30 Minutes 20 Questions
1. The school board has determined that it is necessary to reduce the number of teachers on the staff. Rather than deciding which teachers will be laid off on the basis of seniority, the school board plans to lay off the least effective teachers first.
The school board’s plan assumes that
(A) there is a way of determining the effectiveness of teachers
(B) what one individual defines as effective teaching will not be defined as effective teaching by another individual
(C) those with the most experience teaching are the best teachers
(D) those teachers who are paid the most are generally the most qualified(A)
(E) some teachers will be more effective working with some students than with other students
2. Since applied scientific research is required for technological advancement, many have rightly urged an increased emphasis in universities on applied research. But we must not give too little attention to basic research, even though it may have no foreseeable application, for tomorrow’s applied research will depend on the basic research of today.
If the statements above are true, which of the following can be most reliably inferred?
(A) If future technological advancement is desired, basic research should receive greater emphasis than applied research.
(B) If basic research is valued in universities, applied research should be given less emphasis than it currently has.
(C) If future technological advancement is desired, research should be limited to that with some foreseeable application.
(D) If too little attention is given to basic research today, future technological advancement will be jeopardized.(D)
(E) If technological advancement is given insufficient emphasis, basic research will also receive too little attention.
3. The First Banking Group’s decision to invest in an electronic network for transferring funds was based on a cost advantage over a nonelectronic system of about ten dollars per transaction in using an electronic system. Executives reasoned further that the system would give them an advantage over competitors.
Which of the following, if it is a realistic possibility, most seriously weakens the executives’ projection of an advantage over competitors?
(A) The cost advantage of using the electronic system will not increase sufficiently to match the pace of inflation.
(B) Competitors will for the same reasons install electronic systems, and the resulting overcapacity will lead to mutually damaging price wars.
(C) The electronic system will provide a means for faster transfer of funds, if the First Banking Group wishes to provide faster transfer to its customers.
(D) Large banks from outside the area served by the First Banking Group have recently established branches in that area as competitors to the First Banking Group.(B)
(E) Equipment used in the electronic network for transferring funds will be compatible with equipment used in other such networks.
4. Which of the following best completes the argument below?
One effect of the introduction of the electric refrigerator was a collapse in the market for ice. Formerly householders had bought ice to keep their iceboxes cool and the food stored in the iceboxes fresh. Now the iceboxes cool themselves. Similarly, the introduction of crops genetically engineered to be resistant to pests will______
(A) increase the size of crop harvests
(B) increase the cost of seeds
(C) reduce demand for chemical pesticides
(D) reduce the value of farmland(C)
(E) reduce the number of farmers keeping livestock
5. In 1985 the city’s Fine Arts Museum sold 30,000 single-entry tickets. In 1986 the city’s Folk Arts and Interior Design museums opened, and these three museums together sold over 80,000 such tickets that year. These museums were worth the cost, since more than twice as many citizens are now enjoying the arts.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the author’s assertion that more than twice as many citizens are now enjoying the arts?
(A) Most visitors to one museum also visit the other two.
(B) The cost of building the museums will not be covered by revenues generated by the sale of museum tickets.
(C) As the two new museums become better known, even more citizens will visit them.
(D) The city’s Fine Arts Museum did not experience a decrease in single-entry tickets sold in 1986.(A)
(E) Fewer museum entry tickets were sold in 1986 than the museum planners had hoped to sell.
6. F: We ought not to test the safety of new drugs on sentient animals, such as dogs and rabbits. Our benefit means their pain, and they are equal to us in the capacity to feel pain.
G: We must carry out such tests; otherwise, we would irresponsibly sacrifice the human lives that could have been saved by the drugs.
Which of the following, if true, is the best objection that could be made from F’s point of view to counter G’s point?
(A) Even though it is not necessary for people to use cosmetics, cosmetics are also being tested on sentient animals.
(B) Medical science already has at its disposal a great number of drugs and other treatments for serious illnesses.
(C) It is not possible to obtain scientifically adequate results by testing drugs in the test tube, without making tests on living tissue.
(D) Some of the drugs to be tested would save human beings from great pain.(E)
(E) Many tests now performed on sentient animals can be performed equally well on fertilized chicken eggs that are at a very early stage of development.
7. Which of the following best completes the passage below?
The unemployment rate in the United States fell from 7.5 percent in 1981 to 6.9 percent in 1986. It cannot, however, be properly concluded from these statistics that the number of unemployed in 1986 was lower than it had been in 1981 because______
(A) help-wanted advertisements increased between 1981 and 1986
(B) many of the high-paying industrial jobs available in 1981 were replaced by low-wage service jobs in 1986, resulting in displacements of hundreds of thousands of workers
(C) in some midwestern industrial states, the unemployment rate was much higher in 1986 than it had been in 1981
(D) the total available work force, including those with and without employment, increased between 1981 and 1986(D)
(E) the average time that employees stay in any one job dropped during the period 1981 to 1986
8. To reduce costs, a company is considering a drastic reduction in the number of middle-level managers. This reduction would be accomplished by first offering early retirement to those 50 years of age or older with 15 years of service, and then by firing enough of the others to bring the overall reduction to 50 percent.
Each of the following, assuming that it is a realistic possibility, is a possible disadvantage to the company of the plan EXCEPT:
(A) Loyalty to the company will be reduced among those surviving the reduction, because they will perceive the status of even good managers as uncertain.
(B) The restructuring of managerial jobs will allow business units to be adapted to fit a changing business environment.
(C) The company will have a smaller pool of managers from which to choose in selecting future senior managers.
(D) Some of the best managers, unsure of their security against being fired, will choose early retirement.(B)
(E) The increased workload of managers remaining with the company will subject them to stress that will eventually affect their performance.
9. In order to relieve congestion in the airspace near the airports of a certain country, transportation officials propose sending passengers by new rapid trains between the country’s major airport and several small cities within a 300-mile radius of it. This plan was proposed even though the officials realized that it is the major airport that is congested, not those in the small cities.
The plan to relieve congestion would work best if which of the following were true about the major airport?
(A) Rail tickets between the airport and the small cities will most likely cost more than the current air tickets for those routes.
(B) Most passengers who frequently use the airport prefer to reach their cities of destination exclusively by air, even if they must change planes twice.
(C) There are feasible changes in the airport’s traffic control system which would significantly relieve congestion.
(D) Some of the congestion the airport experiences could be relieved if more flights were scheduled at night and at other off-peak hours.(E)
(E) A significant proportion of the airport’s traffic consists of passengers transferring between international flights and flights to the small cities.
Questions 10-11 are based on the following.
An annually conducted, nationwide survey shows a continuing marked decline in the use of illegal drugs by high school seniors over the last three years.
10. Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the relevance of the survey results described above for drawing conclusions about illegal drug use in the teen-age population as a whole?
(A) Because of cuts in funding, no survey of illegal drug use by high school seniors will be conducted next year.
(B) The decline uncovered in the survey has occurred despite the decreasing cost of illegal drugs.
(C) Illegal drug use by teen-agers is highest in those areas of the country where teen-agers are least likely to stay in high school for their senior year.
(D) Survey participants are more likely now than they were three years ago to describe as “heroic” people who were addicted to illegal drugs and have been able to quit.(C)
(E) The proportion of high school seniors who say that they strongly disapprove of illegal drug use has declined over the last three years.
