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GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 25

Jimmy Wang
07/23/2024

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 study of more than,8,000 people using ten beaches on two of the Great Lakes, ecologists from the University of Toronto determined that the rate of respiratory and gastrointestinal illness among people who had been swimming was 69.6 per 1,000, whereas the respiratory and gastrointestinal illness rate among those who had not been swimming was only 29.5 per 1,000.

#1

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

The association between swimming in these lakes and respiratory and gastrointestinal illness is some evidence for a causal relationship between them.

A large percentage of the people who swim in these lakes are immune to the diseases that swimming may cause.

Respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses occur at a higher rate as a result of swimming in either of these lakes than they do as a result of swimming in any other lake.

Illnesses of kinds other than respiratory and gastrointestinal are not likely to be associated with swimming in either of these lakes.

People tend to underestimate the risks of swimming in these lakes.

The story of Robinson Crusoe’s adventures on an uninhabited island is no longer as popular as it once was, nor does it inspire modern versions in popular fiction. This change in the reading public’s taste has occurred because it is no longer easy to believe that undiscovered, uninhabited islands still exist.

#2

The author's reasoning about the decreased popularity of Robinson Crusoe-like adventures in popular fiction is based on which of the following assumptions?

Readers of popular fiction are found among people with diverse interests, with the result that no single type of fiction appeals to all.

Readers of popular fiction prefer settings that they can readily accept as plausible contemporary settings.

Readers of popular fiction no longer wish to exchange their current lives for lives freed from the demands made on them by other people.

The most satisfying type of popular fiction is that which enables the reader to participate vicariously in another person’s adventures.

As a result of media coverage, more people are acquainted with foreign locales today than at any time in the past.

Substances suspected of causing cancer, if carefully administered to experimental animals in quantities in which those substances are ordinarily present in the environment, are virtually guaranteed not to produce cancer at rates significantly above the chance level. The most economical procedure for obtaining informative data is to administer vastly increased amounts of the substance being tested.

#3

The 'economical procedure' described above will not be an effective one if which of the following is true?

Substances will often be tested in amounts greater than necessary to obtain informative data.

Experimental animals will often develop cancer in response to receiving excessive quantities of a substance, regardless of the specific properties of the substance.

Cancer data on experimental animals yield accurate estimates of the risk of cancer for human beings.

Among experimental animals, the chance level for many types of cancer is virtually zero.

When more of a possibly cancer-causing substance is administered to experimental animals, fewer animals are needed for significant data to be obtained.

How does a building contractor most readily prove compliance with the building codes governing new construction? By using those established technologies that the authors of the codes had in mind when setting specifications. This, unfortunately, means that there will never be any significant technological innovation within the industry.

#4

The argument above depends on the assumption that, in choosing the technologies to use in new construction, building contractors

pay little or no attention to the total construction costs entailed by different technologies

are always concerned to exceed the official specifications by a wide margin in order to forestall challenges

are always more concerned to avoid difficulties in proving compliance with the relevant codes than to be innovative

are able to foresee any changes the releVant codes may undergo before the completion of a new project

consult directly with the authors of the relevant codes in order to avoid using an unproven technology

#5

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

Noncompliance with the codes governing new construction can prove extremely costly to the building contractor in charge of the project.

What are now regarded as established technologies were once so innovative that the authors of the codes then applicable could not have foreseen them.

The authors of codes governing new construction are under pressure to set rigorous specifi- cations.

The established technologies of one country’s building industry can be very different from those of another’s.

Among the authors of codes governing new construction are people who were formerly building contractors.

X: When a rare but serious industrial accident occurs, people respond by believing that such accidents are becoming more frequent. This belief is irrational. After all, being dealt four aces in a hand of poker, a rare event, hardly increases one’s chances of being dealt four aces in a future hand.

Y: To the contrary, the belief is rational because it results in people’s sensing a danger to them- selves not previously sensed and taking precau- tionary actions to prevent similar accidents in the future.

#6

Y's attempt to counter X's claim is best described by which of the following?

It questions the aptness of the analogy drawn by X.

It shifts the basis for judging rationality to considerations of utility.

It makes apparent X’s failure to consider how people vary in their responses to a serious accident.

It challenges X’s assumption that the occurrence of a single event is sufficient to change a belief.

It offers an alternative explanation of why people form incorrect beliefs.

# GRE Critical Reasoning

GRE Critical Reasoning

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