The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 10

Jimmy Wang
04/24/2024

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.

5. Public education suffers from what can be diagnosed as the sickness of an overgoverned society. This sickness denies many parents control over the kind of education their children receive. The power once held by parents has gravitated to professional educators. The sickness has been aggravated by increasing centralization and bureaucratization of schools.

#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?

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

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

Was the accident serious?

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

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

From a certain farming region, trucks can carry vegetables to market in New Mexico in two days for a total cost of $300. A train will carry the vegetables there in four days for $200. If reducing time in transit is more important to the owner of the vegetables than is reducing the shipping bill, he or she will send the vegetables by truck.

#2

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

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

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

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

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

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

The expression “the doctrine of unshakable foundations” was once used by a critic in an effort to illuminate the dogmatic nature of certain economic and political philosophies whose adherents, when confronted with the failure of a policy designed to put their philosophy into practice, can conceive of only one reaction: to design another, different policy for putting it into practice.

#3

It can be inferred from the passage above that the critic would approve if the adherents

had refrained from trying to put any of their philosophies into practice

carefully analyzed those traits of a failed policy that appear promising despite the overall failure

had the courage to try a failed policy again without any changes

allowed failure of a policy to lead them to question the underpinnings of their philosophies

concluded from the failure of a policy of theirs that the policy must not have reflected their philosophy adequately

If an investment has produced no profit, tax relief predicated on having made the investment is no help; any corporate manager who fears that a new asset will not make money is scarcely comforted by promises of reductions in taxes the corporation will not owe.

#4

Which of the following is the most reliable inference to draw from the passage above?

The less importance a corporate manager attaches to tax considerations, the more likely it is that the manager will accurately predict the profitability of an investment.

Corporate managers are likely to ignore tax considerations in deciding to invest in assets they believe will be profitable.

An effective way to discourage unprofitable corporate investment is to predicate tax relief on the making of profitable investments.

The promise of tax benefits for making new investments will not in and of itself stimulate new investment.

The critical factor in a corporate investment decision is likely to be a corporate manager’s emotional response to perceived business conditions.

The results of a recent poll in the United States indicate that the public, by 80 percent to 17 percent, opposes relaxation of existing regulation of air pollution. Furthermore, not a single major segment of the public wants environmental laws made less strict. The results of this poll reveal that legislators, by voting for renewal of the Clean Air Act, will be responsive to the will of the public without alienating any significant special-interest groups.

#5

Which of the following pieces of information would be most useful in evaluating the logic of the argument presented above?

The people whom the author hopes to influence by citing the results of the poll

The length of time that current federal environmental laws have been in effect and the length of time that states have regulated air pollution

The groups in the population that were defined as major segments of the public and the groups defined as special-interest groups

The percentage of those surveyed who chose not to respond to the questions asked of them

The probable economic effect of renewal of the Clean Air Act on those opposed to and those in favor of relaxing environmental laws

After a rebellion in a certain country was put down, the country’s parliament debated how to deal with the defeated rebels. One side proposed that all the rebels be imprisoned in order to deter those who might be strongly tempted to rebel in the future. The other side argued against imprisonment because it would only discourage future insurrectionists from surrendering.