GMAT TEST-1 ( Questions)

30 Minutes 20 Questions

1. Nearly one in three subscribers to Financial Forecaster is a millionaire, and over half are in top management. Shouldn’t you subscribe to Financial Forecaster now? A reader who is neither a millionaire nor in top management would be most likely to act in accordance with the advertisement’s suggestion if he or she drew which of the following questionable conclusions invited by the advertisement?
(A) Among finance-related periodicals. Financial Forecaster provides the most detailed financial information.
(B) Top managers cannot do their jobs properly without reading Financial Forecaster.
(C) The advertisement is placed where those who will be likely to read it are millionaires.
(D) The subscribers mentioned were helped to become millionaires or join top management by reading Financial Forecaster.
(E) Only those who will in fact become millionaires, or at least top managers, will read the advertisement.

Questions 2-3 are based on the following.

Contrary to the charges made by some of its opponents, the provisions of the new deficit-reduction law for indiscriminate cuts in the federal budget are justified. Opponents should remember that the New Deal pulled this country out of great economic troubles even though some of its programs were later found to be unconstitutional.

2. The author’s method of attacking the charges of certain opponents of the new deficit-reduction law is to
(A) attack the character of the opponents rather than their claim
(B) imply an analogy between the law and some New Deal programs
(C) point out that the opponents’ claims imply a dilemma
(D) show that the opponents’ reasoning leads to an absurd conclusion
(E) show that the New Deal also called for indiscriminate cuts in the federal budget

3. The opponents could effectively defend their position against the author’s strategy by pointing out that
(A) the expertise of those opposing the law is outstanding
(B) the lack of justification for the new law does not imply that those who drew it up were either inept or immoral
(C) the practical application of the new law will not entail indiscriminate budget cuts
(D) economic troubles present at the time of the New Deal were equal in severity to those that have led to the present law
(E) the fact that certain flawed programs or laws have improved the economy does not prove that every such program can do so

4. In Millington, a city of 50,000 people, Mercedes Pedrosa, a realtor, calculated that a family with Millington’s median family income, $28,000 a year, could afford to buy Millington’s median-priced $77,000 house. This calculation was based on an 11.2 percent mortgage interest rate and on the realtor’s assumption that a family could only afford to pay up to 25 percent of its income for housing. Which of the following corrections of a figure appearing in the passage above, if it were the only correction that needed to be made, would yield a new calculation showing that even incomes below the median family income would enable families in Millington to afford Millington’s median-priced house?
(A) Millington’s total population was 45,000 people.
(B) Millington’s median annual family income was $27,000.
(C) Millington’s median-priced house cost $80,000.
(D) The rate at which people in Millington had to pay mortgage interest was only 10 percent.
(E) Families in Millington could only afford to pay up to 22 percent of their annual income for housing.

5. Psychological research indicates that college hockey and football players are more quickly moved to hostility and aggression than are college athletes in noncontact sports such as swimming. But the researchers’ conclusion—that contact sports encourage and teach participants to be hostile and aggressive—is untenable. The football and hockey players were probably more hostile and aggressive to start with than the swimmers. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion drawn by the psychological researchers?
(A) The football and hockey players became more hostile and aggressive during the season and remained so during the off-season, whereas there was no increase in aggressiveness among the swimmers.
(B) The football and hockey players, but not the swimmers, were aware at the start of the experiment that they were being tested for aggressiveness.
(C) The same psychological research indicated that the football and hockey players had a great respect for cooperation and team play, whereas the swimmers were
most concerned with excelling as individual competitors.
(D) The research studies were designed to include no college athletes who participated in both contact and noncontact sports.
(E) Throughout the United States, more incidents of fan violence occur at baseball games than occur at hockey or football games.

6. Ross: The profitability of Company X, restored to private ownership five years ago, is clear evidence that businesses will always fare better under private than under public ownership. Julia: Wrong. A close look at the records shows that X has been profitable since the appointment of a first-class manager, which happened while X was still in the pubic sector. Which of the following best describes the weak point in Ross’s claim on which Julia’s response focuses?
(A) The evidence Ross cites comes from only a single observed case, that of Company X.
(B) The profitability of Company X might be only temporary.
(C) Ross’s statement leaves open the possibility that the cause he cites came after the effect he attributes to it.
(D) No mention is made of companies that are partly government owned and partly privately owned.
(E) No exact figures are given for the current profits of Company X.

