The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 33

Jimmy Wang
09/05/2024

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.

A person who agrees to serve as mediator between two warring factions at the request of both abandons by so agreeing the right later to take sides. To take sides at a later point would be to suggest that the earlier presumptive impartiality was a sham.

#1

The passage above emphasizes which of the folloWIng points about mediators?

They should’not agree to serve unless they are committed to maintaining a stance of impartiality.

They should feel free to take sides in the dispute right from the start, provided that they make their biases publicly known.

They should try to form no opinions of their own about any issue that is related to the dispute.

They should not agree to serve unless they are equally acceptable to all parties to a dispute. ‘

They should reserve the right to abandon their impartiality so as not to be open to the charge of having been deceitful.

A study of attitudes toward prime-time television programs showed that programs with identical ratings in terms of number of people watching received highly divergent marks for quality from their viewers. This additional piece of information could prove valuable for advertisers, who might be well advised to spend their advertising dollars for programs that viewers feel are of high quality.

#2

Which of the following, if true, supports the claim that information about viewers' perceptions of the quality of television programs could be valuable to advertisers?

Television viewers tend to watch new programs only when those programs follow old familiar programs.

Television viewers report that the quality of a television advertisement has little effect on their buying habits.

Many of the programs judged to be of high quality were shown on noncommercial networks.

Television viewers more frequently remember the sponsors of programs they admire than the sponsors of programs they judge mediocre.

The number of programs judged to be of high quality constituted a high percentage of the total number of programs judged.

Nineteenth-century art critics judged art by the realism of its method of representation. It was assumed that the realistic method developed from primitive beginnings to the perfection of formal realism. It is one of the permanent gains of the aesthetic revolution of the twentieth century that we are rid of this type of aesthetics.

#3

It can be inferred from the passage above that the artistic revolution of the twentieth century had which of the following effects?

It repudiated the realistic representation found in the art of the past.

It reinforced traditional ways of looking at and judging great art.

It allowed art critics to understand the evolution and nature of art.

It permitted modern critics to appreciate the simplicity of primitive art.

It deemphasized realistic representation as an evaluative consideration for judging works of art.

Why save endangered species? For the general public, endangered species appear to be little more than biological oddities. A very different perception is gained from considering the issue of extinction in a wider context. The important point is that many major social advances have been made on the basis of life forms whose worth would never have been perceived in advance. Consider the impact of rubber-producing plants on contemporary life and industry: approximately two-thirds of the world’s rubber supply comes from rubber-producing plants and is made into objects as diverse as rubber washers and rubber boots.

#4

The author's point is made chiefly by

acknowledging the validity of two opposing points of view

trying to discredit the view of an opponent without presenting an alternative hypothesis

appealing to the emotions of the audience rather than to their intellects

generalizing from similar to dissimilar cases

suggesting a useful perspective for viewing the question raised at the beginning of the passage

#5

All of the following facts could be used as illustrative examples in addition to the example of rubber-producing plants EXCEPT:

Hamsters and other rodents have played an important role in laboratory tests of medicine for use on humans.

Certain antibiotics were originally derived from mold growing on cantaloupe.

The discovery of the vaccine for smallpox resulted from observing the effect of the cowpox virus on the hands of dairy workers.

The major source of our pharmaceutical supplies is plants, some of them commonly thought of as weeds.

Plastic is a unique product derived from petroleum and petroleum by-products.

In the United States between 1850 and 1880, the number of farmers continued to increase, but at a rate lower than that of the general population.

#6

Which of the following statements directly contradicts the information presented above?

The proportion of farmers in the United States labor force remained constant in the thirty years between 1850 and 1880.

The rate of growth of the United States labor force and the rate of growth of the general popUlation rose simultaneously in the thirty years between 1850 and 1880.

The number of farmers in the general popUlation increased slightly in the thirty years between 1850 and 1880.

The proportion of farmers in the general popUlation increased from 68 percent in 1850 to 72 percent in 1880.

The proportion of farmers in the United States labor force decreased from 64 percent in 1850 to 49 percent in J880.