In the past, most airline companies minimized aircraft weight to minimize fuel costs. The safest airline seats were heavy, and airlines equipped their planes with few of these seats. This year the seat that has sold best to airlines has been the safest one→a clear indication that airlines are assigning a higher priority to safe seating than to minimizing fuel costs.
Q. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
A computer equipped with signature-recognition software, which restricts access to a computer to those people whose signatures are on file, identifies a person’s signature by analyzing not only the form of the signature but also such characteristics as pen pressure and signing speed. Even the most adept forgers cannot duplicate all of the characteristics the program analyzes.
Q. Which of the following can be logically concluded from the passage above?
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Division manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my division with Vitech computers.
General manager: Why?
Division manager: It costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech.
General manager: But that is not a good enough reason. We can simply hire only people who already know how to use the Microton computer.
Q. Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the general manager’s objection to the replacement of Microton computers with Vtech's?
An airplane engine manufacturer developed a new engine model with safety features lacking in the earlier model, which was still being manufactured. During the first year that both were sold, the earlier model far outsold the new model; the manufacturer thus concluded that safety was not the customers’ primary consideration.
Q. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the manufacturer’s conclusion?
Between 1975 and 1985, nursing-home occupancy rates averaged 87 percent of capacity, while admission rates remained constant, at an average of 95 admissions per 1,000 beds per year. Between 1985 and 1988, however, occupancy rates rose to an average of 92 percent of capacity, while admission rates declined to 81 per 1,000 beds per year.
Q. If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions can be most properly drawn?
Firms adopting “profit-related-pay” (PRP) contracts pay wages at levels that vary with the firm’s profits. In the metalworking industry last year, firms with PRP contracts in place showed productivity per worker on average 13 percent higher than that of their competitors who used more traditional contracts.
Q. If, on the basis of the evidence above, it is argued that PRP contracts increase worker productivity, which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken that argument?
Crops can be traded on the futures market before they are harvested. If a poor corn harvest is predicted, prices of corn futures rise; if a bountiful corn harvest is predicted, prices of corn futures fall. This morning meteorologists are predicting much-needed rain for the corn-growing region starting tomorrow. Therefore, since adequate moisture is essential for the current crop’s survival, prices of corn futures will fall sharply today.
Q. Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?
A discount retailer of basic household necessities employs thousands of people and pays most of them at the minimum wage rate. Yet following a federally mandated increase of the minimum wage rate that increased the retailer’s operating costs considerably, the retailer’s profits increased markedly.
Q. Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent paradox?
The cotton farms of Country Q became so productive that the market could not absorb all that they produced. Consequently, cotton prices fell. The government tried to boost cotton prices by offering farmers who took 25 percent of their cotton acreage out of production direct support payments up to a specified maximum per farm.
Q. The government’s program, if successful, will not be a net burden on the budget. Which of the following, if true, is the best basis for an explanation of how this could be so?
United States hospitals have traditionally relied primarily on revenues from paying patients to offset losses from unreimbursed care. Almost all paying patients now rely on governmental or private health insurance to pay hospital bills. Recently, insurers have been strictly limiting what they pay hospitals for the care of insured patients to amounts at or below actual costs.
Q. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?
The New Deal in America began in 1933 and included widespread bank reforms, unprecedented government infrastructure spending, and unparalleled expansion in the size of government. Some political commentators and economic historians contend that President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal singlehandedly propelled the United States out of the Great Depression and into decades of uninterrupted prosperity. To support this claim, these economists note that during the years following 1933, GDP grew, unemployment shrunk, and optimism increased.
Q. Which of the following statements, if true, would most weaken the above argument?
The strength of a suspension bridge rests in part on how deep the towers are anchored into the ground. During the first wave of suspension bridge construction, consistent with best-practices at the time, regulations required engineers to drill holes for the towers such that the portion of the tower below ground accounted for at least half of the height of the tower. After conducting an inspection into the depth of the holes drilled for the towers of the Watergate Bridge, constructed over 50 years ago during the first wave of suspension bridge construction, regulators noted that updated architectural norms and theory advised that the bridge's towers should be reinforced to meet anticipated increases in usage.
Q. Which of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?
Automation, the trademark of a modern economy, is essential to maximizing a country's economic production while minimizing its costs. Health care executives want to increase revenues while reducing costs. Consequently, they propose significantly greater automation of health care. Yet, this should be rejected. Radical automation of health care would cause patients to lose trust in the system as the health care they would receive would lack the in-person care that studies show patients desire.
Q. Which of the following expresses the main point of the argument?
For years, a considerable number of students on West County High School's track team complained about shin splints (medial tibial syndrome). However, during the most recent season, the number of students who complained about shin splints dropped significantly. School officials assert that this reduction in complaints occurred entirely as a result of the school's decision to build a new running track that provided a softer running surface, which absorbed much of the shock on the knees and shins that occurs when running and causes shin splints.
Q. Which of the following, if true, most severely weakens the school officials' explanation for the decrease in complaints about shin splints?
After thousands of miles of use, the tread on many bike tires wears down. One common theory about why tires wear down contends that the perpetual friction and heat generated by the contact between the tire and pavement erode the material on the surface of the tire. However, a local scientist who is also an avid cyclist proposed a new theory for why bike tires wear down. This scientist contended that chemicals from the road's composition and chemicals from rain residue wore down the surface of the tire.
Q. Which of the following would best evaluate the veracity of the scientist's proposed theory?
During the past 20 years, computer scientists focused increasingly on starting and running successful businesses. However, since businesses must be profitable, computer scientists must focus on developing products that generate profit. Consequently, computer science has lost its creative aspect.
Q. Which of the following assumptions is most necessary in order for the conclusion above to be drawn from the argument above?
Lauren is clearly going to make an awful professor. Nearly half of her students failed their final this past spring. She should probably choose another career path, because her students’ performance demonstrates that she doesn’t teach very well.
What statement, if true, most weakens the argument above?
Three years ago, Ron gave up eating anything with wheat in it. In that time, he lowered his cholesterol by 100 points and lost nearly 85 pounds. He says he feels better than he has in years. As a result, he is writing a book which says that everyone should stop eating wheat products. He says people are not made to eat wheat and that giving it up is the key to losing weight and being healthier.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?
Gina doesn't understand why she cannot get a job as a computer engineer. She even went back to school and got a degree in computer science. After two years on the job market with only a few interviews and no offers, she is staring to wonder if she is not getting hired because she is a woman. One of her friends told her that women seldom succeed in technology fields, and she is beginning to believe it.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?
It seems like every day you turn on the local news and you hear about someone being murdered in our city. It is really frightening. I am not sure I want to live somewhere so violent, and crime is clearly going up here. Otherwise the news shows wouldn't have so many murders to report.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?
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