Prep2012-Pack1-CR-058 VCR000905 Hard
The cause of the wreck of the ship Edmund Fitzgerald in a severe storm on Lake Superior is still unknown. When the sunken wreckage of the vessel was found, searchers discovered the hull in two pieces lying close together. The storm‘s violent waves would have caused separate pieces floating even briefly on the surface to drift apart. Therefore, the breakup of the hull can be ruled out as the cause of the sinking.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
A. Ships as large as the Edmund Fitzgerald rarely sink except in the most violent weather.
B. Underwater currents at the time of the storm did not move the separated pieces of the hull together again.
C. Pieces of the hull would have sunk more quickly than the intact hull would have.
D. The waves of the storm were not violent enough to have caused the ship to break up on the surface.
E. If the ship broke up before sinking, the pieces of the hull would not have remained on the surface for very long.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-059 VCR001283 Hard
Press Secretary: Our critics claim that the president's recent highway project cancellations demonstrate a vindictive desire to punish legislative districts controlled by opposition parties. They offer as evidence the fact that 90 percent of the projects canceled were in such districts. But all of the canceled projects had been identified as wasteful in a report written by respected nonpartisan auditors. So the president's choice was clearly motivated by sound budgetary policy, not partisan politics.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the press secretary's argument depends?
A. Canceling highway projects was not the only way for the president to punish legislative districts controlled by opposition parties.
B. The scheduled highway projects identified as wasteful in the report were not mostly projects in districts controlled by the president's party.
C. The number of projects canceled was a significant proportion of all the highway projects that were to be undertaken by the government in the near future.
D. The highway projects canceled in districts controlled by the president's party were not generally more expensive than the projects canceled in districts controlled by opposition parties.
E. Reports by nonpartisan auditors are not generally regarded by the opposition parties as a source of objective assessments of government projects.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-060 VCR001308 Hard
Environmental organizations want to preserve the land surrounding the Wilgrinn Wilderness Area from residential development. They plan to do this by purchasing that land from the farmers who own it. That plan is ill-conceived: if the farmers did sell their land, they would sell it to the highest bidder, and developers would outbid any other bidders. On the other hand, these farmers will never actually sell any of the land, provided that farming it remains viable. But farming will not remain viable if the farms are left unmodernized, and most of the farmers lack the financial resources modernization requires. And that is exactly why a more sensible preservation strategy would be to the farmers to modernize their farms to the extent needed to maintain viability. In the reasoning above, the two boldface portions play which of the following roles?
A. The first assesses the goal held by certain environmental organizations; the second presents the goal that the reasoning concludes should be adopted instead.
B. The first assesses the goal held by certain environmental organizations; the second presents the strategy that the reasoning concludes has the best chance of reaching that goal.
C. The first is the conclusion reached about one strategy for attaining a certain goal; the second presents the strategy that the reasoning advocates.
D. The first is the main conclusion toward which the reasoning is directed; the second presents a strategy that is called sensible but for which no support is offered.
E. The first is the main conclusion toward which the reasoning is directed; the second is a consideration raised in order to support that conclusion.
