Prep2012-Pack1-CR-064 VCR003810 Hard
Reasoning
What must be true in order for the given information to justify the conclusion that knowing when rice and yams arrived in western Africa would establish the earliest date that agricultural societies could have arisen there? The argument is that agricultural societies require staple crops, and there were no recorded staple crops in western Africa before rice and yarns were introduced there. Therefore, no agricultural societies could have arisen there before rice and yams were introduced. This assumes there were no unrecorded staple crops in western Africa before rice and yams. Therefore, look for an answer option that expresses or follows from this assumption.
A. Correct. This follows from the assumption discussed above, that there were no earlier, unrecorded staple crops in western Africa before rice and yams.
B. The argument assumes that no plants actually were domesticated as staple crops in western Africa, not that there are no plants suitable for such domestication.
C. The argument assumes that early agricultural societies outside western Africa grew rice and yams as staple crops, but not necessarily the agricultural societies.
D. The argument says that kola and okra are not staple crops. Therefore, it does not matter how well they grow in western Africa compared to rice and yams.
E. Kola and okra are not staple crops, but if they ever had been, this claim would undermine the argument. Therefore, it's not an assumption on which the argument depends.
The correct answer is A.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-065 VCR003842 Hard
Reasoning
What folows from the statistics about annual household incomes in the two counties? We can infer that in Merton County, the percentage of households with incomes above $40,000 is higher than in Sommer County. Therefore, the percentage with incomes below $40,000 must be lower. And we are told that the percentage with incomes above $60,000 is also lower in Merton County than in Sommer County. Since the percentage with incomes below $40,000 and the percentage with incomes above 560,000 are both lower in Merton County than in Sommer County, the remaining percentage, with incomes between 540,000 and $60,000, must be higher in Merton County than in Sommer County.
A. We have no information about the percentage of households with incomes of $80,000 or higher in either county. It's even possible that no household in either county has an income of $80,000 or higher.
B. Some third county could also have a higher percentage of households with incomes above $60,000 than Merton County does, even though Merton County has the highest percentage of households withincomes above $40,000.
C. Correct. This can be deduced as explained above.
D. We have no information about the total numbers of households in the two counties, only about the percentages with different income levels.
E. Since a higher percentage of households in Sommer County than in Merton County have incomes below $40,000, average annual household income might also be lower in Sommer County.
The correct answer is C.
