The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 1

Jimmy Wang
03/06/2024

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.

The company should not be held responsible for failing to correct the control-panel problem that caused the accident. Although the problem had been mentioned earlier in a safety inspector’s report, companies receive hundreds of reports of such problems, and Industry Standard No. 42 requires action on these problems only when an accident is foreseeable.

#1

If the second sentence in the paragraph above is factually correct, the answer to which of the following questions is most relevant in helping to determine whether or not the company violated Industry Standard No. 42 when it failed to correct the control-panel problem?

Since the accident, has the company done a special safety check on all control panels?

Was the accident serious?

Was the control-panel problem of a type that is known to indicate that an accident is likely?

How long was the control panel in use before the problem was discovered?

Did the safety inspector mention more than one problem in the same report?

Riothamus, a fifth-century king of the Britons, was betrayed by an associate, fought bravely against the Goths but was defeated, and disappeared mysteriously. Riothamus’ activities, and only those of Riothamus, match almost exactly those attributed to King Arthur. Therefore, Riothamus must be the historical model for the legendary King Arthur.

#2

The argument above requires at least one additional premise. Which of the following could be such a required premise?

Modern historians have documented the activities of Riothamus better than those of any other fifth-century king.

The stories told about King Arthur are not strictly fictitious but are based on a historical person and historical events.

Legends about the fifth century usually embellish and romanticize the actual conditions of the lives of fifth-century nobility.

Posterity usually remembers legends better than it remembers the actual historical events on which they are based.

Riothamus’ associates were the authors of the original legends about King Arthur.

A worldwide ban on the production of certain ozone-destroying chemicals would provide only an illusion of protection. Quantities of such chemicals, already produced, exist as coolants in millions of refrigerators. When they reach the ozone layer in the atmosphere, their action cannot be halted. So there is no way to prevent these chemicals from damaging the ozone layer further.

#3

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

Replacement chemicals that will not destroy ozone have not yet been developed and would be more expensive than the chemicals now used as coolants in refrigerators.

In modern societies, refrigeration of food is necessary to prevent unhealthy and potentially life-threatening conditions.

Even if people should give up the use of refrigeration, the coolants already in existing refrigerators are a threat to atmospheric ozone.

The coolants in refrigerators can be fully recovered at the end of the useful life of the refrigerators and reused.

It is impossible to measure with accuracy the quantity of ozone-destroying chemicals that exist as coolants in refrigerators.

When an osprey (a fish-eating hawk) returns from fishing to its nesting area with a fish like an alewife, a pollack, or a smelt, other ospreys will retrace its flight path in hopes of good fishing. There is seldom such a response if the first bird brings back a winter flounder. Yet ospreys feed on winter flounder just as readily as on any other fish.

#4

Which of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the fishing behavior of ospreys as it is described above?

Ospreys that live in nesting areas are especially successful fishers.

Winter flounder and pollack exhibit protective coloration, but alewives and smelt do not.

Winter flounder prefer shallower waters than do alewives, pollack, or smelt.

Ospreys are seldom able to catch alewives, pollack, or smelt.

Alewives, pollack, and smelt move in schools, but winter flounder do not.

A recent study of an insurance company’s under- writers indicated that those who worked in pleasant physical surroundings were 25 percent more productive than their peers in unpleasant physical surroundings. Objective criteria for evaluating job performance included caseload and complexity of cases. This shows that improving workers’ environments increases those workers’ productivity.

#5

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

More-productive employees do not work any more hours than their less-productive peers.

On average, less-productive employees spend no fewer hours per day at their workstations than do their more-productive peers.

The more-productive employees are generally rewarded with pleasant office space.

Peer pressure discourages employees in crowded, unpleasant surroundings from making phone calls to their own family members during work time.

Unpleasant surroundings give employees less motivation to work hard than more pleasant surroundings do.

In a certain country, individuals tend to change their political affiliation readily from one political party to another. In the past the Union party grew larger because of this tendency, but although most of those who change to a new party affiliation change to the Union party, the Union party has remained about the same size in recent years.

#6

Which of the following, if true, best helps to explain the change in the growth pattern of the Union party mentioned above?

The percentage of voting-age citizens who are affiliated with any political party has increased over the last ten years.

The economy has been prospering recently, and many of those who change party affiliation are upwardly mobile and prosperous.

The percentage of voting-age citizens who change political party affiliation each year has remained constant, and the number of voting-age citizens has remained the same.

Many members of the Union party have abandoned all political party affiliation in recent years.

In recent years those who were previously nonaffiliated have tended to join the Union party if they joined any party at all.

Most television viewers estimate how frequently a particular type of accident or crime occurs by how extensively it is discussed on television news shows. Television news shows report more on stories that include dramatic pictures such as fires and motor vehicle accidents than they do on more common stories that have little visual drama such as book-keeping fraud.

#7

If the statements above are true, it can be properly concluded that which of the following is also true?

The usual selection of news stories for television news shows is detennined by the number of news reporters available for assignment.

Viewers of television news shows tend to over- estimate the number of fires and motor vehicle accidents that occur relative to the number of crimes of bookkeeping fraud.

The time that television news reporters spend researching news stories is directly related to the number of viewers who will be affected by events like those in the news stories.

It is easier for crimes such as bookkeeping fraud to go unprosecuted than it is for crimes such as arson.

The number of fires and motor vehicle accidents greatly increases after each television n~ws show that includes dramatic pictures of a fire or motor vehicle accident.