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GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 39

Jimmy Wang
10/29/2024

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.

The average after-tax income for a household was 2.4 percent higher in 1983 than in 1982. At the same time, average after-tax income declined for house-holds at the lower- and middle-income levels.

#1

Which of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the information above?

Average after-tax income for households at the upper-income level rose by more than 2.4 percent between 1982 and 1983.

There were fewer households at the upper-income level in 1983 than in 1982.

Average after-tax income for households at the lower- and middle-income levels was declining prior to 1982.

Total after-tax income for all households at the lower-and middle-income levels was higher in 1983 than in 1982.

There were more households overall in 1983 than in 1982.

A study of attitudes toward new cars showed that cars that were identical in every respect except color received widely differing ratings for quality from potential buyers. Therefore, in future advertisements for cars of high quality, we can expect to see no variety in the color of car featured.

#2

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

If a car in a preferred color is not available, a buyer is usually willing to accept the car in another color.

New cars differ significantly from each other with respect to quality.

Potential buyers give more weight to color than to price in making a decision about a car.

There is a single color generally associated with the highest quality rating in the study.

An advertisement for a particular car should display all of its significant advantages.

Sometime during the 1950’s, rock music permanently ousted jazz from the music scene. This is evident from the behavior of youths of that time. In crowded nightclubs they would applaud rock acts enthusiastically. But when a jazz act began, they went outside and got refreshments. They came back in only when the jazz set was finished.

#3

Which of the following statements, if true, is a valid objection to the conclusion drawn above?

Jazz is the most important musical contribution of the United States to world culture.

Although by 1960 jazz performances were less popular, there has since been a revival of interest in jazz among middle-class professionals.

Jazz steadily increased in popularity between the 1930’s and the 1950’s.

Although some young people who attended nightclubs in the 1950’s did try to listen to jazz, they eventually became bored with it.

Since the 1960’s, rock music has not only provided youths with recreation but has, as well, become a rallying point for making social statements.

Persons imprisoned for violent street crimes often commit the same crimes again after being released. Persons imprisoned for white-collar crimes such as receiving bribes or embezzlement, however, typically do not, after being released, repeat the crimes for which they have been imprisoned. It is fair to conclude that imprisonment, while it often fails to change the behavior of violent street criminals, does succeed in making white-collar criminals unwilling to repeat their crimes.

#4

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion stated above?

Persons who commit violent street crimes seldom commit white-collar crimes, and vice versa.

Persons released from prison after white-collar crimes are seldom given high positions or access to other people’s money.

The percentage of those who commit white- collar crimes and are imprisoned for doing so is lower than the percentage of those who commit violent street crimes and are imprisoned for doing so.

Statistics show that persons convicted of committing white-collar crimes rarely have a prison record.

White-collar criminals whose prison sentences are shortened return to criminal activities at a slightly higher rate than white-collar criminals who serve their full sentences.

Industrial solvents, which can damage the liver, kidneys, and nervous system, often drain into public water supplies. Currently, tested water is considered pure if the amount of solvent an individual is exposed to through drinking one-half gallon of water per day-roughly what a typical adult drinks per day-does not pose a significant threat to human health. But many toxicologists claim that the standard set by this method does not adequately protect the public.

#5

Which of the following, if true, would best support the claim of the toxicologists mentioned above?

Some industrial solvents have less toxic but more expensive analogues that industry has not adopted for use..

More solvent enters the body through skin absorption, during washing and bathing, than through drinking.

Water treatment centers usually filter out bacteria and other organisms before the water is pumped into public supply systems.

Industrial polluters are rarely fined or punished, even when they knowingly allow toxic chemicals to enter water supplies.

The figure of one-half gallon a day includes water contained in beverages such as soft drinks, which are often bottled at locations distant from where they are consumed.

Many behavioral studies of the psychological capacities of animals reveal hardly any difference between rats and chimpanzees. The most reasonable explanation for such results is that the studies themselves are inadequate.

#6

The argument above relies on the unstated premise that

rats and chimpanzees do not have highly developed psychological capacities

there is considerable difference between the psychological capacities of rats and those of chimpanzees

the results of psychological studies of animals are often misinterpreted by biased experimenters

examining the brain of an animal is a better means of determining its psychological capacity than is a study of the animal’s behavior

there is no way to measure objectively the psychological capacities of animals

GRE Critical Reasoning

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