30 Minutes 20 Questions
Questions 1-2 are based on the following.
Companies O and P each have the same number of employees who work the same number of hours per week. According to records maintained by each company, the employees of Company O had fewer job-related accidents last year than did the employees of Company P. Therefore, employees of Company O are less likely to have job-related accidents than are employees of Company P.
1. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion above?
(A) Company P manufactures products that are more hazardous for workers to produce than does Company O.
(B) Company P holds more safety inspections than does Company O.
(C) Company P maintains a more modern infirmary than does Company O.
(D) Company O paid more for new job-related medical claims than did Company P.
(E) Company P provides more types of health-care benefits than does Company O.
2. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion above?
(A) The employees of Company P lost more time at work due to job-related accidents than did the employees of Company O.
(B) Company P considered more types of accidents to be job-related than did Company O.
(C) The employees of Company P were sick more often than were the employees of Company O.
(D) Several employees of Company O each had more than one job-related accident.
(E) The majority of job-related accidents at Company O involved a single machine.
3. In comparison to the standard typewriter keyboard, the EFCO keyboard, which places the most-used keys nearest the typist’s strongest fingers, allows faster typing and results in less fatigue, Therefore, replacement of standard keyboards with the EFCO keyboard will result in an immediate reduction of typing costs.Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion drawn above?
(A) People who use both standard and EFCO keyboards report greater difficulty in the transition from the EFCO keyboard to the standard keyboard than in the transition from the standard keyboard to the EFCO keyboard.
(B) EFCO keyboards are no more expensive to manufacture than are standard keyboards and require less frequent repair than do standard keyboards.
(C) The number of businesses and government agencies that use EFCO keyboards is increasing each year.
(D) The more training and experience an employee has had with the standard keyboard, the more costly it is to train that employee to use the EFCO keyboard.
(E) Novice typists can learn to use the EFCO keyboard in about the same amount of time it takes them to learn to use the standard keyboard.
Questions 4-5 are based on the following.
Half of the subjects in an experiment—the experimental group—consumed large quantities of a popular artificial sweetener. Afterward, this group showed lower cognitive abilities than did the other half of the subjects—the control group—who did not consume the sweetener. The detrimental effects were attributed to an amino acid that is one of the sweetener’s principal constituents.
4. Which of the following, if true, would best support the conclusion that some ingredient of the sweetener was responsible for the experimental results?
(A) Most consumers of the sweetener do not consume as much of it as the experimental group members did.
(B) The amino acid referred to in the conclusion is a component of all proteins, some of which must be consumed for adequate nutrition.
(C) The quantity of the sweetener consumed by individuals in the experimental group is considered safe by federal food regulators.
(D) The two groups of subjects were evenly matched with regard to cognitive abilities prior to the experiment.
(E) A second experiment in which subjects consumed large quantities of the sweetener lacked a control group of subjects who were not given the sweetener.
5. Which of the following, if true, would best help explain how the sweetener might produce the observed effect?
(A) The government’s analysis of the artificial sweetener determined that it was sold in relatively pure form.
(B) A high level of the amino acid in the blood inhibits the synthesis of a substance required for normal brain functioning.
(C) Because the sweetener is used primarily as a food additive, adverse reactions to it are rarely noticed by consumers.
(D) The amino acid that is a constituent of the sweetener is also sold separately as a dietary supplement.
(E) Subjects in the experiment did not know whether they were consuming the sweetener or a second, harmless substance.
6. Adult female rats who have never before encountered rat pups will start to show maternal behaviors after being confined with a pup for about seven days. This period can be considerably shortened by disabling the female’s sense of smell or by removing the scent-producing glands of the pup.Which of the following hypotheses best explains the contrast described above?
(A) The sense of smell in adult female rats is more acute than that in rat pups.
(B) The amount of scent produced by rat pups increases when they are in the presence of a female rat that did not bear them.
(C) Female rats that have given birth are more affected by olfactory cues than are female rats that have never given birth.
(D) A female rat that has given birth shows maternal behavior toward rat pups that she did not bear more quickly than does a female rat that has never given birth.
(E) The development of a female rat’s maternal interest in a rat pup that she did not bear is inhibited by the odor of the pup.
7. The interview is an essential part of a successful hiring program because, with it, job applicants who have personalities that are unsuited to the requirements of the job will be eliminated from consideration.The argument above logically depends on which of the following assumptions?
(A) A hiring program will be successful if it includes interviews.
(B) The interview is a more important part of a successful hiring program than is the development of a job description.
(C) Interviewers can accurately identify applicants whose personalities are unsuited to the requirements of the job.
(D) The only purpose of an interview is to evaluate whether job applicants’ personalities are suited to the requirements of the job.
(E) The fit of job applicants’ personalities to the requirements of the job was once the most important factor in making hiring decisions.
8. An overly centralized economy, not the changes in the climate, is responsible for the poor agricultural production in Country X since its new government came to power. Neighboring Country Y has experienced the same climatic conditions, but while agricultural production has been falling in Country X, it has been rising in Country Y.Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) Industrial production also is declining in Country X.
(B) Whereas Country Y is landlocked, Country X has a major seaport.
(C) Both Country X and Country Y have been experiencing drought conditions.
(D) The crops that have always been grown in Country X are different from those that have always been grown in Country Y.
(E) Country X’s new government instituted a centralized economy with the intention of ensuring an equitable distribution of goods.
9. Useful protein drugs, such as insulin, must still be administered by the cumbersome procedure of injection under the skin. If proteins are taken orally, they are digested and cannot reach their target cells. Certain nonprotein drugs, however, contain chemical bonds that are not broken down by the digestive system. They can, thus, be taken orally.The statements above most strongly support a claim that a research procedure that successfully accomplishes which of the following would be beneficial to users of protein drugs?
(A) Coating insulin with compounds that are broken down by target cells, but whose chemical bonds are resistant to digestion
(B) Converting into protein compounds, by procedures that work in the laboratory, the nonprotein drugs that resist digestion
(C) Removing permanently from the digestive system any substances that digest proteins
(D) Determining, in a systematic way, what enzymes and bacteria are present in the normal digestive system and whether they tend to be broken down within the body
(E) Determining the amount of time each nonprotein drug takes to reach its target cells
