The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 28

Jimmy Wang
07/29/2024

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.

According to a newspaper article, a customs inspector believed that he could always tell if people were trying to deceive him. He based this belief on the fact that, in ten years of experience, in cases where he suspected that a tourist was carrying contraband, he was always right. Careful inspections of the lug- gage and persons of the suspects always turned up the contraband goods.

#1

Which of the following points up a logical flaw in the inspector's reasoning?

Only a small percentage of the tourists passing through the inspector’s checkpoint could be expected to be intentionally carrying contra- band.

Some tourists whom the inspector decided not to search could have knowingly carried contraband.

Other customs inspectors at the same check- point caught tourists carrying contraband just as often as this inspector did.

The tourists who passed through the inspector’s checkpoint could have known that they might be searched.

Some tourists who passed through the checkpoint without being searched could have been carrying contraband unwittingly.

In any negotiations between a party with limited aims and an opposing party with unlimited aims, the party with limited aims is bound to lose. This is so because the scope of a negotiating party’s aims determines the energy and the perseverance that will be brought to the negotiations by that party.

#2

Which of the following is an assumption implicit in the passage above?

A negotiator who has exceptionally high aims needs exceptional perseverance in order to avoid losing.

The intensity with which parties conduct negotiations affects the outcome of those negotiations.

The outcome of negotiations cannot be correctly predicted in advance.

Negotiating parties are typically not aware of the scope of each other’s aims until the come is no longer in doubt.

Negotiations almost always pit against one another parties whose aims differ in scope.

In a recent study, sedentary middle-aged men who drink more than two cups of coffee a day were found more likely than other sedentary middle aged men to have a high blood level o f cholesterol, which is a factor increasing risk of heart disease. Cholesterol can reach the blood from food and drink but is not contained in coffee.

#3

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens a conclusion from the study that for sedentary middle-aged men coffee increases the risk of heart attack?

The men studied drank their coffee without milk or cream, which contain cholesterol.

In both groups, the men were likely to be overweight, and excess weight is a factor that increases risk of heart disease.

Coffee contains caffeine, which acts as a stimulant that increases heart rate.

The men who drank more than two cups of coffee a day also ate more foods high in cholesterol.

A sedentary style of life increases levels of cholesterol in the blood.

A package is never accepted for delivery by the delivery service unless it is within the established size limits. All packages accepted for delivery by the delivery service have a return address.

#4

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

A package that is not within the established size limits but has a return address is never accepted for delivery by the delivery service.

I f a package is within the established size limits and has a return address, it will be accepted for delivery by the delivery service no matter how heavy the package is.

The delivery service will always accept for delivery a package that is within the established size limits.

The delivery service charges more for heavier packages than for lighter packages.

The delivery service does not charge for packages that must be returned to the sender.

The pattern of scientific grants awarded by foundations is changing as the number of worthy requests grows in the face of cuts in federal spending. Many foundations, formerly willing to fund innovative but risky projects, have begun to support relatively conservative projects only.

#5

From the passage above ifcan be most reasonably concluded that which of the following was true when the passage was written, as compared to preceding years?

Foundations had less money available to support worthwhile projects because of the rising costs of other activities.

Those programs that were more innovative than the ones funded by foundations were supported by the limited federal funds that were still available.

Foundations were increasingly alJowing decisions about which projects to fund to be based on a reluctance to see projects they supported fail.

The decision-makers at foundations tended to be more politically conservative.

Foundations were being forced to recognize that they could be more effective by granting smaller amounts of money to a greater number of projects.

The Wheat Farmers Alliance, a political action committee, attracts 70 percent of its contributors from an advertisement requesting contributions placed only in the September, October, and November issues of the Grange Report, a monthly newsletter for wheat farmers. The president of the Wheat Farmers Alliance, to increase the number of contributors, decides to advertise in each of the monthly issues of the Grange Report. She expects that, as a result of the additional Grange Report advertisements, the number of contributors will be increased to at least double the present number.

#6

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the president's expectation?

The total number of readers of the Grange Report is stable from year to year.

Wheat farmers traditionally repay their bank loans in late summer after the winter wheat crop has been harvested and sold.

The September, October, and November advertisements were noticed by fewer than one-third of those readers of the Grange Report who would be willing to contribute to the Wheat Farmers Alliance.

The majority of the readers of the Grange Report with a great enough interest in the Wheat Farmers Alliance to contribute have already responded to the advertisements.

Most of those who contribute to the Wheat Farmers Alliance in the course of a year do so in response to advertisements in the Grange Report.