GRE Critical Reasoning
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.
Nursing homes range from three to five stories in height. If a nursing-home room is above the first floor, it has a fire escape.
#1
At Midwest University, there is no collusion between the athletic office and the admissions office. Athletes must be accepted for admission to the university on the basis of their academic records before they can be offered financial assistance on the basis of athletic ability. The university thus hopes to avoid the kind of recruiting violations that have been a problem at other universities.
#2
Our words are meaningless and cannot be distinguished from their opposites, as can be proved by an example. People think that they know the difference between the meanings of “bald” and “having hair.” Suppose an average person twenty-one years of age has N hairs on his or her head. We say that that person is not bald but has hair. But surely one hair less would make no difference, and a person with N – 1 hairs on his or her head would be said to have hair. Suppose we kept on, with one hair less each time. The result would be the same. But what would be the difference between someone who had one hair and someone who had none? We call them both bald. Nowhere can we make a distinction between “bald” and “having hair.”
#3
A common misconception is that university hospitals are better than community or private hospitals. In fact. university hospitals have a lower survival rate for patients than do other hospitals. From this it seems clear that the quality of care at university hospitals is lower than that at other hospitals.
#4
Literary historians today have rejected conventional analyses of the development of English Renaissance drama. They no longer accept the idea that the sudden achievement of Elizabethan playwrights was a historical anomaly, a sort of magical rediscovery of ancient Greek dramatic form applied to contemporary -English subject matter. Instead, most students of the theater now view Elizabethan drama as being organically related to traditional local drama, particularly medieval morality plays.
#5
In 1975, 35 percent of state W’s work force was employed in manufacturing jobs. That percentage dropped in each following year until in 1982 it reached 25 percent.
#6
The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government has placed on Industry poses more serious hardships for big businesses than for small ones. Since large companies do everything on a more massive scale, they must alter more complex operations and spend much more money to meet governmental requirements.