GRE Critical Reasoning
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.
Veteran screenwriters, aiming at creating a 120-page screenplay for a film, usually turn in a 135-page first draft. As one screenwriter put it, “That gives those in charge of the movie a chance to be creative when they get the script: at the very least, they can cut 15 pages.”
#1
During the day in Lake Constance, the zoo- plankton D. hyalina departs for the depths where food is scarce and the water cold. D. galeata remains near the warm surface where food is abundant. Even though D. galeata grows and reproduces much fqster, its population is often outnumbered by D. hyalina.
#2
Each year, fires in the United States cause $12 billion in property losses, insurance costs, fire- fighting expenses, and loss of worker productivity. These fire losses are seven times those of Japan on a per capita basis.
#3
Many researchers believe that the presence of RN A in brain cells is the biochemical basis of memory; that is, the presence of RNA enables us to remember. Because certain chemicals are known to inhibit the synthesis of RNA in the body, we can test this hypothesis. Animals that have learned particular responses can be injected with an RNA inhibitor and then tested for memory of the learned responses.
#4
The greatest chance for the existence of extra- terrestrial life is on a planet beyond our solar system. The Milky Way galaxy alone contains 100 billion other suns, many of which could be accompanied by planets similar enough to Earth to make them suitable abodes of life.
#5
A ten-year comparison between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of crop yields per acre revealed that when only planted acreage is compared, Soviet yields are equal to 68 percent of United States yields. When total agricultural acreage (planted acreage plus fallow acreage) is compared, however, Soviet yield is 114 percent of United States yield.