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GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 30

Jimmy Wang
08/13/2024

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 recent survey, marriage is fattening. Cited as evidence is the survey’s finding that the average woman gains 23 pounds and the average man gains 18 pounds during 13 years of marriage.

#1

The answer to which of the following questions would be most relevant in evaluating the reasoning presented in the survey?

Why was the period of time studied in the survey 13 years, rather than 12 or 14

How much weight is gained or lost in 13 years by single people of comparable age to those surveyed?

Will the reported gains be maintained over the lifetimes of the persons surveyed?

Were the women surveyed as active as the men surveyed, at the time the survey was made?

Did some of the men surveyed gain less than 18 pounds during the time they were married?

Speakers of a language rely on their general knowledge of the world in order to make sense of statements they hear or read. Computers can easily be “taught” the formal rules of a language, but supplying them with this general knowledge is another matter. It is extremely difficult to develop computers that can extract the meaning of ordinary sentences.

#2

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

Computers that can understand ordinary sentences have all the basic capabilities necessary to become “speakers” of the language.

Computers that can be “taught;’ the rules of a human language can understand statements in that language.

Speakers of a language often must reject the formal rules of that language in order to understand simple sentences.

The interpretation of the meaning of ordinary sentences is dependent on a general knowledge of the world.

It is futile to try to “teach” computers the formal rules of any language.

In mammals it is the secondary palate that permits breathing while eating. Clearly, breathing while eating is necessary to maintain the high rate of metabolism of mammals.

#3

Forty-five percent of all blood donated in the United States is type O. Type O blood is essential for emergencies where there is no time for determining the blood type of victims because type O blood can be used for everyone. Type O blood is unique in that it is compatible with blood of all types: any recipient, regardless of blood type, can be given it. But precisely because of this special usefulness, type O blood is chronically in short supply.

#4

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

Supplies of type O blood are continuously so low that type O blood is unavailable for emergencies, where its usefulness would be greatest.

The special usefulness· of type O blood lies in the fact that it matches the blood type of most people.

Any decision to give blood of any type other than O needs to be based on knowledge of the recipient’s blood type.

Forty-five percent of the total popUlation of the United States has type O blood, which makes type O the most common blood type.

Type O blood is the only blood that cannot be typed as fast as needed in emergencies.

Many geologists theorize that the trail of volcanic craters and cinder cones along the Snake River plain of southern Idaho was produced as the North American continent slid westward over a stationary’ “plume,” a vertical channel through which m’olten rock rose intermittently from the Earth’s core to burst through its crust.

#5

Which of the following, if true, tends to support the geologists' theory of how the trail was produced?

The most violent volcanic activity apparently occurred at the western margin of the trail.

The largest craters and cinder cones are on the eastern margin of the trail.

The craters and cinder cones are evenly spaced throughout the extent of the trail.

The craters and cinder cones on the western margin of the trail generally took longer to form than did those on the eastern margm.

The newest craters and cinder cones are on the eastern margin of the trail.

It has been hypothesized that much of the matter in the universe is “dark”; i.e., unseen. Studies have shown that galaxies in many galaxy clusters are moving faster with respect to one another than they would if visible stars constituted all their mass. The studies suggest that the galaxies are moving under the gravitational influence of unseen mass in considerable quantity.

#6

Which ofthe following is an assumption underlying the passage above?

Measurements of the speed of moving galaxies are extremely unreliable.

The aggregate mass of visible stars in the galaxies mentioned above can be estimated with some confidence.

The general composition of unseen matter in the universe has been determined.

Without exception, the galaxies mentioned above move toward one another.

The workings of gravitational forces are not particularly well understood.

# GRE Critical Reasoning

GRE Critical Reasoning

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