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GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 19

Jimmy Wang
07/02/2024

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.

Research has proved that eating lots of fish greatly decreases the risk of developing heart disease. The key factor providing protection has been identified as omega-3 fatty acids, a family of fatty acids found in fish oils. Therefore, if people take dietary supplements of omega-3’s in capsule form, they will decrease their risk of developing heart disease.

#1

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?

The majority of people who eat fish say that they do so because they like the taste of fish.

Researchers have found evidence that fish oil supplements would also reduce the effects of asthma and arthritis for some persons.

Omega-3’s occur in extremely low quantities in some kinds of fish.

Omega-3’s are effective only because they interact with other substances found mainly in fish .

Some dietary supplements have been shown to have harmful side effects.

It is no wonder that some domestic car companies have to attract potential buyers with rebates and low interest rates. Why do not those companies produce cars that are more fuel-efficient? If all domestic manufacturers built cars that were as fuel-efficient as imported cars, rebates and low interest rates would not be needed.

#2

The argument above would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?

The offer of rebates has always signified that an industry is in decline.

For a majority of buyers of new cars, high fuel efficiency is the most important in choosing a car.

Some cars built by domestic manufacturers are more fuel-efficient than many of the popular imported cars.

Many car buyers rate operating costs as less important than initial purchase price when choosing a car.

Many car buyers prefer to purchase midsize and larger cars.

Ergot is a fungus that can infest the seed heads of any grain crop but is common only on rye. Ergot contains chemicals poisonous to humans.

Rye was introduced in Europe in the Middle Ages as a crop for land too poor and damp for wheat to grow well. Thus, rye tended to be the staple of the poorer peasants.

#3

Which of the following hypotheses is best supported by the information above?

People in the Middle Ages were well aware of the toxicity of ergot.

Before the introduction of rye, no attempts had been made to cultivate the poor and damp land in Europe.

Ergot did not occur in Europe prior to the Middle Ages.

Prior to the Middle Ages, Europe was as densely populated as dependence on a single grain crop permitted.

In Europe during the Middle Ages, prosperous people were less at risk from ergot poisoning than poor people were.

During the last twenty years, eleven percent of those people who received certification to practice in a particular profession were women, and all those people who received certification during those years obtained full-time positions. Nevertheless, only five percent of the full-time positions in this profession are currently held by women.

#4

Which of the following, if true, could explain the difference in the percentages mentioned in the passage above?

The majority of those currently in the profession were hired more than twenty years ago, when virtually everyone in the profession was male.

Although women currently hold five percent of the full-time positions in the profession, they hold only two percent of the supervisory positions.

The women certified in the last twenty years have tended to choose different specialties within the profession than the men have tended to choose.

Male and female members of the profession have been paid according to equal pay scales for all of the past twenty years.

It was easier to obtain certification twenty years ago than it is currently.

To be mentally healthy, people must have self-respect. People can maintain self-respect only by continually earning the respect of others they esteem. They can earn this respect only by treating these others morally.

#5

Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?

People who are mentally healthy will have treated morally those they esteem.

People who have self-respect seldom treat morally those they esteem.

People who are mentally healthy will be treated morally by others.

People can expect to be treated morally by others only if they esteem these others.

People who are mentally healthy must have self-respect in order to be treated morally by others.

People often recall having felt chilled before the onset of a cold. This supports the hypothesis that colds are, at least sometimes, caused by becoming chilled; it is the chill that allows a rhinovirus, if present, to infect a person.

#6

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the force of the evidence cited above?

Rhinoviruses are not always present in the environment, and so a person could become chilled without catching a cold.

Some people who catch colds are not sure what it was that allowed them to catch cold.

People who are tired and then become chilled are more likely to catch severe colds than are people who are chilled without being tired.

After a rhinovirus has incubated in a person for several days, the first symptom it causes is a feeling of chilliness.

Being chilled is a form of stress, and stress lowers the defenses of a person’s immune system, which guards against infection.

# GRE Critical Reasoning

GRE Critical Reasoning

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