CR QUESTIONS

31. Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

Ferber's syndrome, a viral disease that frequently affects cattle, is transmitted to these animals through infected

feed. Even though chickens commercially raised for meat are often fed the type of feed identified as the source

of infection in cattle, Ferber's syndrome is only rarely observed in chickens. This fact, however, does not

indicate that most chickens are immune to the virus that causes Ferber's syndrome, since .

(A) chickens and cattle are not the only kinds of farm animal that are typically fed the type of feed liable to be

contaminated with the virus that causes Ferber's syndrome

(B) Ferber's syndrome has been found in animals that have not been fed the type of feed liable to be

contaminated with the virus that can cause the disease

(C) resistance to some infectious organisms such as the virus that causes Ferber's syndrome can be acquired

by exposure to a closely related infectious organism

(D) chickens and cattle take more than a year to show symptoms of Ferber's syndrome, and chickens

commercially raised for meat, unlike cattle, are generally brought to market during the first year of life

(E) the type of feed liable to be infected with the virus that causes Ferber's syndrome generally constitutes a

larger proportion of the diet of commercially raised chickens than of commercially raised cattle

32. Last year the rate of inflation was 1.2 percent, but for the current year it has been 4 percent. We can conclude

that inflation is on an upward trend and the rate will be still higher next year.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

(A) The inflation figures were computed on the basis of a representative sample of economic data rather than

all of the available data.

(B) Last year a dip in oil prices brought inflation temporarily below its recent stable annual level of 4 percent.

(C) Increases in the pay of some workers are tied to the level of inflation, and at an inflation rate of 4 percent

or above, these pay raises constitute a force causing further inflation.

(D) The 1.2 percent rate of inflation last year represented a 10-year low.

(E) Government intervention cannot affect the rate of inflation to any significant degree.

33. Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?

Although the number of large artificial satellites orbiting the Earth is small compared to the number of small

pieces of debris in orbit, the large satellites interfere more seriously with telescope observations because of the

strong reflections they produce. Because many of those large satellites have ceased to function, the proposal

has recently been made to eliminate interference from nonfunctioning satellites by exploding them in space.

This proposal, however, is ill conceived, since .

(A) many nonfunctioning satellites remain in orbit for years

(B) for satellites that have ceased to function, repairing them while they are in orbit would be prohibitively

expensive

(C) there are no known previous instances of satellites' having been exploded on purpose

(D) the only way to make telescope observations without any interference from debris in orbit is to use

telescopes launched into extremely high orbits around the Earth

(E) a greatly increased number of small particles in Earth's orbit would result in a blanket of reflections that

would make certain valuable telescope observations impossible

34. Thyrian lawmaker: Thyria's Cheese Importation Board inspects all cheese shipments to Thyria and rejects

shipments not meeting specified standards. Yet only 1 percent is ever rejected. Therefore, since the health

consequences and associated economic costs of not rejecting that 1 percent are negligible, whereas the

board's operating costs are considerable, for economic reasons alone the board should be disbanded.

Consultant: I disagree. The threat of having their shipments rejected deters many cheese exporters from

shipping substandard product.

The consultant responds to the lawmaker's argument by

(A) rejecting the lawmaker's argument while proposing that the standards according to which the board

inspects imported cheese should be raised

(B) providing evidence that the lawmaker's argument has significantly overestimated the cost of maintaining

the board

(C) objecting to the lawmaker's introducing into the discussion factors that are not strictly economic

(D) pointing out a benefit of maintaining the board, which the lawmaker's argument has failed to consider

(E) shifting the discussion from the argument at hand to an attack on the integrity of the cheese inspectors

35. Which of the following best completes the passage below?

The computer industry's estimate that it loses millions of dollars when users illegally copy programs without

paying for them is greatly exaggerated. Most of the illegal copying is done by people with no serious interest in

the programs. Thus, the loss to the industry is quite small, because .