7. Stronger patent laws are needed to protect inventions from being pirated. With that protection, manufacturers would be encouraged to invest in the development of new products and technologies. Such investment frequently results in an increase in a manufacturer’s productivity. Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn from the information above?
(A) Stronger patent laws tend to benefit financial institutions as well as manufacturers.
(B) Increased productivity in manufacturing is likely to be accompanied by the creation of more manufacturing jobs.
(C) Manufacturers will decrease investment in the development of new products and technologies unless there are stronger patent laws.
(D) The weakness of current patent laws has been a cause of economic recession.
(E) Stronger patent laws would stimulate improvements in productivity for many manufacturers.

8. Which of the following best completes the passage below? At large amusement parks, live shows are used very deliberately to influence crowd movements. Lunchtime performances relieve the pressure on a park’s restaurants. Evening performances have a rather different purpose: to encourage visitors to stay for supper. Behind this surface divergence in immediate purpose there is the unified underlying goal of______
(A) keeping the lines at the various rides short by drawing off part of the crowd
(B) enhancing revenue by attracting people who come only for the live shows and then leave the park
(C) avoiding as far as possible traffic jams caused by visitors entering or leaving the park
(D) encouraging as many people as possible to come to the park in order to eat at the restaurants
(E) utilizing the restaurants at optimal levels for as much of the day as possible

9. James weighs more than Kelly. Luis weighs more than Mark. Mark weighs less than Ned. Kelly and Ned are exactly the same weight. If the information above is true, which of the following must also be true?
(A) Luis weighs more than Ned.
(B) Luis weighs more than James.
(C) Kelly weighs less than Luis.
(D) James weighs more than Mark.
(E) Kelly weighs less than Mark.

Questions 10-11 are based on the following.

Partly because of bad weather, but also partly because some major pepper growers have switched to high-priced cocoa, world production of pepper has been running well below worldwide sales for three years. Pepper is consequently in relatively short supply. The price of pepper has soared in response: it now equals that of cocoa.

10. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(A) Pepper is a profitable crop only if it is grown on a large scale.
(B) World consumption of pepper has been unusually high for three years.
(C) World production of pepper will return to previous levels once normal weather returns.
(D) Surplus stocks of pepper have been reduced in the past three years.
(E) The profits that the growers of pepper have made in the past three years have been unprecedented.

11. Some observers have concluded that the rise in the price of pepper means that the switch by some growers from pepper to cocoa left those growers no better off than if none of them had switched; this conclusion, however, is unwarranted because it can be inferred to be likely that
(A) those growers could not have foreseen how high the price of pepper would go
(B) the initial cost involved in switching from pepper to cocoa is substantial
(C) supplies of pepper would not be as low as they are if those growers had not switched crops
(D) cocoa crops are as susceptible to being reduced by bad weather as are pepper crops
(E) as more growers turn to growing cocoa, cocoa supplies will increase and the price of cocoa will fall precipitously

12. Using computer techniques, researchers analyze layers of paint that lie buried beneath the surface layers of old paintings. They claim, for example, that additional mountainous scenery once appeared in Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, which was later painted over. Skeptics reply to these claims, however, that X-ray examinations of the Mona Lisa do not show hidden mountains. Which of the following, if true, would tend most to weaken the force of the skeptics’ objections?
(A) There is no written or anecdotal record that Leonardo da Vinci ever painted over major areas of his Mona Lisa.
(B) Painters of da Vinci’s time commonly created images of mountainous scenery in the backgrounds of portraits like the Mona Lisa.
(C) No one knows for certain what parts of the Mona Lisa may have been painted by da Vinci’s assistants rather than by da Vinci himself.
(D) Infrared photography of the Mona Lisa has revealed no trace of hidden mountainous scenery.
(E) Analysis relying on X-rays only has the capacity to detect lead-based white pigments in layers of paint beneath a painting’s surface layers.

