CR Set 5

41. Installing scrubbers in smokestacks and switching to
cleaner-burning fuel are the two methods available to
Northern Power for reducing harmful emissions from its plants.
Scrubbers will reduce harmful emissions more
than cleaner-burning fuels will. Therefore, by installing scrubbers,
Northern Power will be doing the most that
can be done to reduce harmful emissions from its plants.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
(A) Switching to cleaner-burning fuel will not be more expensive than
installing scrubbers.
(B) Northern Power can choose from among various kinds of scrubbers,
some of which are more effective
than others.
(C) Northern Power is not necessarily committed to reducing harmful
emissions from its plants.
(D) Harmful emissions from Northern Power's plants cannot be reduced
more by using both methods together
than by the installation of scrubbers alone.
(E) Aside from harmful emissions from the smokestacks of its plants,
the activities of Northern Power do not
cause significant air pollution.


42. Trancorp currently transports all its goods to Burland Island by
truck. The only bridge over the channel
separating Burland from the mainland is congested, and trucks
typically spend hours in traffic. Trains can reach
the channel more quickly than trucks, and freight cars can be
transported to Burland by barges that typically
cross the channel in an hour. Therefore, to reduce shipping time,
Trancorp plans to switch to trains and barges
to transport goods to Burland.
Which of the following would be most important to know in determining
whether Trancorp's plan, if implemented,
is likely to achieve its goal?
(A) Whether transportation by train and barge would be substantially
less expensive than transportation by
truck
(B) Whether there are boats that can make the trip between the
mainland and Burland faster than barges can
(C) Whether loading the freight cars onto barges is very time consuming
(D) Whether the average number of vehicles traveling over the bridge
into Burland has been relatively constant
in recent years
(E) Whether most trucks transporting goods into Burland return to the
mainland empty





43. Some anthropologists study modern-day societies of foragers in an
effort to learn about our ancient
ancestors who were also foragers. A flaw in this strategy is that
forager societies are extremely varied.
Indeed, any forager society with which anthropologists are familiar
has had considerable contact with
modern, non-forager societies.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the criticism made
above of the anthropologists' strategy?
(A) All forager societies throughout history have had a number of
important features in common that are
absent from other types of societies.
(B) Most ancient forager societies either dissolved or made a
transition to another way of life.
(C) All anthropologists study one kind or another of modern-day society.
(D) Many anthropologists who study modern-day forager societies do not
draw inferences about ancient
societies on the basis of their studies.
(E) Even those modern-day forager societies that have not had
significant contact with modern societies are
importantly different from ancient forager societies.


44. Contrary to earlier predictions, demand for sugarcane has not
increased in recent years. Yet, even though prices
and production amounts have also been stable during the last three
years, sugarcane growers last year
increased their profits by more than 10 percent over the previous year's level.
Any of the following statements, if true about last year, helps to
explain the rise in profits EXCEPT:
(A) Many countries that are large consumers of sugarcane increased
their production of sugarcane-based
ethanol, yet their overall consumption of sugarcane decreased.
(B) Sugarcane growers have saved money on wages by switching from
paying laborers an hourly wage to
paying them by the amount harvested.
(C) The price of oil, the major energy source used by sugarcane
growers in harvesting their crops, dropped
by over 20 percent.
(D) Many small sugarcane growers joined together to form an
association of sugarcane producers and began
to buy supplies at low group rates.
(E) Rainfall in sugarcane-growing regions was higher than it had been
during the previous year, allowing the
growers to save money on expensive artificial irrigation.



45. Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?
Davison River farmers are currently deciding between planting winter
wheat this fall or spring wheat next spring.
Winter wheat and spring wheat are usually about equally profitable.
Because of new government restrictions
on the use of Davison River water for irrigation, per acre yields for
winter wheat, though not for spring wheat,
would be much lower than average. Therefore, planting spring wheat
will be more profitable than planting winter
wheat, since .
(A) the smaller-than-average size of a winter wheat harvest this year
would not be compensated for by higher
winter wheat prices
(B) new crops of spring wheat must be planted earlier than the time at
which standing crops of winter wheat
are ready to be harvested
(C) the spring wheat that farmers in the Davison River region plant is
well adapted to the soil of the region
(D) spring wheat has uses that are different from those of winter wheat
(E) planting spring wheat is more profitable than planting certain
other crops, such as rye


46. If the county continues to collect residential trash at current
levels, landfills will soon be overflowing and
parkland will need to be used in order to create more space. Charging
each household a fee for each pound of
trash it puts out for collection will induce residents to reduce the
amount of trash they create; this charge will
therefore protect the remaining county parkland.
Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above?
(A) Residents will reduce the amount of trash they put out for
collection by reducing the number of products
they buy.
(B) The collection fee will not significantly affect the purchasing
power of most residents, even if their
households do not reduce the amount of trash they put out.
(C) The collection fee will not induce residents to dump their trash
in the parklands illegally.
(D) The beauty of county parkland is an important issue for most of
the county's residents.
(E) Landfills outside the county's borders could be used as dumping
sites for the county's trash.