(A) many users who illegally copy programs never find any use for them

(B) most people who illegally copy programs would not purchase them even if purchasing them were the only

way to obtain them

(C) even if the computer industry received all the revenue it claims to be losing, it would still be experiencing

financial difficulties

(D) the total market value of all illegal copies is low in comparison to the total revenue of the computer

industry

(E) the number of programs that are frequently copied illegally is low in comparison to the number of

programs available for sale

36. The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely expected to result in a decline in television

viewing, since it had been assumed that people lack sufficient free time to maintain current television-viewing

levels while spending increasing amounts of free time on the computer. That assumption, however, is evidently

false: In a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing

time spent per week using computers report no change in time spent watching television.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument?

(A) Whether a large majority of the survey respondents reported watching television regularly

(B) Whether the amount of time spent watching television is declining among people who report that they

rarely or never use computers

(C) Whether the type of television programs a person watches tends to change as the amount of time spent

per week using computers increases

(D) Whether a large majority of the computer owners in the survey reported spending increasing amounts of

time per week using computers

(E) Whether the survey respondents' reports of time spent using computers included time spent using

computers at work

37. In the last decade there has been a significant decrease in coffee consumption. During this same time, there

has been increasing publicity about the adverse long-term effects on health of the caffeine in coffee.

Therefore, the decrease in coffee consumption must have been caused by consumers' awareness of the

harmful effects of caffeine.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the explanation above?

(A) On average, people consume 30 percent less coffee today than they did 10 years ago.

(B) Heavy coffee drinkers may have mild withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches, for a day or so after

significantly decreasing their coffee consumption.

(C) Sales of specialty types of coffee have held steady as sales of regular brands have declined.

(D) The consumption of fruit juices and caffeine-free herbal teas has increased over the past decade.

(E) Coffee prices increased steadily in the past decade because of unusually severe frosts in coffee-growing

nations.

38. Which of the following best completes the passage below?

When the products of several competing suppliers are perceived by consumers to be essentially the same,

classical economics predicts that price competition will reduce prices to the same minimal levels and all

suppliers' profits to the same minimal levels. Therefore, if classical economics is true, and given suppliers'

desire to make as much profit as possible, it should be expected that .

(A) in a crowded market widely differing prices will be charged for products that are essentially the same as

each other

(B) as a market becomes less crowded as suppliers leave, the profits of the remaining suppliers will tend to

decrease

(C) each supplier in a crowded market will try to convince consumers that its product differs significantly from

its competitors' products.

(D) when consumers are unable to distinguish the products in a crowded market, consumers will judge that

the higher-priced products are of higher quality

(E) suppliers in crowded markets will have more incentive to reduce prices and thus increase sales than to

introduce innovations that would distinguish their product from their competitors' products

39. Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

Sviatovin is a medieval Moringian text whose author and exact date of composition are unknown. However, the

events in the life of Prince Sviatov that the text describes occurred in 1165, and in the diagram of Sviatov's

family that accompanies the text his father, who died in 1167, is identified as still living. Thus Sviatovin must

have been written between 1165 and 1167, assuming that .

(A) the life of Prince Sviatov is not the subject of any other medieval Moringian texts

(B) the author of Sviatovin intended it to provide as accurate a report about Prince Sviatov's exploits as

possible

(C) the diagram accurately represents the composition of Sviatov's family at the time Sviatovin was written

(D) Sviatovin is the earliest Moringian text whose composition can be dated to within a few years

(E) Sviatovin was not written by Sviatov's father himself

40. Crowding on Mooreville's subway frequently leads to delays, because it is difficult for passengers to exit from

the trains. Subway ridership is projected to increase by 20 percent over the next 10 years. The Mooreville

Transit Authority plans to increase the number of daily train trips by only 5 percent over the same period.

Officials predict that this increase is sufficient to ensure that the incidence of delays due to crowding does not

increase.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest grounds for the officials' prediction?

(A) By changing maintenance schedules, the Transit Authority can achieve the 5 percent increase in train trips

without purchasing any new subway cars.

(B) The Transit Authority also plans a 5 percent increase in the number of bus trips on routes that connect to

subways.

(C) For most commuters who use the subway system, there is no practical alternative public transportation

available.

(D) Most of the projected increase in ridership is expected to occur in off-peak hours when trains are now

sparsely used.

(E) The 5 percent increase in the number of train trips can be achieved without an equal increase in Transit

Authority operational costs.

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