13. While Governor Verdant has been in office, the state’s budget has increased by an average of 6 percent each year. While the previous governor was in office, the state’s budget increased by an average of 11.5 percent each year. Obviously, the austere budgets during Governor Verdant’s term have caused the slowdown in the growth in state spending. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The rate of inflation in the state averaged 10 percent each year during the previous governor’s term in office and 3 percent each year during Verdant’s term.
(B) Both federal and state income tax rates have been lowered considerably during Verdant’s term in office.
(C) In each year of Verdant’s term in office, the state’s budget has shown some increase in spending over the previous year.
(D) During Verdant’s term in office, the state has either discontinued or begun to charge private citizens for numerous services that the state offered free to citizens
during the previous governor’s term.
(E) During the previous governor’s term in office, the state introduced several so-called “austerity” budgets intended to reduce the growth in state spending.

14. Federal agricultural programs aimed at benefiting one group whose livelihood depends on farming often end up harming another such group. Which of the following statements provides support for the claim above?
I. An effort to help feed-grain producers resulted in higher prices for their crops, but the higher prices decreased the profits of livestock producers.
II. In order to reduce crop surpluses and increase prices, growers of certain crops were paid to leave a portion of their land idle, but the reduction was not achieved
because improvements in efficiency resulted in higher production on the land in use.
III. Many farm workers were put out of work when a program meant to raise the price of grain provided grain growers with an incentive to reduce production by
giving them surplus grain from government reserves.
(A) I, but not II and not III
(B) II, but not I and not III
(C) I and III, but not II
(D) II and III, but not I
(E) I, II and III

15. Technological education is worsening. People between eighteen and twenty-four, who are just emerging from their formal education, are more likely to be technologically illiterate than somewhat older adults. And yet, issues for public referenda will increasingly involve aspects of technology. Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?
(A) If all young people are to make informed decisions on public referenda, many of them must learn more about technology.
(B) Thorough studies of technological issues and innovations should be made a required part of the public and private school curriculum.
(C) It should be suggested that prospective voters attend applied science courses in order to acquire a minimal competency in technical matters.
(D) If young people are not to be overly influenced by famous technocrats, they must increase their knowledge of pure science.
(E) On public referenda issues, young people tend to confuse real or probable technologies with impossible ideals.

16. In a political system with only two major parties, the entrance of a third-party candidate into an election race damages the chances of only one of the two major candidates. The third-party candidate always attracts some of the voters who might otherwise have voted for one of the two major candidates, but not voters who support the other candidate. Since a third-party candidacy affects the two major candidates unequally, for reasons neither of them has any control over, the practice is unfair and should not be allowed. If the factual information in the passage above is true, which of the following can be most reliably inferred from it?
(A) If the political platform of the third party is a compromise position between that of the two major parties, the third party will draw its voters equally from the two
major parties.
(B) If, before the emergence of a third party, voters were divided equally between the two major parties, neither of the major parties is likely to capture much more
than one-half of the vote.
(C) A third-party candidate will not capture the votes of new voters who have never voted for candidates of either of the two major parties.
(D) The political stance of a third party will be more radical than that of either of the two major parties.
(E) The founders of a third party are likely to be a coalition consisting of former leaders of the two major parties.

17. Companies considering new cost-cutting manufacturing processes often compare the projected results of making the investment against the alternative of not making the investment with costs, selling prices, and share of market remaining constant. Which of the following, assuming that each is a realistic possibility, constitutes the most serious disadvantage for companies of using the method above for evaluating the financial benefit of new manufacturing processes?
(A) The costs of materials required by the new process might not be known with certainty.
(B) In several years interest rates might go down, reducing the interest costs of borrowing money to pay for the investment.
(C) Some cost-cutting processes might require such expensive investments that there would be no net gain for many years, until the investment was paid for by
savings in the manufacturing process.
(D) Competitors that do invest in a new process might reduce their selling prices and thus take market share away from companies that do not.
(E) The period of year chosen for averaging out the cost of the investment might be somewhat longer or shorter, thus affecting the result.

