The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 22

Jimmy Wang
07/15/2024

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.

Popcorn kernels explode, or “pop,” when the moisture inside the kernel is heated and steam builds up pressure inside the kernel. Uniform moisture content in a batch of popcorn kernels ensures uniform popping time, which in turn ensures fewer unpopped kernels. In practice, the percentage of unpopped kernels in a batch can be reduced by sorting popcorn kernels by size.

#1

Which of the (ollowing, if true. best helps explain why the percentage of unpopped kernels is lower when popcorn kernels are of size?

Yellow popcorn kernels have more moisture content than do white or blue popcorn kernels.

All popcorn kernels, no matter what their size, will pop under proper conditions.

Damaged kernels, another cause of unpopped kernels, have a lower moisture content than intact kernels.

The percentage of unpopped kernels can be reduced by increasing cooking time.

A popcorn kernel’s moisture content is fully determined by its size.

Two percent of the ocean is coastal ocean-shallow coastal waters in which most fish live. The rest is deep ocean, where fewer fish live. Much of the garbage burned or dumped on land eventually is deposited in coastal ocean. To keep coastal ocean free of garbage, therefore, garbage should be dumped in the deep ocean.

#2

Which of the following. if true, constitutes the strongest basis for criticizing the argument above?

Hazardous industrial waste has increasingly been dumped illegally into coastal-ocean waters.

Deep-ocean dumping would require a substantial change in the processing and packaging of waste.

There are at present no international agreements regUlating dumping in the deep ocean.

Currents far below the ocean’s surface bring deep-ocean waters to the coastal ocean.

The few species of fish that inhabit the deep ocean are of no commercial value.

Unlike the lungs and the kidneys, the liver is an organ well suited or living-donor transplants to children because the portion of the liver which must be removed from a healthy adult to replace the diseased liver of a child will be regenerated in the healthy adult witrun a few months.

#3

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

Replacement chemicals that will not destroy ozone have not yet been developed and would be more expensive than the chemicals now used as coolants in refrigerators.

The coolants in refrigerators can be fully recovered at the end of the useful life of the refrigerators and reused.

It is impossible to measure with accuracy the quantity of ozone-destroying chemicals that exist as coolants in refrigerators.

In modern societies, refrigeration of food is necessary to prevent unhealthy and potentially life-threatening conditions.

Even if people should give up the use of refrigeration, the coolants already in existing refrigerators are a threat to atmospheric ozone.

Only in a social milieu in which many parties are scheduled for the same time do party hosts buy visually striking invitations in order to attract the invited guests to the parties. A business that produces visually striking party invitations is currently located in Los Angeles. Thus, it can be concluded that the schedule of parties in Los Angeles must be very crowded.

#4

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

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.

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

The town of Stavanger, Norway, was quiet and peaceful until the early 1960’s, when Stavanger became Norway’s center for offshore oil exploration. Between then and now, violent crime and vandalism in Stavanger have greatly increased. Clearly, these social problems are among the results of Stavanger’s oil boom.

#5

Which of the following, if it occurred between the early 1960's and now, gives the strongest support to the argument above?

Nonviolent crime, drug addiction, and divorce in Stavanger increased approximately as much as violent crime and vandalism did.

Violent crime and vandalism have remained low in Norwegian towns that had no oil boom.

The oil boom necessitated the building of wider roads for the increased traffic in Stavanger.

The people of Stavanger rarely regret that their town was chosen to be Norway’s center for offshore oil exploration.

Norwegian sociologists expressed grave concern about the increase in violent crime and vandalism in Stavanger.

Students can learn mathematics only by exploring it on their own, with generous room for trial and error. For what matters in the long run is not acquiring particular computational skills (since without constant use skills rapidly fade), but knowing how to find and use suitable mathematical tools whenever they become necessary.

#6

If the position expressed above is correct, then each of the following can be true EXCEPT:

Prospective teachers should themselves learn mathematics as a process of constructing and interpreting patterns, of devising strategies for solving problems, and of discovering the beauties and applications of mathematics.

Most current teaching presents mathematics as established doctrine, stressing the production of right answers rather than the ability to communicate reasons.

Mathematics teachers are often afraid that someone will ask a question that they cannot answer, and this insecurity frequently leads to authoritarianism in the classroom.

Political leaders must accept responsibility for coordinating a nationwide plan for all levels of instruction if mathematics education is to improve.

The most effective method for teaching students mathematics is for teachers to state the definitive rule for solving exercises of a given type and then to insist on rote practice in its proper application.