Prep2012-Pack1-CR-074 VCR006175 Hard
An overwhelming proportion of the most productive employees at SaleCo's regional work not eight hours a day, five days a week, as do other SaleCo employees, but rather ten hours a day, four days a week, with Friday off. Noting this phenomenon, SaleCo's president plans to increase overall productivity by keeping the offices closed on Fridays and having all employees work the same schedule—ten hours a day, four days a week.
Which of the following, if true, provides the most reason to doubt that the president's plan, if implemented, will achieve its stated purpose?
A. Every employee of SaleCo who has been there for at least a year is entitled to three weeks of vacation each year and must be paid his or her regular salary for that time off.
B. None of the employees who work four days a week had volunteered to work that schedule, but all were assigned to it by their supervisors.
C. Working ten hours a day has allowed the most productive employees to work two hours alone each day in their respective offices relatively undisturbed by fellow employees.
D. Employees at SaleCo are compensated not on the basis of how many hours a week they work but on the basis of how productive they are during the hours they are at work.
E. Some of SaleC0's employees have indicated to company officials that they would quit if not allowed to work the same hours as the company's most productive employees.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-075 VCR006358 Hard
Certainly, pesticides can adversely affect the environment in localities distant from where the pesticide has actually been used. Nevertheless, regulation of pesticide use should not take place at the national level but at the local level. It is in the areas where pesticides are actually applied that they have their most serious effects. Just how serious these effects are depends on local conditions such as climate, soil type, and water supply.
And local officials are much more likely than national legislators to be truly knowledgeable about such local conditions.
In the argument given, the two boldface portions play which of the following roles?
A. The first provides support for the conclusion of the argument; the second states that conclusion.
B. The first states the conclusion of the argument; the second provides support for that conclusion.
C. The first identifies grounds for a potential objection to the conclusion of the argument; the second states that conclusion.
D. The first identifies grounds for a potential objection to the conclusion of the argument; the second provides support for that conclusion.
E. Each provides support for the conclusion of the argument.