18. There are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt. Two million couples are currently waiting to adopt, but in 1982, the last year for which figures exist, there were only some 50,000 adoptions. Which of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the author’s claim that there are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt?
(A) The number of couples waiting to adopt has increased significantly in the last decade.
(B) The number of adoptions in the current year is greater than the number of adoptions in any preceding year.
(C) The number of adoptions in a year is approximately equal to the number of children available for adoption in that period.
(D) People who seek to adopt children often go through a long process of interviews and investigation by adoption agencies.
(E) People who seek to adopt children generally make very good parents.

Questions 19-20 are based on the following.

Archaeologists seeking the location of a legendary siege and destruction of a city are excavating in several possible places, including a middle and a lower layer of a large mound. The bottom of the middle layer contains some pieces of pottery of type 3, known to be from a later period than the time of the destruction of the city, ut the lower layer does not.

19. Which of the following hypotheses is best supported by the evidence above?
(A) The lower layer contains the remains of the city where the siege took place.
(B) The legend confuses stories from two different historical periods.
(C) The middle layer does not represent the period of the siege.
(D) The siege lasted for a long time before the city was destroyed.
(E) The pottery of type 3 was imported to the city by traders.

20. The force of the evidence cited above is most seriously weakened if which of the following is true?
(A) Gerbils, small animals long native to the area, dig large burrows into which objects can fall when the burrows collapse.
(B) Pottery of types 1 and 2, found in the lower level, was used in the cities from which, according to the legend, the besieging forces came.
(C) Several pieces of stone from a lower-layer wall have been found incorporated into the remains of a building in the middle layer.
(D) Both the middle and the lower layer show evidence of large-scale destruction of habitations by fire.
(E) Bronze ax heads of a type used at the time of the siege were found in the lower level of excavation.

ANSWERS

GMAT TEST-2 ( Questions)

30 Minutes 20 Questions

1. After the national speed limit of 55 miles per hour was imposed in 1974, the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway fell abruptly as a result. Since then, however, the average speed of vehicles on highways has risen, but the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway has continued to fall. Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?
(A) The speed limit alone is probably not responsible for the continued reduction in highway deaths in the years after 1974.
(B) People have been driving less since 1974.
(C) Driver-education courses have been more effective since 1974 in teaching drivers to drive safely.
(D) In recent years highway patrols have been less effective in catching drivers who speed.
(E) The change in the speed limit cannot be responsible for the abrupt decline in highway deaths in 1974.

2. Neighboring landholders: Air pollution from the giant aluminum refinery that has been built next to our land is killing our plants. Company spokesperson: The refinery is not to blame, since our study shows that the damage is due to insects and fungi. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion drawn by the company spokesperson?
(A) The study did not measure the quantity of pollutants emitted into the surrounding air by the aluminum refinery.
(B) The neighboring landholders have made no change in the way they take care of their plants.
(C) Air pollution from the refinery has changed the chemical balance in the plants’ environment, allowing the harmful insects and fungi to thrive.
(D) Pollutants that are invisible and odorless are emitted into the surrounding air by the refinery.
(E) The various species of insects and fungi mentioned in the study have been occasionally found in the locality during the past hundred years.

3. Sales taxes tend to be regressive, affecting poor people more severely than wealthy people. When all purchases of consumer goods are taxed at a fixed percentage of the purchase price, poor people pay a larger proportion of their income in sales taxes than wealthy people do. It can be correctly inferred on the basis of the statements above that which of the following is true?
(A) Poor people constitute a larger proportion of the taxpaying population than wealthy people do.
(B) Poor people spend a larger proportion of their income on purchases of consumer goods than wealthy people do.
(C) Wealthy people pay, on average, a larger amount of sales taxes than poor people do.
(D) The total amount spent by all poor people on purchases of consumer goods exceeds the total amount spent by all wealthy people on consumer goods.
(E) The average purchase price of consumer goods bought by wealthy people is higher than that of consumer goods bought by poor people.

4. Reviewing historical data, medical researchers in California found that counties with the largest number of television sets per capita have had the lowest incidence of a serious brain disease, mosquito-borne encephalitis. The researchers have concluded that people in these counties stay indoors more and thus avoid exposure to the disease. The researchers’ conclusion would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?
(A) Programs designed to control the size of disease-bearing mosquito populations have not affected the incidence of mosquito borne encephalitis.
(B) The occupations of county residents affect their risk of exposure to mosquito-borne encephalitis more than does television-watching.
(C) The incidence of mosquito-borne encephalitis in counties with the largest number of television sets per capita is likely to decrease even further.
(D) The more time people in a county spend outdoors, the greater their awareness of the dangers of mosquito-borne encephalitis.
(E) The more television sets there are per capita in a county, the more time the average county resident spends watching television.

