effort to cut
down on traffic accidents there.
gary: over the past three years there have been
more, not fewer, traffic accidents per week at
that intersection, so the modification has
increased the likelihood of accidents there
the answer to which of the following questions
would be most useful in evaluating gary's argument?
(a) what proportion of the town's drivers involved
in accidents that occurred prior to the
modification suffered personal injury in their
accidents?
(b) how long, on average, had the members of the
traffic commission held their offices when the
modification was implemented?
(c) do a majority of the town's residents approve of
the traffic commission's overall performance?
(d) what measures have nearby towns taken within
the last three years in order to improve visibil-
ity at dangerous intersections?
(e) how has the volume of traffic at the town's
busiest intersection changed over the last three
years?
2. women make up the majority of the population in the
country, and many of the prescriptions written by
doctors for tranquilizers are for women patients. the
testing of these drugs for efficacy and the calibration
of recommended doses, however, was done only on
men. not even the animals used to test toxicity were
female.
the statements above, if true, best support which of
the following as a conclusion?
(a) some tranquilizers are more appropriately pre-
scribed for women than for men.
(b) there have been no reports of negative side
effects from prescribed tranquilizers in women
(c) tranquilizers are prescribed for patients in some
instances when doctors do not feel confident of
their diagnoses.
(d) the toxicity of drugs to women is less than the
toxicity of the same drugs to men.
(e) whether the recommended dosages of tranquil-
izers are optimal for women is not known.
questions 3-8
a landscape designer has available two trees each of eight different species
—linden, maple, pine, quince, redbud, spruce, tupelo, and walnut—from which
a selection must be made for planting at two different locations. for planting
at each location, the designer will select exactly four trees, representing four
different tree species, according to the following conditions:
if quince is planted at location 1, spruce cannot be planted at location 2.
if linden and quince are planted at location 1, pine must be planted
at location 2.
if pine is planted at location 2, quince and tupelo must be planted
at location 1.
spruce cannot be planted at location 1 unless linden and pine are planted
at location 2.
3.which of the following is an acceptable selection of species to be planted
at the two locations?
location 1 location 2
(a) linden, maple, pine, quince maple, pine, tupelo, walnut
(b) linden, pine, quince, walnut linden, maple, tupelo, walnut
(c) maple, quince, spruce, tupelo maple, pine, tupelo, walnut
(d) quince, spruce, tupelo, walnut linden, maple, pine, tupelo
(e) quince, spruce, tupelo, walnut linden, pine, quince, spruce
4.if maple, spruce, and tupelo are planted at location 1,
then which of the following must be the other species
planted at location 1?
(a) quince
(b) redbud
(c) spruce
(d) tupelo
(e) walnut
5.if maple, redbud, and walnut are planted at location 1,
then any of the following species can be planted at
location 2 except
(a) linden
(b) pine
(c) quince
(d) tupelo
(e) walnut
6.if linden and quince are planted at location 1, then
which of the following must be true?
(a) quince is planted at location 2.
(b) spruce is planted at location 2.
(c) pine is not planted at location 1.
(d) spruce is not planted at location 1.
(e) tupelo is planted at location 1.
7.if each of the eight species is selected for planting
and spruce is planted at location 2, then which of
the following must also be planted at location 2?
(a) linden
(b) pine
(c) quince
(d) tupelo
(e) walnut
8.if each of the eight species must be selected for plant-
ing and quince and tupelo are planted at location 1,
then which of the following can be the other two
species planted at location 1?
(a) maple and spruce
(b) maple and walnut
(c) pine and redbud
(d) pine and spruce
(e) redbud and walnut
9. gray wolves have been absent from a large national
park for decades. park officials wish to reestablish
the wolves without jeopardizing any existing species
of wildlife there. since the park contains adequate
prey for the wolves and since the wolves avoid close
contact with people, reintroducing them would serve
the officials' purpose without seriously jeopardizing
visitors' safety.
each of the following, if true, strengthens the
argument above except:
(a) the park is so large that wolves will not need to
venture into areas frequented by people.
(b) rabies is very rare in wolves, and there have
been no verified cases of serious human injuries
from nonrabid wild wolves since records have
been kept.
(c) ranchers in the region near the park have
expressed concern that gray wolves, if reintro-
duced, would sometimes prey on their livestock.
(d) predation by gray wolves on elk in the park is
likely to improve the health and viability of the
park's elk population as a whole by reducing
malnutrition among the elk.
(e) wolves do not prey on animals of any endangered
species that currently inhabit the park.
