The Alphabet

GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 31

Jimmy Wang
08/22/2024

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.

The company should not be held responsible for failing to correct the control-panel problem that caused the accident. Although the problem had been mentioned earlier in a safety inspector’s report, companies receive hundreds of reports of such problems, and Industry Standard No. 42 requires action on these problems only when an accident is foreseeable.

#1

Considering only the information given about burn patients in the passage above, which of the following is most likely to enhance the effectiveness of the standard treatment of a burn patient?

Continuously monitoring the patient’s vital signs with electronic equipment

Keeping the areas affected by burns as dryas possible

Keeping the patient in an air-conditioned room until recovery is assured

Keeping the patient in a maximally sterile environment

Feeding the patient a diet extra rich in calories

Riothamus, a fifth-century king of the Britons, was betrayed by an associate, fought bravely against the Goths but was defeated, and disappeared mysteriously. Riothamus’ activities, and only those of Riothamus, match almost exactly those attributed to King Arthur. Therefore, Riothamus must be the historical model for the legendary King Arthur.

#2

A worldwide ban on the production of certain ozone-destroying chemicals would provide only an illusion of protection. Quantities of such chemicals, already produced, exist as coolants in millions of refrigerators. When they reach the ozone layer in the atmosphere, their action cannot be halted. So there is no way to prevent these chemicals from damaging the ozone layer further.

#3

Which of the following, if true, is likely to be among the factors that account for the disparity between auto workers' and garment workers' wages?

There is generally less variation among the wages of garment industry workers than among those of auto industry workers.

The auto industry employs a larger total number of workers than does the garment industry.

The fringe benefits that auto makers provide for their employees are more comprehensive than are those provided for garment workers.

The auto industry faces more competition from companies outside the United States paying low wages than does the garment industry.

Wage increases in the auto industry have a smaller effect on manufacturers’ total costs than do wage increases in the garment industry.

When an osprey (a fish-eating hawk) returns from fishing to its nesting area with a fish like an alewife, a pollack, or a smelt, other ospreys will retrace its flight path in hopes of good fishing. There is seldom such a response if the first bird brings back a winter flounder. Yet ospreys feed on winter flounder just as readily as on any other fish.

#4

Which of the following, if true, would additionally weaken the traditional view that alkaptonuria afflicted many Egyptians 2,500 years ago?

Some mummies of that period show no evidence of joint damage at all.

Although alkaptonuria is a disease that can be inherited, it did not appear in the descendants of the Egyptian population in which the symptoms were found.

Possible evidence of alkaptonuria has been pointed out in pictures representing the human figure found on artifacts left by other Middle Eastern cultures of that period.

X-rays of the mummies showed shadows that clearly suggested joint damage, and recent inspection of the skeletons has confirmed that hypothesis.

Egyptian embalming methods were highly secret, and scientists are still not certain of the nature of some of the chemicals that were used.

A recent study of an insurance company’s under- writers indicated that those who worked in pleasant physical surroundings were 25 percent more productive than their peers in unpleasant physical surroundings. Objective criteria for evaluating job performance included caseload and complexity of cases. This shows that improving workers’ environments increases those workers’ productivity.

#5

Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from this report?

The median family income is affected more by changes in family patterns than by the extent of expansion or recession of the national economy.

The median family income can increase even though the family income of some subgroups within the population declines or fails to increase.

The national poverty rate has increased steadily over the last eighteen years.

The category of adults not living with any rela- tives is the most critical group in the determination of whether the economy has improved.

The national poverty rate will increase when there are lingering effects of an earlier recession.

In a certain country, individuals tend to change their political affiliation readily from one political party to another. In the past the Union party grew larger because of this tendency, but although most of those who change to a new party affiliation change to the Union party, the Union party has remained about the same size in recent years.

#6

Which of the following, if true, does NOT support the claim made in the last sentence in the passage above?

Most commercial users of energy are located within range of a wood supply, and two-thirds of United States homes are located outside of metropolitan areas.

There are many competing uses for a finite supply of wood, and suppliers give the lum- ber and paper industries a higher priority than they give individual consumers.

Wood produces thick smoke in burning, and its extensive use in densely populated cities would violate federal antipollution guidelines.

There are relatively narrow limits to how far wood can be trucked before it becomes more economical to burn the gasoline used for transportation instead of the wood.

Most apartment dwellers do not have adequate storage space for the amount of wood necessary to supply energy for heating.