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GRE Big Book Critical Reasoning Test 40

Jimmy Wang
11/01/2024

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.

Because of rules imposed by the Federal Drug Administration restricting the sale of thalidomide, many people who have trouble sleeping turn to barbiturates. Yet each year barbiturate-alcohol interactions cause the deaths of over a thousand people who probably would have lived had they used thalidomide instead of barbiturates, even without changing their alcohol consumption.

#1

Which of the following statements about thalidomide is best supported by the statements above?

Thalidomide is a more effective sleeping aid than barbiturates.

Thalidomide alone poses no serious health risks.

In some cases, the thalidomide-barbiturate interaction would be less dangerous than the barbiturate-alcohol interaction.

Barbiturates alone are more dangerous than alcohol alone.

In some cases, the thalidomide-alcohol interaction would be less life-threatening than the barbiturate-alcohol interaction.

Existing United States landfills are rapidly approaching the limits of their capacity. Landfills can leach toxins into groundwater, polluting it. Instead of creating more landfills, solid-waste managers should recycle as much trash as possible and then incinerate the remainder. This will keep future environmental damage to a minimum.

#2

The argument above requires at least one additional premise. Which of the following could be such a required premise?

Modern historians have documented the activities of Riothamus better than those of any other fifth-century king.

Riothamus’ associates were the authors of the original legends about King Arthur.

The stories told about King Arthur are not strictly fictitious but are based on a historical person and historical events.

Legends about the fifth century usually embellish and romanticize the actual conditions of the lives of fifth-century nobility.

Posterity usually remembers legends better than it remembers the actual historical events on which they are based.

According to a 1980 survey, ten percent of all United States citizens over the age of sixteen are functionally illiterate. Therefore, if the projection that there will be 250 million United States citizens over sixteen in the year 2000 is correct, we project that 25 million of these citizens will be functionally illiterate.

#3

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion drawn by the author of the passage above?

From 1975 to 1980 there was a three-percent decrease in the rate of functional illiteracy among United States citizens over the age of sixteen.

The percentage of high school graduates who do not go on to college has grown steadily over the past two decades.

Surveys that are improperly designed usually provide inaccurate results.

In 1980 sixty-five percent of all United States citizens were over the age of sixteen.

Many United States citizens included in the 1980 survey would also be included in a survey conducted in the year 2000.

On the basis of figures it compiles, a citizens’ group argues that congressional members of Party X authorize the spending of more taxpayer dollars than do congressional members of Party Y. The group’s figures are based on an analysis of the number of spending bills for which members of Congress vote.

#4

The figures of the citizens' group will be unreliable as a gauge of which party in Congress spends more taxpayer dollars if which of the following is true?

The group counts votes for all spending bills, including bills concerning the salaries of members of Congress.

The group weighs all votes for spending bills equally, no matter how much taxpayer money is involved in each bill.

Most spending bills that are introduced in Congress are passed by Congress.

All spending bills, before being voted on by Congress, must be approved by committees in which members of both parties participate.

Most spending bills that members of Party X vote for are written and sponsored by members of Party X.

Statistics over four consecutive years showed that four percent more automobile accidents happened in California during the week following the switch to daylight saving time and during the week following the switch back to standard time than occurred the week before each event. These statistics show that these time changes adversely affect the alertness of California drivers.

#5

The conclusion in the argument above is based on which of the following assumptions?

There are no other factors such as school vacations or holiday celebrations that cause accident rates to rise during these weeks.

Four years is not a sufficiently long period of time over which to judge the phenomenon described.

Drivers in California as well as those in the rest of the United States have similar driving patterns.

A time change at any other time of year would not produce a similar increase in accident rates.

The observed increases in accident rates are due almost entirely to an increase in the number of minor accidents.

Since 1945 there have been numerous international confrontations as tense as those that precipitated the Second World War, and yet no large-scale conflict has resulted. To explain this, some argue that fear of enormous destruction such as the Second World War produced has had a dramatic deterrent effect.

#6

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the deterrent theory mentioned above?

After the First World War, the fear of great future destruction was as intense as it was after the Second World War.

The Second World War was far less destructive than most people generally believe.

Many of the international confrontations that have occurred since 1945 have involved countries that participated in the Second World War.

Psychologists have determined that the fear of retaliation tends to temper aggressiveness among human beings.

Fear of repeating the levels of destruction that the Second World War produced is as pervasive today as it was forty years ago.

# GRE Critical Reasoning

GRE Critical Reasoning

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