5. The city’s public transportation system should be removed from the jurisdiction of the municipal government, which finds it politically impossible either to raise fares or to institute cost-saving reductions in service. If public transportation were handled by a private firm, profits would be vigorously pursued, thereby eliminating the necessity for covering operating costs with government funds. The statements above best support the conclusion that
(A) the private firms that would handle public transportation would have experience in the transportation industry
(B) political considerations would not prevent private firms from ensuring that revenues cover operating costs
(C) private firms would receive government funding if it were needed to cover operating costs
(D) the public would approve the cost-cutting actions taken by the private firm
(E) the municipal government would not be resigned to accumulating merely enough income to cover costs

6. To entice customers away from competitors, Red Label supermarkets have begun offering discounts on home appliances to customers who spend $50 or more on any shopping trip to Red Label. Red Label executives claim that the discount program has been a huge success, since cash register receipts of $50 or more are up thirty percent since the beginning of the program. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the claim of the Red Label executives?
(A) Most people who switched to Red Label after the program began spend more than $50 each time they shop at Red Label.
(B) Most people whose average grocery bill is less than $50 would not be persuaded to spend more by any discount program.
(C) Most people who received discounts on home appliances through Red Label’s program will shop at Red Label after the program ends.
(D) Since the beginning of the discount program, most of the people who spend $50 or more at Red Label are people who have never before shopped there and
whose average grocery bill has always been higher than $50.
(E) Almost all of the people who have begun spending $50 or more at Red Label since the discount program began are longtime customers who have increased the average amount of their shopping bills by making fewer trips.

7. Throughout the 1950’s, there were increases in the numbers of dead birds found in agricultural areas after pesticide sprayings. Pesticide manufacturers claimed that the publicity given to bird deaths stimulated volunteers to look for dead birds, and that the increase in numbers reported was attributable to the increase in the number of people looking. Which of the following statements, if true, would help to refute the claim of the pesticide manufacturers?
(A) The publicity given to bird deaths was largely regional and never reached national proportions.
(B) Pesticide sprayings were timed to coincide with various phases of the life cycles of the insects they destroyed.
(C) No provision was made to ensure that a dead bird would not be reported by more than one observer.
(D) Initial increases in bird deaths had been noticed by agricultural workers long before any publicity had been given to the matter.
(E) Dead birds of the same species as those found in agricultural areas had been found along coastal areas where no farming took place.

8. Teenagers are often priced out of the labor market by the government-mandated minimum-wage level because employers cannot afford to pay that much for extra help. Therefore, if Congress institutes a subminimum wage, a new lower legal wage for teenagers, the teenage unemployment rate, which has been rising since 1960, will no longer increase. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) Since 1960 the teenage unemployment rate has risen when the minimum wage has risen.
(B) Since 1960 the teenage unemployment rate has risen even when the minimum wage remained constant.
(C) Employers often hire extra help during holiday and warm weather seasons.
(D) The teenage unemployment rate rose more quickly in the 1970’s than it did in the 1960’s.
(E) The teenage unemployment rate has occasionally declined in the years since 1960.

9. Which of the following best completes the passage below? The computer industry’s estimate that it loses millions of dollars when users illegally copy programs without paying for them is greatly exaggerated. Most of the illegal copying is done by people with no serious interest in the programs. Thus, the loss to the industry is much smaller than estimated because______
(A) many users who illegally copy programs never find any use for them
(B) most of the illegally copied programs would not be purchased even if purchasing them were the only way to obtain them
(C) even if the computer industry received all the revenue it claims to be losing, it would still be experiencing financial difficulties
(D) the total market value of all illegal copies is low in comparison to the total revenue of the computer industry
(E) the number of programs that are frequently copied illegally is low in comparison to the number of programs available for sale

