The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 8

Jimmy Wang
04/15/2024

GRE Critical Reasoning

Directions

Critical Reasoning questions test the ability to understand, analyze, and evaluate arguments. Some of the abilities tested by specific questions include identifying the roles played by specific phrases or sentences in an argument, recognizing the point of an argument, recognizing assumptions on which an argument is based" drawing conclusions and forming hypotheses, identifying methods of argumentation, evaluating arguments and counter-arguments, and analyzing evidence.

Each of the Critical Reasoning questions is based on a short argument, a set of statements, or a plan of action. For each question, select the best answer of the choices given.

Mass transit authorities in large cities are struggling with deficits. Riders complain about delays and breakdowns, cuts in service, and fares higher than they are accustomed to paying. For all these reasons and because the price of gasoline is still not prohibitive, the number of passengers using public transportation has fallen, adding to the deficits.

#1

Which of the following statements about the relationship between the number of riders using public transportation and the price of gasoline is best supported by the passage above?

As the price of gasoline rises, the number of riders using public transportation rises.

The majority of riders using public transportation do not use gasoline;·hence, fluctuations in gasoline prices are unlikely to affect the number of riders using public transportation.

Even if the price of gasoline rises, the number of riders. using public transportation will continue to decline.

If the price of gasoline rises to a prohibitive level, the number of riders using public transportation will rise.

The price of gasoline is always low enough to make private transportation cheaper than public transportation; hence, fluctuations in gasoline prices are unlikely to affect the number of riders using public transportation.

The popular notion that teachers are generally apathetic about microcomputer technology is false, or at least dated: a recently published survey indicates that 86 percent of the 5,000 teachers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in microcomputers.

#2

Which of the following, if true, would be most damaging to the argument above?

No attempt was made in the survey to determine whether the teachers who received questionnaires had any previous experience with microcomputers.

The survey was conducted as part of a marketing study by a company that manufactures and sells microcomputers.

There have been several important developments in the classroom applications of micro-computer technology since the survey results were tabulated.

Teachers who are interested in microcomputer technology were more likely than others to complete and return their questionnaires.

Questionnaires were sent to teachers without regard to their areas of subject-matter expertise or teaching experience.

In March 300 college students turned out inWashington to protest against proposed cuts in student loan funds. Another 350,000 collegians flocked to Florida’s sun-drenched beaches during March for “spring break.” Since the Florida sun-seekers were more numerous, they were more representative of today’s students than those who protested in Washington, and therefore Congress need not heed the appeals of the protesting students.

#3

The argument above makes which of the following assumptions?

The students who vacationed in Florida did not oppose the cutting of student loan funds by Congress.

The students who neither protested in Washington in March nor vacationed in Florida in March are indifferent to governmental policies on education.

The students who protested in Washington were more seriously concerned about their education than were the students who vacationed in Florida.

The best way to influence congressional opinion about a political issue is to communicate with one’s elected representative in Washington.

The students who vacationed in Florida were not in agreement with the opinion of the majority of United States citizens about the proposed cut in loan funds.

Some doomsayers are warning that long-range warming or cooling trends in weather patterns will drastically reduce grain production. More optimistic reports, however, point out that, even if such drifts in average temperature do occur, we should expect little change in grain production because there is little evidence that changes in rainfall pat- terns will occur. Moreover, for most crops, climate- induced yield trends will be masked by both the year-to-year fluctuation of yields and by the enhancement of yields because of technological factors.

#4

Which of the following is an assumption on which the more optimistic reports mentioned in the passage are based?

Trends in rainfall patterns are more difficult to isolate than are trends in temperature.

Long-range warming or cooling trends are more damaging to grain production if they are accompanied by changes in rainfall pat- terns than if they are not.

Long-range cooling trends are potentially more destructive to grain production than are long-range warming trends.

The growing of grain is so highly dependent on technological factors that improvements in yield are unlikely, regardless of climatic conditions.

Long-range changes in weather patterns cannot be accurately predicted.

Noting that the number of crimes committed in a certain city had decreased in 1982 by 5.2 percent in comparison with 1981, the police chief of the city said, “We see here the result of the innovative police program put into effect in the city at the beginning of 1982.”

#5

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion drawn by the police chief?

The number of crimes committed in the city in 1982 was 10 percent higher than the number committed in 1972.

The number of crimes committed in the suburban areas surrounding the city rose by about 5 percent in 1982 over the figure for 1981 and were nearly equal in number to those in the city in 1982.

The number of crimes committed in the city is estimated, by the same method each year, from the number of crimes reported.

Several cities that have recently increased spending for police programs experienced no decrease in crime in 1982, as compared with 1981.

The size of the age-group most likely to commit crimes decreased considerably in the city in 1982, as against 1981, because of a declining birth rate.

A child watching television experiences a procession of sights and sounds that flash from the screen just long enough for the eyes and ears to take them in. Unlike the pages of a book, which can be read as slowly or as quickly as the child wishes, television images appear with a relentless velocity that stunts rather than enhances the child’s powers of imagination.

#6

The view expressed above is based on an assumption. Of the following, which can best serve as that assumption?

A child’s imagination cannot be properly stimulated unless the child has access both to television and to books.

A child’s imagination can develop more fully when the child is able to control the pace of its entertainment.

Children should be taught to read as soon as they are able to understand what they see on television.

A child’s reaction to different forms of sensory stimuli cannot be predicted, since every child is different.

When allowed to choose a form of entertainment, children will prefer reading to watching television.

It is true that increasing demand for a limited number of products drives up the price of those products. However, if we cut tax rates, then people will retain a higher percentage of their income and will be encouraged to work harder and produce more. Therefore, the increase in demand resulting from greater disposable income will not higher prices for the products available.