section iv
time-35 minutes
26 questions
directions: the questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages. for some questions, more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. however, you are to choose the best answer; that is, the response that most accurately and completely answers the question. you should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous, or incompatible with the passage. after you have chosen the best answer, blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.
1.the recent increases in health insurance premiums are unnecessary and excessive. while the inflation rate is and has been stable at 5 percent for the past five years, during the same period the average cost of health insurance has increased annually by 10 to 20 percent. recent studies show that the population is healthier now than ever before, and thus indicate that the insurance comparuies' claims of higher health-care costs are unfounded and merely relect the quest for higher profits.
which one of the following statements, if true undermunes the conclusion in the passage?
(a) the incidence of lung cancer among men who smoke has decreased in recent years.
(b) improvements in health have occurred because of a dramatic increase in the use of expensive medical equipment, tests, and drugs.
(c) increased health insurance premiums will force some people to drop their medical coverage, thus adversely affecting their future health.
(d) health insurance currently covers fewer health problems than it did in the past
(e) though there are fewer health insurance companies today, their earnings are higher than they have ever been.
2.in the open ocean, a shark will catch almost any small fish it decides to attack. the best chance a small fish has, once it is spotted by a hungry shark, it that the shark will promptly find something else to attack.therefore, one of the benefits gained by small fish that swim in large groups known as schools is a reduced cnance of being attacked by a shark.
which one of the following statements is an assumption on which the author's argument depends?
(a) sharks live primarily on a diet of small fish
(b) sharks do not eat an entire school of fish at one time.
(c) the sheer number of fish in a school prevents sharks from attacking
(d) sharks are the main danger to small fish in the open ocean.
(e) small fish are able to sense when they are being spotted by sharks.
questions 3-4
publicly owned resources will always be abused. take the example of cattle grazing. where the individual has free access to publiclv owned rangeland, he or she always has an incentive to graze more and more cattle regardless of the consequences, because the benefits are captured by the individual grazer while the costs of reduced range quality are borne by all taxpayers. private landowners are less likely to abuse their own land, however, because they must pay the entire cost.
3.which one of the following, if true, would most tend to weaken the author's argument for the conclusion that publicly owned resources will always be abused?
(a) many people who privately own resources abuse them in sume of the personal consequences.
(b) some publicly owned resources are so extensive that it would take widespread abuse before their juallty is affected.
(c) some individuals have no choice but to rely on public resources in the pursuit or their livelihood.
(d) people do not want to lose access to public resources, yet they realize that they will if those resources are ruined through abuse.
(e) resources are always devalued when everyone has access to them because they are no longer a rare commodity in high demand.
4.which one of the following could be best supported by the same type of reasoning as that exhibited in the passage?
(a) the supply of beverages at the annual office picnic will last longer if people pay for them on a per-beverage basis rather than everyone in the office being charged a flat fee.
(b) a math teacher provides his students with after-school tutoring on several days because no single day is good for everyone.
(c) a tennis club starts charging flat annual membership fees instead of pay-as-you-play court fees in order to ensure a regular club income.
(d) a social service agency varies its charges for services because some people are able to pay more than others.
(e) a tobacco tax is instituted in order to fund improvements in public education
5.the city is vigorously enforcing the ordinance against allowing individuals to sleep in the bus depot. the mayor argues that such vigorous enforcement is fair, evenhanded, and administered in the best traditions of equal treatment for all "no one can sleep in the bus depot," the mayor has said, "whether you're homefess or the chief executive of a major corporation." this brings to mind a remark once made by a political commentator. the law in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread, it's time for the mayor to come to rus senses.
the passage as a whole is structured to lead which one of the following conclusions?
(a) people should not be treated equally with respect to enforcing the ordinance vigorously.
(b) everyone should be treated equally with respect to enforcing the ordinance vigorously.
(c) the vigorous enforcement of the ordinance does not qualify as equal treatment for all
(d) the law holds poor people to stricter standards than it does rich people.
(e) in a truly equal legal system, no one would sleep in bus depots.
6.although physicians are alleged to hide their colleagues' medical incompetence, today that practice could be professional suicide. because so many medical advances are well-known by all doctors, obscuring someone's incompetent procedure is almost impossible when a claimant choose to pursue a case. thus, in malpractice suits, physicians risk their own reputations if they testify falsely to protect their friends.
which one of the following is an assumption supporting the conclusion in the passage?
(a) physicians' professional success depends upon their good reputations.
(b) incompetent physicians should be exposed before they commit malpractice.
(c) false testimony is morally wrong regardless of one's protession.
(d) physicians should do everything possible to protect themselves from malpractice claims.