10. This year the New Hampshire Division of Company X set a new record for annual sales by that division. This record is especially surprising since the New Hampshire Division has the smallest potential market and the lowest sales of any of Company X’s divisions. Which of the following identifies a flaw in the logical coherence of the statement above?
(A) If overall sales for Company X were sharply reduced, the New Hampshire Division’s new sales record is irrelevant to the company’s prosperity.
(B) Since the division is competing against its own record, the comparison of its sales record with that of other divisions is irrelevant.
(C) If this is the first year that the New Hampshire Division has been last in sales among Company X’s divisions, the new record is not surprising at all.
(D) If overall sales for Company X were greater than usual, it is not surprising that the New Hampshire Division was last in sales.
(E) Since the New Hampshire Division has the smallest potential market, it is not surprising that it had the lowest sales.

11. Statement of a United States copper mining company: Import quotas should be imposed on the less expensive copper mined outside the country to maintain the price of copper in this country; otherwise, our companies will not be able to stay in business. Response of a United States copper wire manufacturer: United States wire and cable manufacturers purchase about 70 percent of the copper mined in the United States. If the copper prices we pay are not at the international level, our sales will drop, and then the demand for United States copper will go down. If the factual information presented by both companies is accurate, the best assessment of the logical relationship between the two arguments is that the wire manufacturer’s argument
(A) is self-serving and irrelevant to the proposal of the mining company
(B) is circular, presupposing what it seeks to prove about the proposal of the mining company
(C) shows that the proposal of the mining company would have a negative effect on the mining company’s own business
(D) fails to give a reason why the proposal of the mining company should not be put into effect to alleviate the concern of the mining company for staying in business
(E) establishes that even the mining company’s business will prosper if the mining company’s proposal is rejected

12. Y has been believed to cause Z. A new report, noting that Y and Z are often observed to be preceded by X, suggests that X, not Y, may be the cause of Z. Which of the following further observations would best support the new report’s suggestion?
(A) In cases where X occurs but Y does not, X is usually followed by Z.
(B) In cases where X occurs, followed by Y, Y is usually followed by Z.
(C) In cases where Y occurs but X does not, Y is usually followed by Z.
(D) In cases where Y occurs but Z does not, Y is usually preceded by X.
(E) In cases where Z occurs, it is usually preceded by X and Y.

13. Mr. Primm: If hospitals were private enterprises, dependent on profits for their survival, there would be no teaching hospitals, because of the intrinsically high cost of running such hospitals. Ms. Nakai: I disagree. The medical challenges provided by teaching hospitals attract the very best physicians. This, in turn, enables those hospitals to concentrate on nonroutine cases. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen Ms. Nakai’s attempt to refute Mr. Primm’s claim?
(A) Doctors at teaching hospitals command high salaries.
(B) Sophisticated, nonroutine medical care commands a high price.
(C) Existing teaching hospitals derive some revenue from public subsidies.
(D) The patient mortality rate at teaching hospitals is high.
(E) The modern trend among physicians is to become highly specialized.

14. A recent survey of all auto accident victims in Dole County found that, of the severely injured drivers and front-seat passengers, 80 percent were not wearing seat belts at the time of their accidents. This indicates that, by wearing seat belts, drivers and front-seat passengers can greatly reduce their risk of being severely injured if they are in an auto accident. The conclusion above is not properly drawn unless which of the following is true?
(A) Of all the drivers and front-seat passengers in the survey, more than 20 percent were wearing seat belts at the time of their accidents.
(B) Considerably more than 20 percent of drivers and front-seat passengers in Dole County always wear seat belts when traveling by car.
(C) More drivers and front-seat passengers in the survey than rear-seat passengers were very severely injured.
(D) More than half of the drivers and front-seat passengers in the survey were not wearing seat belts at the time of their accidents.
(E) Most of the auto accidents reported to police in Dole County do not involve any serious injury.

