GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 18

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?

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?

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?

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?

“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?

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?

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