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GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 14

Jimmy Wang
05/09/2024

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.

Pauline and Lorraine are paid the same amount of wages per hour for working at the same company, but Pauline has a more difficult job than Lorraine. Pauline argues that because her job is more difficult, the company should pay her more than it pays Lorraine.

#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?

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

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

Was the accident serious?

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

Scientists warn of a global warming, a “greenhouse effect” resulting from increased atmospheric pollutants, including carbon dioxide from the burning of wood, coal, and oil. A coal-industry spokesperson says that the effect need not cause concern in the near future if, as some scientists believe, the Earth faces another ice age within the next thousand years, since each calamity could cancel out tIle other.

#2

Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the conclusion of the spokesperson?

The disastrous results of the greenhouse effect have begun to occur and will probably intensify within the next fifty years.

Much of the carbon dioxide currently being produced comes not from coal but from the burning of trees cleared from large areas of tropical rain forest.

Trees absorb some of the carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere and produce oxygen, which is not a pollutant.

There is a generally cyclical pattern in the recurrence of ice ages on Earth.

The greenhouse effect is a scientific conjecture based on incomplete data about gases in the upper atmosphere and on a theory about how those gases could affect the heat from the Sun.

Although part of the ivory available on world markets was taken from wild elephants that were killed illegally, some ivory is derived from sources that nearly all nations define as legal, such as elephants that have died natural deaths. The world’s few remaining wild elephant herds, therefore, are not endangered when those buying ivory at wholesale make a serious effort to limit their purchases to such legal ivory.

#3

The argument above depends on the assumption that

wholesale buyers attempting to limit their purchases to legal ivory can reliably distinguish legal from illegal ivory

the demand for products made from legal ivory will continue to grow in the near future

wholesale buyers of ivory products are generally unaware of the reasons for the dwindling world supply of ivory

there are currently fewer wholesale sources of legal ivory in the world than there are of illegal ivory

a continued supply of legal ivory is ensured because elephants reproduce in captivity

The result of flipping an evenly weighted, or “fair,” coin, a process commonly thought to be random, is, in fact, well determined by the impulse given the coin and by the height above the floor from which the coin starts. Yet it is difficult to predict the result of a fair coin flip.

#4

Which of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of why the outcome of a coin flip is difficult to predict even though it is well determined?

An accurate prediction of the result of a coin flip requires extraordinarily precise estimation of height and impulse.

Coin flipping has been used as a prime example , of a random process for decades.

The result of flipping an unevenly weighted coin can be predicted with great accuracy.

That the results of coin flipping are well deter- mined runs counter to the randomness that physicists have been finding in more and more processes once thought to be determined.

If the impulses of coin flippings remain perfectly constant, the results are determined only by the height from which the coin falls.

Police found that ninety percent of the burglaries and attempted burglaries over a five-year period in the city of Crowther occurred in houses that did not have burglar alarm systems. The police concluded that, in Crowther, the presence of a burglar alarm system is usually effective as a deterrent to burglary.

#5

The conclusion reached by the police presupposes which of the following?

The burglars entered houses that had burglar alarm systems only when they anticipated finding particularly valuable goods.

The difference in the burglary rate between houses that had burglar alarm systems and those that did not had remained constant during the five-year period.

When they entered a house that had no burglar alarm system, the burglars could take more time to search for valuables.

Before they entered a house, the burglars could usually tell whether or not it had a burglar alarm system.

The burglars entered houses only when they thought the occupants were away or asleep.

Partha has withdrawn its troops from Baltia after five years of occupation. Earlier this year the country of Cardena began shipping mules to Baltia’s resistance fighters to facilitate transport of weapons across Baltia’s mountains to the battle areas. Cardena’s diplomats now claim that without Cardena’s aid to Baltia’s resistance fighters, Partha would not have withdrawn.

#6

Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the accuracy of the assertion of Cardena's diplomats?

Resistance fighters in Baltia fought for five years against Partha’s occupying troops.

During the past yeflr, Cardena shipped weapons and food, as well as mules, to resistance fighters in Baltia.

Last year a new government took power in Partha and decided that national interests were not served by the occupation of Baltia.

Two years ago Partha had no plans to reduce its forces in Baltia.

No precise figures are available concerning the number of mules shipped to Baltia.

# GRE Critical Reasoning

GRE Critical Reasoning

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