15. Six months or so after getting a video recorder, many early buyers apparently lost interest in obtaining videos to watch on it. The trade of businesses selling and renting videos is still buoyant, because the number of homes with video recorders is still growing. But clearly, once the market for video recorders is saturated, businesses distributing videos face hard times. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion above?
(A) The market for video recorders would not be considered saturated until there was one in 80 percent of homes.
(B) Among the items handled by video distributors are many films specifically produced as video features.
(C) Few of the early buyers of video recorders raised any complaints about performance aspects of the new product.
(D) The early buyers of a novel product are always people who are quick to acquire novelties, but also often as quick to tire of them.
(E) In a shrinking market, competition always intensifies and marginal businesses fail.

16. Advertiser: The revenue that newspapers and magazines earn by publishing advertisements allows publishers to keep the prices per copy of their publications much lower than would otherwise be possible. Therefore, consumers benefit economically from advertising. Consumer: But who pays for the advertising that pays for low-priced newspapers and magazines? We consumers do, because advertisers pass along advertising costs to us through the higher prices they charge for their products. Which of the following best describes how the consumer counters the advertiser’s argument?
(A) By alleging something that, if true, would weaken the plausibility of the advertiser’s conclusion
(B) By questioning the truth of the purportedly factual statement on which the advertiser’s conclusion is based
(C) By offering an interpretation of the advertiser’s opening statement that, if accurate, shows that there is an implicit contradiction in it
(D) By pointing out that the advertiser’s point of view is biased
(E) By arguing that the advertiser too narrowly restricts the discussion to the effects of advertising that are economic

17. Mr. Lawson: We should adopt a national family policy that includes legislation requiring employers to provide paid parental leave and establishing government-sponsored day care. Such laws would decrease the stress levels of employees who have responsibility for small children. Thus, such laws would lead to happier, better-adjusted families. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion above?
(A) An employee’s high stress level can be a cause of unhappiness and poor adjustment for his or her family.
(B) People who have responsibility for small children and who work outside the home have higher stress levels than those who do not.
(C) The goal of a national family policy is to lower the stress levels of parents.
(D) Any national family policy that is adopted would include legislation requiring employers to provide paid parental leave and establishing government-sponsored
day care.
(E) Most children who have been cared for in daycare centers are happy and well adjusted.

18. Lark Manufacturing Company initiated a voluntary Quality Circles program for machine operators. Independent surveys of employee attitudes indicated that the machine operators participating in the program were less satisfied with their work situations after two years of the program’s existence than they were at the program’s start. Obviously, any workers who participate in a Quality Circles program will, as a result, become less satisfied with their jobs. Each of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion drawn above EXCEPT:
(A) The second survey occurred during a period of recession when rumors of cutbacks and layoffs at Lark Manufacturing were plentiful.
(B) The surveys also showed that those Lark machine operators who neither participated in Quality Circles nor knew anyone who did so reported the same degree
of lessened satisfaction with their work situations as did the Lark machine operators who participated in Quality Circles.
(C) While participating in Quality Circles at Lark Manufacturing, machine operators exhibited two of the primary indicators of improved job satisfaction: increased
productivity and decreased absenteeism.
(D) Several workers at Lark Manufacturing who had participated in Quality Circles while employed at other companies reported that, while participating in Quality
Circles in their previous companies, their work satisfaction had increased.
(E) The machine operators who participated in Quality Circles reported that, when the program started, they felt that participation might improve their work
situations.

Questions 19-20 are based on the following.

Blood banks will shortly start to screen all donors for NANB hepatitis. Although the new screening tests are estimated to disqualify up to 5 percent of all
prospective blood donors, they will still miss two-thirds of donors carrying NANB hepatitis. Therefore, about 10 percent of actual donors will still supply NANB-
ontaminated blood.

19. The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?
(A) Donors carrying NANB hepatitis do not, in a large percentage of cases, carry other infections for which reliable screening tests are routinely performed.
(B) Donors carrying NANB hepatitis do not, in a large percentage of cases, develop the disease themselves at any point.
(C) The estimate of the number of donors who would be disqualified by tests for NANB hepatitis is an underestimate.
(D) The incidence of NANB hepatitis is lower among the potential blood donors than it is in the population at large.
(E) The donors who will still supply NANB-contaminated blood will donate blood at the average frequency for all donors.