10. osteoporosis is a disease that reduces bone mass, lead-
ing to fragile bones that break easily. current treat-
ments for osteoporosis such as estrogen or calcitonin
help prevent further loss of bone but do not increase
bone mass. since fluoride is known to increase bone
mass, administering fluoride to osteoporosis patients
would therefore help make their bones less susceptible
to breaking.
which of the following, if true, most seriously
weakens the argument above?
(a) most people who suffer from osteoporosis are
not aware that administration of fluoride can
increase bone mass.
(b) fluoride is added to drinking water in many
locations in order to strengthen the teeth of
people who drink the water.
(c) the risk of contracting osteoporosis and other
degenerative bone diseases is lessened by exer-
cise and an adequate intake of calcium.
(d) unlike administration of fluoride, administration
of estrogen or calcitonin is known to cause
undesirable side effects for many people.
(e) the new bone mass that is added by the admin-
istration of fluoride is more brittle and less
elastic than normal bone tissue.
11. the closest distance from which an asteroid has been
photographed using ground-based radar is 2.2 million
miles, the distance from which the asteroid toutatis
was recently photographed. the closest photograph of
an asteroid is of gaspra, which was photographed
from a distance of only 10,000 miles.
which of the following can be properly concluded
from the statements above?
(a) toutatis is more likely to collide with the earth
than gaspra is.
(b) toutatis, unlike gaspra, has only recently been
discovered.
(c) asteroids can be photographed only by using
ground-based radar.
(d) ground-based radar photography cannot take
photographs of objects much beyond 2.2 million
miles from earth.
(e) the photograph of gaspra was not taken using
ground-based radar.
12. which of the following most logically completes the
argument below?
alone among living species, human beings experience
adolescence, a period of accelerated physical growth
prior to full maturity. whether other hominid species,
which are now all extinct and are known only through
the fossil record, went through adolescence cannot be
known, since
(a) the minimum acceleration in physical growth
that would indicate adolescence might differ
according to species
(b) the fossil record, though steadily expanding, will
always remain incomplete
(c) detecting the adolescent growth spurt requires
measurements on the same individual at differ-
ent ages
(d) complete skeletons of extinct hominids are
extremely rare
(e) human beings might be the first species to bene-
fit from the survival advantages, if any, con-
ferred by adolescence
questions 13-17
a circus magician has a "magic box " that has exactly six
chambers designed to hold at least two animals each. there
are five trained animals—a frog, a hen, a mouse, a para-
keet, and a rabbit. on the front of the box, chambers 1, 2,
and 3 are arranged in a straight line so that chamber 1 is
directly adjacent to chamber 2, and chamber 2 is directly
adjacent to chamber 3. on the back of the box, the cham-
bers are also arranged in a straight line with chamber 4
directly adjacent to chamber 5, and chamber 5 directly
adjacent to chamber 6. no chamber in the front of the
box is directly adjacent to a chamber in the back.
when working with the animals, the magician must obey
the following restrictions:
none of the chambers can contain more than two
animals at the same time.
the mouse cannot be in the same chamber as any
other animal, and any chamber directly adjacent to
the chamber that the mouse occupies must remain
empty.
neither the hen nor the frog can be in the same
chamber as the parakeet.
13.if the mouse is in chamber 2, and the other four
animals are all in chambers, which of the following is
a pair of chambers that must be empty?
(a) 1 and 3
(b) 1 and 4
(c) 2 and 4
(d) 3 and 5
(e) 3 and 6
14. if the mouse in chamber 2, the parakeet is in
chamber 4, and all the other animals are in chambers,
then the hen can be in chamber.
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) 5
15.if no chamber contains more than one animal and
each of the five animals is in a chamber, then there is
a total of how many different chambers any one of
which could be the chamber that contains the mouse?
(a) one
(b) two
(c) three
(d) four
(e) five
16.if all five animals are in the chambers, the mouse is
in chamber 2, and the frog's chamber is different
from and not directly adjacent to the hen's chamber ,
then the parakeet must be in chamber
(a) 1
(b) 3
(c) 4
(d) 5
(e) 6
17.if the hen is in chamber 1 with another animals, one
animals is in chamber 5, and two animals are in
chamber 3, which of the following pairs of animals
must be in chamber 3?
(a) the frog and the mouse
(b) the frog and the parakeet
(c) the frog and the rabbit
(d) the mouse and the rabbit
(e) the parakeet and the rabbit
questions 18-22
seven science students—john, kate, luz, mark, nelson,
olga, and pat—are to be divided into three groups. one
group will consist of three students, and the other groups
will consist of two students each. the following conditions
apply to the assignment of students to groups:
john cannot be assigned to the group to which luz
is assigned
nelson must be assigned to the group to which pat
is assigned.
olga must be assigned to the group consisting of
three students.