(e) times have changed and physicians today must keep up on all medical advances.
questions 7-8
the economy is in a dismal state, universities are suffering from cutbacks, and many students must turn to any source of funds available if they are to make endsmeet. faced with this situation, the university has terminated the employment of some of its more productive departmental workers. why? university regulations prohibit a student's receiving financial aid and then working for an auxiliary income that exceeds a specified limit. employees whose incomes had reached that limit employees whose incomes had reached that limit were terminated. now, the university must find other employees. unfortunately, though, the university's choice of students to fill the positions will not be based upon their abilities to perform, or even upon their financial need, but upon how much money they have made.
7.it may be concluded from information in the passage that the university
(a) has fired some student-employees and is looking for other student-employees to replace them
(b) has lost some full-time employees and will replace them with part-time student-employees
(c) is looking for new employees to replace some who have quit
(d) anticipates losing some employees and has already begun to seek replacements
(e) anticipates paying new employees lower wages than the former employees received
8.which one of the following is the best statement or the primary point of the passage?
(a) good student-employees should be able to obtain financial aid and, at the same time, earn auxiliary incomes without limits.
(b) in the face of a declining economy, universities need to be more lenient in their financial aid policies.
(c) university departments must adhere to the university's regulations.
(d) decisions about student employment should be based entirely upon each student's financial need.
(e) due to the problems created by a dismal economy, some student-workers have lost their jobs.
question 9-10
any person who drops out of high school will be unemployed unless he or she finds a low-paying job or has relative with good business connections.
9.which one of the following conclusions cannot be validly drawn from the statement above?
(a) any person who drops out of high school will be unemployed, have a low-paying job, or have relatives with good business connections.
(b) any high school dropout who has neither a low-paying job nor relatives with good business connections will be unemployed.
(c) any employed person who has neither a low-paying job nor relatives with good business connections is not a high school dropout.
(d) any high school dropout who has a job that is not low-paying must have relatives with good business connections.
(e) any person who has relatives with good business connections and who is not a high school dropout must be employed at a job that is not low-paying.
10. assume that tom is employed and does not have a low-paying job. which one of the following statements, when added to this assumption, contradicts the original statement made in the statement above?
(a) tom is a high school dropout
(b) tom does not have relatives with good business connections.
(c) tom is a high school dropout and does not have any relatives.
(d) tom is completed high school and has relatives with good business connections.
(e) tom has relatives with good business connections.
11. a man who survived a recent train wreck in which several lives were lost were lost was asked whether he was now afraid of taking the train he reasoned, "i've read that the likelihood of a train wreck is about one in every 100,000 times a train leaves a station. so i'll start fearing for my safety after the trains have logged another 95,000 or so trips."
the source of the man's erroneous reasoning is his
(a) misunderstanding of "likelihood" in relation to train wrecks
(b) assumption that all train wrecks are alike
(c) belief that his behavior can prevent train wrecks
(d) failure to recognize that there may be fewer future train trips as a result of the recent wreck
(e) assumption that personal fear and the occurrence of train wrecks are unrelated
questions 12-13
chris:murderers should be sentenced to life in prison, not subjected to the death penalty. a life sentence is enough to deter any convicted murderer from killing again. moreover, even the worst offenders may sbsequently undergo a miraculous rehabilitation-a possibility that is eliminated by the death penalty. the bird man of alcatraz, a notorious convicted murderer, is a case in point. he raised canaries while in prison and ultimately became an acknowledged authority on the subject.
dana: but the bird man of alcatraz killed another inmate while in prison. what would you do to deter him from committing yet another murder-take away his birds?
12. each of the following can be inferred from chris's argument except
(a) all convicted murderers will be deterred from killing again if given life sentences.
(b) any convicted murderer could undergo a miracious rehabilitation.
(c) the bird man of alcatraz is an example of miracuious rehabilitation.
(d) the threat of life imporisionment is adequate to deter potential murderers.
(e) becoming an acknowiedged authority on canaries is evidence of one person's rehabilitation.
13. dana most seriously weakens chris's argument by doing which one of the following?
(a) making a personal attack on the bird man of alcatraz
(b) giving a counterexample to the principle offered by chris that life imprisonment is from killing again.
(c) showing that it is unlikely that any convicted murderer could undergo a signinficant rehabilitation
(d) suggesting that chris's argument is based on an atypical case
(e) demonstrating that it is impossible to prevent a convicted murderer from committing another murder while in prison.
14. common patterns of fallacious reasoning are endemic to everyday life and once adopted cannot be corrected. poor reasoning skills waste public and private money, make people less efficient and productive, and diminish our national capacity to compete abroad. but within the past few years, a "thinking skillis" movement has arisen. the teaching of reasoning skills is part of this larger movement to make students think more critically. increasingly, as part of the teaching of decision-making, college students are successfully learning to avoid common patterns of fallacious reasoning that they habitually commit, and, in the process,to acquire sound reasoning skills.
which one of the following indentifies the most serious iogical flaw that this passage contains?
