Prep2012-Pack1-CR-046 VCR005617 Medium
A study of high blood pressure treatments found that certain meditation techniques and the most commonly prescribed drugs are equally effective if the selected treatment is followed as directed over the long term. Half the patients given drugs soon stop taking them regularly, whereas eighty percent of the study's participants who were taught meditation techniques were still regularly using them five years later. Therefore, the meditation treatment is the one likely to produce the best results.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A. People who have high blood pressure are usually advised by their physicians to make changes in diet that have been found in many cases to reduce the severity of the condition.
B. The participants in the study were selected in part on the basis of their willingness to use meditation techniques.
C. Meditation techniques can reduce the blood pressure of people who do not suffer from high blood pressure.
D. Some of the participants in the study whose high blood pressure was controlled through meditation techniques were physicians.
E. Many people with dangerously high blood pressure are unaware of their condition.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-047 VCR005663 Medium
Mayor: Migrating shorebirds stop at our beach just to feed on horseshoe-crab eggs, a phenomenon that attracts tourists. To bring more tourists, the town plans to undertake a beach reclamation project to double the area available to crabs for nesting.
Birdwatcher: Without a high density of crabs on a beach, migrating shorebirds will go hungry because shorebirds only eat eggs that a crab happens to uncover when it is digging its own nest.
Which of the following, if true, would provide the mayor with the strongest counter to the birdwatcher's objection?
A. Every year a certain percentage of crabs are caught by fishermen as bait for eel traps.
B. Horseshoe crabs are so prolific that given favorable circumstances their numbers increase rapidly.
C. On average, tourists who come to the town in order to watch birds spend more money there than tourists who come for other purposes.
D. The additional land made available by the reclamation project will give migrating shorebirds more space.
E. Some of the migrating shorebirds make only one stop during their migration from South America to Canada.
