The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 41

Jimmy Wang
11/21/2024

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.

During the War of 1812, the United States Congress licensed privateers (armed pirates) who were empowered to plunder enemy ships. Those privateers financed their ventures through the sale of the seized cargo. A Florida man has petitioned Congress to license modern privateers to mount a private “war-for-profit” against seagoing smugglers of illegal drugs.

#1

Which of the following, if true, is a drawback to the Florida man's proposal?

Most of the ships used by drug smugglers are modified fishing boats.

Modern ships are much faster than those of the nineteenth century.

Although the United States Constitution still authorizes the licensing of privateers, no licenses have been issued for over 150 years.

Modern privateers would be unable to finance their operations by selling the seized cargo without being in violation of the law.

The 1812 privateers were plundering ships that belonged to citizens of another country.

Dense snow cover can cause unusually harsh weather patterns to persist. If a severe winter storm blankets the Great Plains, the snow cover reflects the sun’s radiation back into space and thus keeps the temperature of the ground low. Consequently, cold air moving down from Canada remains cold enough to cause more snowstorms.

#2

Which of the following is a conclusion that can be properly drawn from the information above?

Winter weather on the Great Plains is the product of unusual movements of air masses.

Even if the temperatures on the Great Plains are not extremely cold but are just below freezing, a moderate snow-storm will probably turn into a blizzard.

The Great Plains are more likely than other areas to suffer unusually harsh weather patterns.

If the Great Plains get more snow than usual early in the winter and the snow remains until the spring thaw, the winter is likely to be colder than usual.

The temperature of the ground depends primarily on the thickness of the snow cover.

No botanist lives long enough to study the complete life cycle of an individual California redwood tree. Nevertheless, by observing many trees at different stages, botanists can piece together the evolution of a single tree. Exactly the same principle applies in astronomy to the study of the”life story of globular clusters, huge spherical aggregations of about a million stars all swarming about each other.

#3

Which of the following is an assumption made in the passage above?

Globular clusters at different stages of development are accessible to astronomers for observation and study.

The methods of scientists in one field generally carryover to other fields even If the subject matter is vastly different.

Redwoods and globular clusters must both be studied intensively now, while they still exist in sufficient numbers.

There are globular clusters that have not so far been detected by astronomers.

Observations of the life cycle of a single individual have little value in scientific studies.

#4

Which of the following studies is most similar, in terms of both the problem posed by the time dimension and the method of coping with that problem, to the studies of botanists and astronomers alluded to in the passage above?

A study charting developments in automotive engineering whose method is to contrast comparable models from many different years

A study of an extinct creature’s skeletal development whose method is to compare the extant skeletons of individuals that died at different ages

A study analyzing the progression of lakes from their formation to their end as peat bogs whose method is to examine lakes at many different stages of this progression

A study of the annual growth cycle of the sugar maple whose method is to analyze many different individual trees in an effort to derive a composite picture

A study of the impact of computers on industrial society whose method is to monitor the degree of computerization by calculating several significant indices every three

Consider three fish swimming together in a school. The space within which each fish can be seen by predator Y is defined by a sphere centered on the fish and having a radius that is the maximum distance Y can see. The school is vulnerable to attack when Y is within one of the three spheres. The spheres overlap to a great extent, since the fish are in a compact group.

#5

Which of the following is a reliable inference to be drawn from the passage above?

The maximum distance at which predator Y can see its prey is increased if Y is itself swimming in a school of V’s.

The vulnerability to attack of the school as a whole is not much greater than the vulnerability to attack of anyone fish in the school.

The maximum distance at which an individual fish is visible depends-less on the size of the fish than on whether the fish is swimming in a school.

There is less chance that predator Y will attack a school of four fish than that it will attack a school of three fish.

Fish who swim in schools are less likely to be devoured by predators than are fish who do not swim in schools.

In respectable periodicals, books are given reviewing space in inverse proportion to the likely size of their sales. Airport and supermarket bookstalls stock only books that are expected to sell in large numbers. Consequently, those who buy books at such bookstalls have to do so without any guidance whatever from the book reviewers whose work is published in respectable periodicals.

#6

Which of the following is a valid criticism of the argument above?

Bookstalls like those found at airports and in supermarkets are designed to induce people to buy books on impulse.

The fact that a book is expected to sell well does not guarantee that actual sales will be large.

The assortment of books available at airport bookstalls is different from the assortment of books available at supermarket bookstalls.

The conclusion that respectable periodicals never publish reviews of projected best-sellers is unwarranted.

Many who later come to be respected as book reviewers start their careers by writing for trashy magazines.

# GRE Critical Reasoning

GRE Critical Reasoning

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