(a) the passage fails to establish a connection between the teaching of decision-making and the teaching of reasoning skills.
(b) the passage contradicts itself by both affirming and denying that patterns of fallacious reasoning can be corrected.
(c) the passage uses circular reasoning by first stating that patterns of fallacious reasoning diminish our capacious reasoning diminish our capacity for competition and then asserting that lack of competition leads to a lessenung of skills.
(d) the passage makes an unwarranted inference from improving thinking skills to teaching reasoning skills.
(e) the passage fails to link the teaching of decision-making to the larger movement to make students think more critically.
questions 15-16
our society overestimates the contributions of science to the quest for knowledge. independent of whether great strides have been made in the ability to predict natural events, knowledge at any deeper level, knowledge of things we cannot experience directly, is as illusory as ever. such knowledge is illusory because incompatible theories may always be postulated to explain observations. how can we "know" which one is correct? further observations may narrow the possibilities, but there are alwaysalternatives, at least in principle. who is to say that today's theories will fare any better than those which, though once accepted, were replaced by wholly different conceptions, of nature? it is the height of gullibility or presumption to invest special credence in the current scientific fashion.
15. which one of the following best expresses the author's conclusion in the passage?
(a) science is considerably less valuable than other approaches to producing knowledge.
(b) changes in and differences among scientific theories do not result in genuine progress.
(c) scientists should develop more accurate approaches to recording and explaining observations about nature.
(d) the ability of science to produce knowledge is overrated.
(e) currently accepted scientific theories, however well accepted, are probably self-contradictory
16. which one of the following claims is central to the author's argument?
(a) alternative explanations are possible for any set of observations about nature.
(b) science has made substantial progress in the ability to predict natural events.
(c) science has developed so many theories that it is impossible to know which ones to believe.
(d) it is important that scientists distinguish between prediction and explanation.
(e) the judgment of scientists as to which theories to accept is suspect, as they tend to follow the latest scientific fashion.
17. the recent dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused in large part by pilot inexperience. as a major growth industry, the commuter airlines have recently had a great increase in the demand for experienced pilots. it is impossible to define and assess pilot experience, however. for example, someone with 1000 hours of flight experience as an instructor in arizona, where the weather is good,cannot be compared to someone with 1000 hours' experience as a night cargo pilot in the stormy northeastern united states.
the author's conclusion that the dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused by pilot inexperience is most weakened by the fact that the author has
(a) argued that it is impossible to measure "pilot experience"
(b) used an example that does not relate logically to the point being illustrated
(c) provided only a partial explanation for the increase in commuter airline crashes
(d) made an unfair comparison between experience as a flight instructor and experience as a night cargo pilot
(e) not specified how much of the recent increase in commuter airline crashes is due to pilot inexperience
18. brand x laundry detergent sells for $2.00 a box brand y sells for $4.00 a box. therefore, you will save money if you use brand x laundry detergent instead of brand x.
which one of the following if true would make the conclusion in the passage a logical conclusion?
(a) it takes only one cup of brand x to do the work of one and one-half cups of brand y.
(b) a box of brand x contains the same amount of inaundry detergent as a box of brand y.
(c) a box of brand x will clean just as many loads of laundry as a box of brand y.
(d) more than twice as many people use brand x as use brand y.
(e) brand x and brand y normally sell for $3.00 a box, but brand x is one safe and brand y has been marked up.
19. in a recent advertisement, a major cereal company contended that the better educated people are the more likely it is that as children they regularly ate oatmeal. as evidence, the company cited a national random survey of college graduates in which four-fifths of all those surveyed reported having eaten oatmeal at least once a week when they were young.
which one of the following is an additional piece of information that would support the cereal company's conclusion?
(a) four-fifths of all current college graduates eat oatmeal regularly.
(b) fewer than four-fifths of those without a college degree ate oatmeal regularly when they were children.
(c) among people who have additional education beyond college, four-fifths ate oatmeal regularly when they were children.
(d) more than four-fifths of the population at large-college graduates and nongraduates combined-ate oatmeal regularly when they were children.
(e) those college graduates who did not eat oatmeal regularly when they were children did eat oatmeal on an occasional basis.
20. of the ten professional tennis players who are generally considered the greatest of all time, six had no brothers or sisters. however, only a small portion of the general population is made up of such "only children." clearly, if you are a professional tennis player, you have a better chance of being considered among the greatest if you are an only child.
which one of the following, if true, would undermine the argument in the passage?
(a) some great tennis players never play professionally.
(b) ascribing "greatness" to tennis players is necessarily subjective.
(c) among all professional tennis players, seven
(d) an only child tends to be better at individual sports than at team sports.
(e) parents who have only one child have more time to invest in the child's tennis career than do other parents.