47. Certain genetically modified strains of maize produce a powerful
natural insecticide. The insecticide occurs
throughout the plant, including its pollen. Maize pollen is dispersed
by the wind and frequently blows onto
milkweed plants that grow near maize fields. Caterpillars of monarch
butterflies feed exclusively on milkweed
leaves. When these caterpillars are fed milkweed leaves dusted with
pollen from modified maize plants, they die.
Therefore, by using genetically modified maize, farmers put monarch
butterflies at risk.
Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order
to evaluate the argument?
(A) Whether the natural insecticide is as effective against
maize-eating insects as commercial insecticides
typically used on maize are
(B) Whether the pollen of genetically modified maize contains as much
insecticide as other parts of these plants
(C) Whether monarch butterfly caterpillars are actively feeding during
the part of the growing season when
maize is releasing pollen
(D) Whether insects that feed on genetically modified maize plants are
likely to be killed by insecticide from
the plant's pollen
(E) Whether any maize-eating insects compete with monarch caterpillars
for the leaves of milkweed plants
growing near maize fields


48. Although computers can enhance people's ability to communicate,
computer games are a cause of
underdeveloped communication skills in children. After-school hours
spent playing computer games are
hours not spent talking with people. Therefore, children who spend all
their spare time playing these games
have less experience in interpersonal communication than other children have.
The argument depends on which of the following assumptions?
(A) Passive activities such as watching television and listening to
music do not hinder the development of
communication skills in children.
(B) Most children have other opportunities, in addition to
after-school hours, in which they can choose whether
to play computer games or to interact with other people.
(C) Children who do not spend all of their after-school hours playing
computer games spend at least some of
that time talking with other people.
(D) Formal instruction contributes little or nothing to children's
acquisition of communication skills.
(E) The mental skills developed through playing computer games do not
contribute significantly to children's
intellectual development.


Maize contains the vitamin niacin, but not in a form the body can
absorb. Pellagra is a disease that results from
niacin deficiency. When maize was introduced into southern Europe from
the Americas in the eighteenth century,
it quickly became a dietary staple, and many Europeans who came to
subsist primarily on maize developed
pellagra. Pellagra was virtually unknown at that time in the Americas,
however, even among people who
subsisted primarily on maize.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the contrasting
incidence of pellagra described above?
(A) Once introduced into southern Europe, maize became popular with
landowners because of its high yields
relative to other cereal crops.
(B) Maize grown in the Americas contained more niacin than maize grown
in Europe did.
(C) Traditional ways of preparing maize in the Americas convert
maize's niacin into a nutritionally useful form.
(D) In southern Europe many of the people who consumed maize also ate
niacin-rich foods.
(E) Before the discovery of pellagra's link with niacin, it was widely
believed that the disease was an infection
that could be transmitted from person to person.

50. One variety of partially biodegradable plastic beverage container
is manufactured from small bits of plastic
bound together by a degradable bonding agent such as cornstarch. Since
only the bonding agent degrades,
leaving the small bits of plastic, no less plastic refuse per
container is produced when such containers are
discarded than when comparable nonbiodegradable containers are discarded.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?
(A) Both partially biodegradable and nonbiodegradable plastic beverage
containers can be crushed
completely flat by refuse compactors.
(B) The partially biodegradable plastic beverage containers are made
with more plastic than comparable
nonbiodegradable ones in order to compensate for the weakening effect
of the bonding agents.
(C) Many consumers are ecology-minded and prefer to buy a product sold
in the partially biodegradable
plastic beverage containers rather than in nonbiodegradable
containers, even if the price is higher.
(D) The manufacturing process for the partially biodegradable plastic
beverage containers results in less
plastic waste than the manufacturing process for nonbiodegradable
plastic beverage containers.
(E) Technological problems with recycling currently prevent the reuse
as food or beverage containers of the
plastic from either type of plastic beverage container.