03-05-2013, 02:32 PM
101 must do Critical Reasoning for CMAT
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Question 1: (W)
Insect Infestations in certain cotton growing regions of the world have caused dramatic
increases of cotton on the world market. Knowing that cotton plants mature quickly, many
soybean growers in Ortovia plan to cease growing soybeans, the price of which has long been
stable and to begin raising cotton instead, thereby taking advantage of the high price of cotton
to increase their income significantly over the next several years.
Which of the following, if true, most calls into question the reasoning on which the plan is
based?
A. The cost of raising soybeans has increased significantly over the past several years
and is expected to continue to climb.
B. Tests of a newly developed, inexpensive pesticide have shown it to be both
environmentally safe and effective against the insects that have infected the cotton
crops.
C. In the past several years, there has been no sharp increase in the demand for cotton,
and for goods made out of cotton.
D. Many consumers consider cotton cloth a necessity rather than a luxury and would be
willing to pay significantly higher prices for cotton goods than they are currently
paying
E. The species of insect that has infested the cotton plants has never been known to
infest soybean plants
Question 2: (W)
Jennifer: Video rental outlets in Centerville together handled 10,000 fewer video rentals in
1994 than in 1993. The decline in rentals was probably due almost entirely to the February
1994 opening of Videorama, the first and only video rental outlet in the area that, in addition
to renting videos, also sold them cheaply.
Brad: There must be another explanation: as you yourself said, the decline was on the order
of 10,000 rentals. Yet Videorama sold only 4,000 videos in 1994.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the force of the objection that
Brad presents to Jennifer's explanation?
A. In 1994 Videorama rented out more videos than it sold.
B. In 1994 two new outlets that rent but that do not sell videos opened in Centerville.
C. Most of the video rental outlets in Centerville rent videos at a discount on certain
nights of the week.
D. People often buy videos of movies that they have previously seen in a theater.
E. People who own videos frequently loan them to their friends.
Question 3: (W)
Although fullerenes - spherical molecules made entirely of carbon - were first found in the
laboratory, they have since been found in nature, formed in fissures of the rare mineral
shungite. Since laboratory synthesis of fullerenes requires distinctive conditions of
temperature and pressure, this discovery should give geologists a test case for evaluating
hypothesis about the state of the Earth's crust at the time these naturally occurring fullerenes
were formed.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument?
A. Confirming that the shungite genuinely contained fullerenes took careful
experimentation
B. Some fullerenes have also been found on the remains of a small meteorite that
collided with a spacecraft.
C. The mineral shungite itself contains large amounts of carbon, from which the
fullerenes apparently formed.
D. The naturally occurring fullerenes are arranged in a previously unknown crystalline
structure
E. Shungite itself is formed only under distinctive conditions.
Question 4: (I)
Finding of a survey of Systems magazine subscribers: Thirty percent of all merchandise
orders placed by subscribers in response to advertisements in the magazine last year were
placed by subscribers under age thirty-five.
Finding of a survey of advertisers in Systems magazine: Most of the merchandise orders
placed in response to advertisements in Systems last year were placed by people under age
thirty-five.
For both of the findings to be accurate, which of the following must be true?
A. More subscribers to Systems who have never ordered merchandise in response to
advertisements in the magazine are age thirty-five or over than are under age thirtyfive.
B. Among subscribers to Systems, the proportion who are under age thirty-five was
considerably lower last year than it is now.
C. Most merchandise orders placed in response to advertisements in Systems last year
were placed by Systems subscribers over age thirty-five.
D. Last year, the average dollar amount of merchandise orders placed was less for
subscribers under age thirty-five than for those aged thirty-five or over.
E. Last year many people who placed orders for merchandise in response to
advertisements in Systems were not subscribers to the magazine.
Question 5: (W)
A major impediment to wide acceptance of electric vehicles even on the part of people who
use their cars almost exclusively for commuting is the inability to use their electric vehicles
for occasional extended trips. In an attempt to make purchasing electric vehicles more
attractive to commuters, one electric vehicle producer is planning to offer customers three
days free rental of a conventional car for every 1,000 miles that they drive their electric
vehicle.
Which of the following, if true, most threatens the plan's prospects for success?
A. Many electric vehicles that are used for commercial purposes are not needed for
extended trips.
B. Because a majority of commuters drive at least 100 miles per week, the cost of the
producer of making good the offer would add considerably to the already high price
of electric vehicles.
C. The relatively long time it takes to recharge the battery of an electric vehicle can
easily be fitted into the regular patterns of car use characteristic of commuters.
D. Although electric vehicles are essentially emission- free in actual use, generating the
electricity necessary for charging an electric vehicle's battery can burden the
environment.
E. Some family vehicles are used primarily not for commuting but for making short local
trips, such as to do errands.
Question 6: (S)
Until now only injectable vaccines against influenza have been available. They have been
primarily used by older adults who are at risk for complications from influenza. A new
vaccine administered in a nasal spray form has proven effective in preventing influenza in
children. Since children are significantly more likely than adults to contract and spread
influenza, making the new vaccine widely available for children will greatly reduce the
spread of influenza across the population.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
A. If a person receives both the nasal spray and the injectable vaccine, they do not interfere
with each other.
B. The new vaccine uses the same mechanism to ward off influenza as injectable vaccines
do.
C. Government subsidies have kept the injectable vaccines affordable for adults.
D. Of the older adults who contract influenza, relatively few contract it from children with
influenza.
E. Many parents would be more inclined to have their children vaccinated against influenza
if it did not involve an injection.
Question 7: (S)
In parts of South America, vitamin-A deficiency is a serious health problem, especially
among children. In one region, agriculturists hope to improve nutrition by encouraging
farmers to plant a new variety of sweet potato called SPK004 that is rich in betacarotene,
which the body converts into vitamin A. The plan has good chances of success, since sweet
potato is a staple of the region's diet and agriculture, and the varieties currently grown contain
little beta-carotene.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the prediction that the plan will
succeed?
A. There are other vegetables currently grown in the region that contain more betacarotene
than the currently cultivated varieties of sweet potato do.
B. The flesh of SPK004 differs from that of the currently cultivated sweet potatoes in
colors and textures, so traditional foods would look somewhat different when
prepared from SPK004.
C. For successful cultivation of SPK004, a soil significantly richer in nitrogen is needed
than is needed for the varieties of sweet potato currently cultivated in the region.
D. There are no other varieties of sweet potato that are significantly richer in betacarotene
than SPK004 is.
E. The currently cultivated varieties of sweet potato contain no important nutrients that
SPK004 lacks.
Question 8: (W)
For several years, per capita expenditure on prescription drugs in Voronia rose by fifteen
percent or more annually. In order to curb these dramatic increases, the ministry of health
prohibited drug manufacturers from raising any of their products’ prices. Even though use of
prescription drugs did not expand after this price freeze, per capita expenditure for
prescription drugs continued to increase by a substantial percentage each year.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain why the ministry’s action did not
achieve its goal?
A. After price increases were prohibited, drug manufacturers concentrated on producing
new medications to replace existing products
B. The population of Voronia rose steadily throughout the period.
C. Improvements in manufacturing processes enable drug manufacturers to maintain
high profit levels on drugs despite the price freeze.
D. In addition to imposing a price freeze, the government encouraged doctors to
prescribe generic versions of common drugs instead of the more expensive brandname
versions