30 Minutes 20 Questions
1. For over fifty years, the ocean-freight industry worked to make ocean freighters faster and to lower their fuel consumption. Despite considerable success, the economics of the industry grew worse, until the industry was almost dead. What was wrong was an incongruity between assumptions and realities. The real costs came, not from time spent at sea, but from time spent in port during loading and unloading.Which of the following actions would be most likely to lead to a solution of the problem faced by the ocean-freight industry, as it is analyzed in the passage?
(A) Developing a ship’s engine that runs on a cheaper type of fuel than that traditionally used by ocean freighters
(B) Developing a ship with accessible cargo compartments that can be mechanically loaded and unloaded very rapidly
(C) Developing a ship whose freight capacity relative to the ship’s total volume is much larger than that of any existing ship
(D) Implementing a system to ensure that ocean freighters are loaded to capacity whenever they leave a port
(E) Implementing a marketing plan that focuses on routes that are known to be least threatened by unfavorable weather, thus permitting rapid trips and reliable arrival times
2. The increased concentration of salt in the bay, which is the result of recent drought and high temperatures, will cause many fish to die. Shrimp, however, can tolerate high salt levels; the shrimp industry will not, therefore, be hurt by the increased concentration of salt.
Which of the following statements, if true, would weaken the argument above?
(A) Some fish will migrate to areas that have lower concentrations of salt.
(B) Lack of rainfall for extended periods of time lowers the water level of bays.
(C) The organisms on which young shrimp feed cannot survive in such salty waters.
(D) Increased water temperature often causes shrimp to multiply more quickly.
(E) Shrimp are more abundant in areas of the bay that are sparsely populated by fish.
3. Currently people in the United States eat, on the average, 1,431 pounds of food per year, 35 pounds more than in 1980. This increase is, at least in part, because people between the ages of 15 and 64 have accounted for an increasing share of the population.
Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage above?
(A) More than half of the current population of the United States is between the ages of 15 and 64.
(B) The population has risen since 1980.
(C) Children below the age of 15 require, on the average, more food than do people over the age of 64.
(D) Before 1980 children below the age of 15 outnumbered people between the ages of 15 and 64.
(E) Individuals between the ages of 15 and 64 consume, on the average, more food than do those younger or older.
4. Each increase of 1 percent in real disposable personal income per capita will increase the share of the electorate for an incumbent by about 2.2 percentage points, other things being equal. Since 1952 there has been a decline in real disposable income during only one presidential election year. The incumbent lost that election.
Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?
(A) When an incumbent runs for office, he or she is likely to win.
(B) Political parties should take care to put forth a candidate who seems prosperous.
(C) Presidential candidates should put their greatest efforts into improving their public image.
(D) Because a presidential campaign requires the expenditure of large amounts of money, it frequently impoverishes a candidate and his or her supporters.
(E) The outcome of a presidential election is substantially affected by factors other than the ideological positions of the candidates.
5. According to an independent computer-industry analyst, the new Regent microcomputer is of high quality, is fast, and costs less than any currently existing competing model. It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, as the manufacturer’s prospectus does, that the Regent will quickly establish itself as a fast-selling, low-priced alternative to currently available microcomputers.
Which of the following, if true, would LEAST weaken the argument above?
(A) Many retailers already carry one or more low-priced microcomputer models and are disinclined to carry another.
(B) Several faster and lower-priced models of microcomputers will soon be introduced by other computer manufacturers.
(C) The Regent Corporation’s microcomputer can be used in conjunction with higher-priced microcomputers manufactured by other companies.
(D) Most of those individuals and companies that could be expected to make up the potential market for the Regent microcomputer have already filled their microcomputer needs.
(E) The independent computer-industry analyst whose assessment was incorporated in the prospectus has used measures of quality that are not universally accepted by the computer-buying public.
