30 Minutes 20 Questions
1. A mail order company recently had a big jump in clothing sales after hiring a copywriter and a graphic artist to give its clothing catalog a magazinelike format designed to appeal to a more upscale clientele. The company is now planning to launch a housewares catalog using the same concept.
The company’s plan assumes that
(A) other housewares catalogs with magazinelike formats do not already exist
(B) an upscale clientele would be interested in a housewares catalog
(C) the same copywriter and graphic artist could be employed for both the clothing and housewares catalogs
(D) a magazinelike format requires a copywriter and a graphic artist
(E) customers to whom the old clothing catalog appealed would continue to make purchases from catalogs with the new format
2. Civic Leader: The high cancer rate among our citizens is the result of hazardous material produced at your plant.Board of Directors: Our statistics show that rates of cancer are high throughout the valley in which the plant is situated because local wells that supply drinking water are polluted, not because of the plant.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the board’s claims?
(A) The statistics do not differentiate between types of cancer.
(B) Nearby communities have not changed the sources of their drinking water.
(C) Cancer-causing chemicals used at the plant are discharged into a nearby river and find their way into local wells.
(D) The plant both uses and produces chemicals that have been shown to cause cancer.
(E) Some of the pollutants cited by the board as contaminating the local wells have been present in the wells for decades.
3. Economies in which a high percentage of resources are invested in research and development show greater growth in the long run than do those in which resources are channeled into consumption. Japanese workers spend a higher percentage of their income investing in research and development than do American workers.To grow as fast as Japan has in the past three decades, the United States must change the tax code in order to encourage savings and investment and discourage debt.
Which of the following, if true, tends to weaken the argument?
(A) Japanese research is more focused on consumers than is research by American firms.
(B) Class mobility, highly valued in American culture, is encouraged by a growing rather than a stagnant economy.
(C) Studies have shown that countries with high consumption rates prosper in the short run.
(D) Proposed changes to the tax code could involve strict limits on the deductability of interest, and increased allowance for research.
(E) Because a decreasing percentage of the United States is under 40, an age when savings are traditionally low, the savings rate will increase without changes to the tax code.
4. Television programming experts maintain that with each 1% increase in the prime-time ratings of a television station there is a 3.5% increase in the number of people who watch its evening news program. However, in the last ten years at Channel NTR, there was only one year of extremely high prime-time ratings and during that year, fewer people than ever watched Channel NTR’s evening news program.
Which of the following conclusions can properly be drawn from the statements above?
(A) When a news program has good ratings, the channel as a whole will have good ratings.
(B) The programming experts neglected to consider daytime news programs.
(C) The year of high ratings at NTR was a result of two hit shows which were subsequently canceled because of contractual problems.
(D) The ten-year period in question is not representative of normal viewing patterns.
(E) Prime-time ratings are not the only factor affecting how many people watch an evening news program.
5. The people who are least likely to be audited by the Internal Revenue Service this year are those who have been audited since 1985 and who were found to have made no mistakes in filing their returns during that audit.
Of the following people, who is MOST likely to be audited by the IRS?
(A) A person who was audited in 1986 but was not found to have made any mistakes in filing his return.
(B) A person who was audited in 1986 and whose lawyer corrected several mistakes in the tax return prior to the filing deadline.
(C) A person whose spouse was convicted of tax fraud in 1987, who was then audited and found to have made no mistakes.
(D) A person who was last audited in 1984, and had no mistakes uncovered by the IRS during that audit.
(E) A person who was audited in each of the past five years, but was found to have made no mistakes in any of the filings.
6. James’s grade point average puts him in the top third of the graduating class of college A. Nestor is in the top tenth of the same class. Elizabeth had the same grade point average as Nestor. Nancy has a lower grade point average than Elizabeth.
If the information above is true, which of the following must also be true?
(A) James has a higher grade point average than Elizabeth.
(B) James has a higher grade point average than Nancy.
(C) Nestor has a higher grade point average than Nancy.
(D) Elizabeth and Nancy both have a higher grade point average than James.
(E) Nestor and James both have a higher grade point average than Nancy.
7. Whenever a major airplane accident occurs, there is a dramatic increase in the number of airplane mishaps reported, a phenomenon that may last for as long as a few months after the accident. Airline officials assert that the publicity given the gruesomeness of major airplane accidents focuses media attention on the airline industry and the increase in the number of reported accidents is caused by an increase in the number of news sources covering airline accident, not by an increase in the number of accidents.
Which of the following, if true, would seriously weaken the assertions of the airline officials?
(A) The publicity surrounding airline accidents is largely limited to the country in which the crash occurred.
(B) Airline accidents tend to occur far more often during certain peak travel months.
(C) News organizations do not have any guidelines to help them decide how severe or how close an accident must be for it to receive coverage.
(D) Airplane accidents receive coverage by news sources only when the news sources find it advantageous to do so.
(E) Studies by government regulations show that the number of airplane flight miles remains relatively constant from month to month.