21. the west does not escape the effects of its relationship with the non-western world. even as an individual fails to develop fully without constant interaction with an equal, a tradition of thought loses vitality and lacks the capacity for rigorous self-criticism without the probing presence of an authentic "other." in the absence of constant and critical dialogue with other traditions. western thought remains parochial, commonplace, and narrow.
which one of the following techniques of argument does the author use in the passage?
(a) identifying a point of similarity between two different states of affairs
(b) reconciling two opposed sets of circumstances with each other
(c) identifying a conclusion that has no supporting argument
(d) deriving a conclusion from a set of conflicting assumptions
(e) taking advantage of inconsistencies in the definition of a critical term
22. george: the economics taught in college is very confusing-and that's because it's all wrong.
harold: if it's all wrong, why is college economics still force-fed to students?
george: it's very difficult to learn something that's all wrong, and if, by chance, someone does waste all that time and learn it, he or she will be inclined to defend it ferociously and pass it on to others
which one of the following, if true, would most directly challenge george's reasoning?
(a) many college graduates who have taken economics go on to successful careers in a variety of other fields.
(b) college students who major in economics tend to earn higher grades in economics than in their other subjects.
(c) "right" and "wrong" are relative terms in the field of economics.
(d) many economics professors agree with journal articles that strongly criticize college economics.
(e) interviews five years after graduation show that economics majors are just as likely to say that their college experience was enjoyable as are those who did not major in economics.
23. the existentialists are right about one thing we are alone, radically alone. the proof is obvious. suppose you were born with a physiology that permitted you to perceive only negative images, that is, you saw black where everyone else saw white and white where everyone else saw black. nevertheless, you would learn to call what you saw as black by the name "white" because this is what you would be taught, and there would be no way that you could discover your error.
which one of the following can be validly inferred from the statements in the argument above?
(a) some people are born with reversed perceptions of black and white, and they cannot discover this
(b) people with reversed perceptions of black and white would not choose their words any differently from anyone else
(c) existentialism is a sound philosophy, as is amply demonstrated by the physiology of color perception.
(d) the existentialists claim that some people are born with reversed perceptions of black and white.
(e) the existentialists claim that people mean different things when they use the words "black" and "white."
24. odysseus answered well when the priests showed him a picture of those who had honored the gods and then escaped shipwreck, and asked him whether he did not now acknowledge the power of the gods-"yes," he asked, but where are those pictured who were drowned after their prayers? and such is the way of all superstitions; wherein humans,having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happens much oftener negiect and pass them by.
which one of the following contains the error of reasoning described by the author in the passage?
(a) i have discovered that friday the 13th really is a day of misfortune. just this past friday the 13th, i locked myself out of the house.
(b) although napoleon and alexander the great were short, abraham lincoln and charles de gaulle were tall. so short people seek leadership in order to overcome feelings of inferiority.
(c) every semester for the past 15 years, an average of 10 percent of ms. elliot's history students have dropped her course before the exam. so, it seems likely that we can expect 10 percent to drop out this year.
(d) no reliable observer has ever actually seen a yeti. the strongest evidence seems to be some suspicious tracks. so i thing this search for a yeti is probably a wild-goose chase.
(e) i cannot trust my lucky shirt any longer wore it to the game today and our team lost.
25. a well-known former quarterback is probably very adept at analyzing the relative strengths of football teams. however, efforts by television advertisers to suggest that the quarterback is an expert on pantyhose or popcorn poppers should arouse skepticism among viewers. the same response should result when a popular television actor, who is frequently cast in the role of a doctor, appears in a commercial to endorse a brand of decaffeinated coffee. his views on television acting would deserve attention since he has had considerable experience in that field, but viewers have every right to doubt his authority in coffee advertisements.
which one of the following is a presupposition essential to the reasoning in the passage above?
(a) the strength of authoritative evidence as legitimate proof is closely related to the authority's degree of expertness in the area in question.
(b) practical experience counts for more than academic trairng in assessing the competence of authorities.
(c) the only kind of evidence being used in many television commercials is appeal to authority
(d) the viewing audience is not sufficlently capable of evaluating authoritative appeals in advertisements.
(e) television viewers will somehow mentally transfer the credibility of celebrities in one area of expertise to another represented by the product being advertised.
26. judging by the box office receipts, film audiences have had a surfeit of spectacular special effects and are more interested in good drama comedy, or engaging action than in seeing yet another spaceship explode.film producers are getting the message, so in the coming year expect ___
which one of the following best concludes the author s statement?
(a) more science fiction in an effort to increase box office receipts
(b) fewer spaceships exploding, but no change in the amount of the other spectacular special effects used in science fiction
(c) the pendulum to swing away from science fiction, providing science fiction films continue to use spectacular special effects
(d) more spectacular effects along with increasing levels of difficult stunt work
(e) more films combining good drama with spectacular special effects