6. Which of the following is the most logical completion of the passage below?Many companies have been pushing for a three-week extension of daylight saving time, which would mean that the sun would continue to set an hour later during the fall months. The owners of a chain of convenience stores, for example, expect to gain $15 million a year in additional sales, mostly from people who tend to______
(A) stay away from these stores after dark
(B) stay outdoors during the fall months
(C) spend more money in the fall
(D) spend less money in the fall
(E) shop at these stores when they are pressed for time
7. Recent evidence appears to contradict earlier findings that suggested that those who are physically fit cope better with stressful real-life events. Of a group of healthy women, those randomly assigned to a ten-week program of aerobic exercises performed no better in laboratory tests simulating stressful situations than did the subgroup assigned to a program without exercise.Which of the following, if true, provides evidence for determining whether physical fitness makes one react better to stress?
(A) Superior reaction to laboratory stress situations was found to be more prevalent among women than among men.
(B) Healthy men, after training six months in weight lifting, encountered fewer potentially stressful situations in the subsequent six months.
(C) Subjects following a regimen during which they perfected their skills in a variety of relaxation techniques found that their lives seemed calmer after they began the regimen.
(D) College students with previous high levels of stressful life events showed a markedly reduced reaction to such events after training in aerobics for six months.
(E) Subjects with a high level of self-esteem more often engaged in physical-fitness regimens than did a control group of subjects with average levels of self-esteem.
Questions 8-9 are based on the following.
Now is an excellent time to invest in the catering business. A survey conducted by Weddings magazine found that 70 percent of the magazine’s readers want a catered wedding reception. An analysis of the catering industry, however, shows that the current number of caterers can serve only 55 percent of the weddings likely to occur each year.
8. Which of the following, if true, reveals a weakness in the evidence cited above?
(A) Catering is a highly labor-intensive business.
(B) Caterers are not evenly distributed across the country.
(C) The number of weddings with catered receptions has been growing each year for the past five years.
(D) Readers of Weddings magazine are more likely than most people to want a catered reception.
(E) Weddings magazine includes both articles about catered receptions and articles about preparing food oneself for one’s wedding reception.
9. Which of the following, if true, would undermine the validity of the investment advice in the paragraph above?
(A) The average wedding reception involves between 50 and 100 guests.
(B) Approximately a quarter of all weddings take place without a reception.
(C) Approximately a quarter of all weddings and their associated receptions are paid for by the couples themselves.
(D) Only half of all catered wedding receptions include sit-down meals.
(E) Only half of those who say they want a catered wedding reception actually have one.
10. The Commerce Department recently put limits on machine-tool imports from two countries whose exports of machine tools into the United States have been substantial. As a result of these restrictions, analysts predict that domestic sales of machine tools manufactured in the United States are bound to rise considerably, starting in the very near future.
Which of the following, if true, would be most likely to cause the analysts’ prediction to be inaccurate?
(A) A new tax bill that, if passed, would discourage investment in capital equipment such as machine tools is being studied and debated seriously in the United States Congress.
(B) United States companies’ orders for metal-cutting machines, which account for 75 percent of sales by the machine-tool industry, rose faster than orders for other types of machine tools during the past year.
(C) Worldwide orders for machine tools made in the United States dropped by more than 10 percent during the past year.
(D) Substantial inventories of foreign-made machine tools were stockpiled in the United States during the past year.
(E) Companies in the industrial sectors of many countries showed a significantly expanded demand for machine tools during the past year.
11. The cities with the densest population have the highest ratio of police officers to citizens. Such cities also have the lowest rates of property crime without contact between perpetrator and victim. Thus maintaining a high ratio of police officers to citizens can serve as an effective deterrent to at least certain kinds of property crime.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) The quality of training that police receive varies from city to city.
(B) High population density itself makes it difficult to commit a property crime that involves no contact between perpetrator and victim.
(C) Many nonviolent crimes in large cities are drug-related.
(D) A majority of the perpetrators of property crimes in densely populated cities are not apprehended by the police.
(E) Property crimes without contact between perpetrator and victim represent only a small proportion of overall crime.
