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GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 27

Jimmy Wang
07/26/2024

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.

Contrary to the assumption that modern technology allows us to improve on nature, it is clear that any major technologically induced changes in a natural system are likely to be detrimental to that system. If you were to open the back of your watch, close your eyes, and poke a pencil into the exposed works, the almost certain result would be damage to the watch. Living organisms too, when subjected to technological alteration, will almost certainly be damaged rather than improved.

#1

The argument above is developed by

examining the results of technological innovations of the past

citing a consensus of opinion about technology among informed observers

analyzing a natural system in terms of its constituent parts

projecting the effects of change in a natural system from observation of a representative case

drawing an analogy between a natural system and a mechanical device

The plant called the scarlet gilia can have either red or white flowers. It had long been thought that hummingbirds, which forage by day, pollinate its red flowers and that hawkmoths, which forage at night, pollinate its white flowers. To try to show that this pattern of pollination by colors exists, scientists recently covered some scarlet gilia flowers only at night and others only by day: plants with red flowers covered at night became pollinated; plants with white flowers covered by day became pollinated.

#2

Which of the following, if true, would be additional evidence to suggest that hummingbirds are attracted to the red flowers and hawkmoths to the white flowers of the scarlet gilia?

White flowers of the scarlet gilia that were covered at night became pollinated with greater frequency than white flowers of the scarlet gilia that were left uncovered.

Scarlet gilia plants with red flowers covered by day and scarlet gilia plants with white flowers covered at night remained unpollinated.

Some red flowers of the scarlet gilia that remained uncovered at all times never became pollinated.

Uncovered scarlet gilia flowers, whether red or white, became pollinated at approximately equal rates.

In late August, when most of the humming-birds had migrated but hawkmoths were still plentiful, red scarlet gilia plants produced fruit more frequently than they had earlier in the season.

The chief executive officer of one of the country’s most successful steel manufacturing firms is amused at the publicity her management practices have attracted. She thinks managers get too much of the credit for upswings in their businesses. “A fickle public assumes too easily that managers are brilliant when demand is strong and idiotic when it is weak,” she asserts.

#3

It can be inferred from the statement made by the chief executive officer that she believes which of the following?

Her own management practices are likely to be of little value to other businesses.

A successful manager should attempt to control public opinion.

There are no managers who can justifiably be said to be brilliant.

The role of managers becomes less important during economic downturns than it is in relatively prosperous times.

The level of demand for the products of manufacturing firms cannot be completely controlled by the managers of the firms.

To many environmentalists, the extinction of plants—accompanied by the increasing genetic uniformity of species of food crops—is the single most serious environmental problem. Something must be done to prevent the loss of wild food plants or no longer-cultivated food plants. Otherwise, the lack of genetic diversity could allow a significant portion of a major crop to be destroyed overnight. In 1970, for example, southern leaf blight destroyed approximately 20 percent of the United States corn crop, leaving very few varieties of corn unaffected in the areas over which the disease had spread.

#4

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage above?

Plant breeders focus on developing plants that are resistant to plant disease.

Susceptibility to certain plant diseases is genetically determined.

The extinction of wild food plants can in almost every case be traced to destructive plant diseases.

Eighty percent of the corn grown in the United States is resistant to southern leaf blight.

Corn is the only food crop threatened by southern leaf blight.

Many pregnant women suffer from vitamin deficiency, but this is frequently not due to vitamin deficiency in their diets; most often it is because they have higher requirements for vitamins than do the rest of the population.

#5

The best criticism of the reasoning in the statement above is that it

provides insufficient information about the incidence of vitamin deficiency in other groups with high vitamin requirements

gives insufficient information about why pregnant women have higher vitamin requirements than do other groups

fails to specify the percentage of pregnant women who suffer from vitamin deficiency

uses “higher requirements” in an ambiguous manner

fails to employ the same reference group for both uses of the term “vitamin deficiency”

Whenever the sun is shining and the windchill factor is below zero, Susan wears her parka. Whenever it is raining and the windchill factor is above zero, Susan wears her raincoat. Sometimes it rains when the sun is shining.

#6

If the above statements are true, which of the following must also be true?

If it rains while the sun is shining and the windchill factor is zero, Susan wears her parka.

If it is not raining and Susan is wearing her parka, the sun is shining.

If the windchill factor is below zero and it is not raining, Susan is wearing her parka.

If the windchill factor is below zero and it is raining, Susan is wearing her raincoat.

If the windchill factor is below zero and Susan is not wearing her parka, the sun is not shining.

# GRE Critical Reasoning

GRE Critical Reasoning

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

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