18.which of the following is an acceptable assignment
of students to groups?
(a) john, kate, and mark; luz, nelson, and olga;
pat
(b) john, mark, and olga; kate and luz; nelson
and pat
(c) kate, luz, and olga; john and nelson; mark
and pat
(d) mark, nelson, and pat; john and kate; luz and
olga
(e) nelson, olga, and pat; john and luz; kate and
mark
19.if one of the groups of two consists of luz and
mark, which of the following must be true?
(a) john is assigned to the group to which kate is
assigned.
(b) john is assigned to the group to which nelson is
assigned.
(c) kate is assigned to the group to which pat is
assigned.
(d) kate is assigned to a group consisting of two
students.
(e) nelson is assigned to the group consisting of
three students.
20.if nelson is assigned to the group to which olga is
assigned, which of the following can be true?
(a) kate is assigned to the group to which john is
assigned.
(b) kate is assigned to the group to which mark is
assigned.
(c) luz is assigned to the group to which olga is
assigned.
(d) john is assigned to the group consisting of three
students.
(e) pat is assigned to a group consisting of two
students.
21.if mark is assigned to a group to which neither john
not pat is assigned, which of the following must be
true?
(a) john is assigned to the group to which kate is
assigned.
(b) john is assigned to the group to which nelson is
assigned.
(c) kate is assigned to the group to which luz is
assigned.
(d) kate is assigned tot the group to which nelson is
assigned.
(e) kate is assigned to the group to which olga is
assigned.
22.if john and olga are assigned to different groups
from each other, which of the following cannot be
true?
(a) john is assigned to the group to which mark is
assigned.
(b) luz is assigned to the group to which kate is
assigned.
(c) nelson is assigned to the group to which olga is
assigned.
(d) john is assigned to the group consisting of three
members.
(e) john and kate are assigned to different groups
from each other.
23. grand city census reports
(1950-1980)
year population housing units
1950 500, 000 214, 000
1960 476, 000 218, 000
1970 453, 000 226, 000
1980 425, 000 237, 000
which of the following, if true, most helps to
reconcile the increase in housing units with the
decline in population shown in the table above?
(a) the percentage of families that included adult
children living at home increased during the 1970's.
(b) the number of people moving to grand city
from other cities gradually decreased during
the three decades.
(c) the number of housing units that were vacant in
grand city fell steadily between 1950 and 1980.
(d) the number of adults who lived alone in grand
city housing units increased dramatically
between 1950 and 1980.
(e) many housing units that were occupied by only
one family in 1950 were occupied by two or
more families in 1980.
24. fossils of the coral acrocora palmata that date from
the last period when glaciers grew and consequently
spread from the polar regions are found at ocean
depths far greater than those at which a. palmata can
now survive. therefore, although the fossilized
a. palmata appears indistinguishable from a. palmata
now living, it must have differed in important respects
to have been able to live in deep water.
the argument depends on the assumption that
(a) no fossils of the coral a. palmata have been
found that date from periods when glaciers
were not spreading from the polar regions
(b) geological disturbances since the last period
during which glaciers spread have caused no
major downward shift in the location of
a. palmata fossils
(c) a. palmata now live in shallow waters in most
of the same geographical regions as those in
which deep-lying a. palmata fossils have been
found
(d) a. palmata fossils have been found that date
from each of the periods during which glaciers
are known to have spread from the polar region
(e) a. palmata can live at greater depths where the
ocean temperature is colder than they can
where the ocean temperature is warmer
25.conservationists have believed that by concentrating their preserva-
tion efforts on habitats rich in an easily surveyed group of species,
such as birds, they would thereby be preserving areas rich in over-
all species diversity. this belief rests on a view that a geographical
area rich in one group of species will also be rich in the other
groups characteristic of the entire regional climate zone.
which of the following findings about widely scattered tracts
10 kilometers by 10 kilometers in a temperate climate zone would
most seriously challenge the conservationists' assumptions?
(a) the tracts show little damage from human intrusion and from
pollution by human activities.
(b) where a certain group of species, such as birds, is abundant,
there is also an abundance of the species, such as insects,
on which that group of species feeds, or in the case of
plants, of the land and water resources it requires.
(c) the area of one of the tracts is generally large enough to
contain a representative sample of the organisms in the
region.
(d) there is little overlap between the list of tracts that are rich
in species of butterflies and the list of those that are rich in
species of birds.
(e) the highest concentration of individuals of rare species is
found where the general diversity of species is greatest.