The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 18

Jimmy Wang
06/26/2024

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.

In a physical education class, 20 students were tested on archery target shooting. These students were then given a two-day training course in archery technique. The students were tested again and showed a 30 percent increase in accuracy. This result proves that the course was effective in increasing people’s target-shooting accuracy.

#1

Which of the following, if true, gives the strongest support to the argument above?

The students were all excellent athletes, and excellent athletes tend to be good at target shooting.

A similar group of students who were also tested on archery target shooting but were not given the course did not show an increase in accuracy.

The first testing session functioned as a practice session for the second testing session.

Excellence in archery target shooting is an accomplishment achieved by relatively few of the people who take up the sport.

The accuracy with which people can shoot arrows is strongly related to the sharpness of their vision.

Because the number of surgeons is growing faster than the number of operations and because noninvasive medical therapies are increasingly replacing surgery, the average annual number of operations per surge()n has fallen by one-fourth in recent years. It can be concluded that, if these trends continue, a dangerous decline in the level of surgical skill will occur.

#2

The argument above is based on which of the following assumptions?

The level of skill of each individual surgeon has declined in recent years.

All doctors, but especially surgeons, are receiving poorer training in medical school than they were a few years ago.

Some experienced surgeons are now performing a greater number of operations than they used to perform.

Surgeons now spend a large percentage of their time performing noninvasive medical procedures .

A surgeon’s skill cannot be properly maintained unless the surgeon performs operations with a certain minimum frequency.

Researchers who conducted a one-year study found that one marijuana cigarette deposits four times more tar in smokers’ lungs than does one tobacco cigarette. The researchers concluded that marijuana smokers are more likely to suffer from tar-induced lung cancer than are tobacco smokers.

#3

Which of the following statements, if true, would most seriously weaken the researchers' conclusion described above?

None of the human participants in the study had ever smoked tobacco or marijuana in the past.

A follow-up examination conducted five years after the original study showed that none of the human participants had tar-induced lung cancer.

The typical user of marijuana smokes much less frequently than does the typical user of tobacco.

The tobacco cigarettes used in the study contained slightly more tar than the tobacco cigarettes smoked by the typical user.

The marijuana cigarettes used in the study were substantially smaller than the marijuana cigarettes smoked by the typical user.

Fewer than half of the jobs in the United States conform even loosely to the standard forty-hour, nine-to-five weekday schedule, according to demo- graphic experts. This is largely due to the rapid increase in the number of service firms and in the proportion of the United States labor force these firms employ, the experts say.

#4

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

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

Ospreys that live in nesting areas are especially successful fishers.

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

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

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

“Headhunters” are firms that, for a fee, undertake to recruit for their clients personnel who are greatly needed yet hard to find. The clients, in turn, require that they be off-limits to headhunters whose services they buy; i.e., headhunters cannot raid one client’s staff on behalf of other clients.

#5

Of the following, which would, if feasible, be the best strategy for a company to pursue if that company wanted both to use headhunters to fill a vacancy and, if successful in fIlling the vacancy, to reduce the risk of losing the newly hired employee to a competitor?

Find out how much the company’s competitors currently pay staff of the sort being sought and offer to pay prospective employees higher salaries.

Find out which headhunters recruit workers of the sort being sought and employ all those headhunters.

Find out whether any of the company’s competitors are seeking to recruit workers of the sort being sought and, if so, make sure not to hire the same headhunters that they hire.

Find out which of the company’s competitors are on the client lists of the headhunters who are being considered for the job.

Find out which headhunter has the highest success rate in recruiting for its clients and hire that firm.

Angler: Fish such as suckers, shiners, and chubs are neither fun to catch nor good to eat. They should be eliminated from mountain ponds to make way for trout.

Fish and Game Commissioner: The state’s policy is to preserve any aquatic ecosystems that are indigenous to a given area. Interfering with fish populations in these ponds would violate this policy.

#6

Which of the following, if true, would cast most doubt on the Fish and Game Commissioner's posi- tion that the angIer's proposal is a violation of state policy?

Suckers, shiners, and chubs are dull, unattractive fish with none of the graceful beauty of trout.

The suckers, shiners, and chubs in mountain ponds are descendants of fish brought to those ponds by anglers for use as bait in catching the once abundant trout.

People who fish in mountain ponds have a deeper appreciation of nature than do people who never visit such areas.

The state’s policy of preserving natural aquatic ecosystems favors the interests and hobbies of one group of people over those of other groups.

A large percentage of the fish in mountain ponds could be eliminated and replaced with trout without seriously disturbing any plants or animals in the surrounding woodlands.