20. Which of the following inferences about the consequences of instituting the new tests is best supported by the passage above?
(A) The incidence of new cases of NANB hepatitis is likely to go up by 10 percent.
(B) Donations made by patients specifically for their own use are likely to become less frequent.
(C) The demand for blood from blood banks is likely to fluctuate more strongly.
(D) The blood supplies available from blood banks are likely to go down.
(E) The number of prospective first-time donors is likely to go up by 5 percent.

  ANSWERS

GMAT TEST-3 ( Questions)

30 Minutes 20 Questions

1. Child’s World, a chain of toy stores, has relied on a “supermarket concept” of computerized inventory control and customer self-service to eliminate the category of sales clerks from its force of employees. It now plans to employ the same concept in selling children’s clothes. The plan of Child’s World assumes that
(A) supermarkets will not also be selling children’s clothes in the same manner
(B) personal service by sales personnel is not required for selling children’s clothes successfully
(C) the same kind of computers will be used in inventory control for both clothes and toys at Child’s World
(D) a self-service plan cannot be employed without computerized inventory control
(E) sales clerks are the only employees of Child’s World who could be assigned tasks related to inventory control

2. Continuous indoor fluorescent light benefits the health of hamsters with inherited heart disease. A group of them exposed to continuous fluorescent light survived twenty-five percent longer than a similar group exposed instead to equal periods of indoor fluorescent light and of darkness. The method of the research described above is most likely to be applicable in addressing which of the following questions?
(A) Can industrial workers who need to see their work do so better by sunlight or by fluorescent light?
(B) Can hospital lighting be improved to promote the recovery of patients?
(C) How do deep-sea fish survive in total darkness?
(D) What are the inherited illnesses to which hamsters are subject?
(E) Are there plants that require specific periods of darkness in order to bloom?

3. Millions of identical copies of a plant can be produced using new tissue-culture and cloning techniques. If plant propagation by such methods in laboratories proves economical, each of the following, if true, represents a benefit of the new techniques to farmers EXCEPT:
(A) The techniques allow the development of superior strains to take place more rapidly, requiring fewer generations of plants grown to maturity.
(B) It is less difficult to care for plants that will grow at rates that do not vary widely.
(C) Plant diseases and pests, once they take hold, spread more rapidly among genetically uniform plants than among those with genetic variations.
(D) Mechanical harvesting of crops is less difficult if plants are more uniform in size.
(E) Special genetic traits can more easily be introduced into plant strains with the use of the new techniques.

4. Which of the following best completes the passage below? Sales campaigns aimed at the faltering personal computer market have strongly emphasized ease of use, called user-friendliness. This emphasis is oddly premature and irrelevant in the eyes of most potential buyers, who are trying to address the logically prior issue of whether______
(A) user-friendliness also implies that owners can service their own computers
(B) personal computers cost more the more user-friendly they are
(C) currently available models are user-friendly enough to suit them
(D) the people promoting personal computers use them in their own homes
(E) they have enough sensible uses for a personal computer to justify the expense of buying one

5. A weapons-smuggling incident recently took place in country Y. We all know that Y is a closed society. So Y’s government must have known about the weapons. Which of the following is an assumption that would make the conclusion above logically correct?
(A) If a government knows about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have intended to use the weapons for its own purposes.
(B) If a government claims that it knew nothing about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have known everything about it.
(C) If a government does not permit weapons to enter a country, it is a closed society.
(D) If a country is a closed society, its government has a large contingent of armed guards patrolling its borders.
(E) If a country is a closed society, its government has knowledge about everything that occurs in the country.

6. Banning cigarette advertisements in the mass media will not reduce the number of young people who smoke. They know that cigarettes exist and they know how to get them. They do not need the advertisements to supply that information. The above argument would be most weakened if which of the following were true?
(A) Seeing or hearing an advertisement for a product tends to increase people’s desire for that product.
(B) Banning cigarette advertisements in the mass media will cause an increase in advertisements in places where cigarettes are sold.
(C) Advertisements in the mass media have been an exceedingly large part of the expenditures of the tobacco companies.
(D) Those who oppose cigarette use have advertised against it in the mass media ever since cigarettes were found to be harmful.
(E) Older people tend to be less influenced by mass-media advertisements than younger people tend to be.

7. People tend to estimate the likelihood of an event’s occurrence according to its salience; that is, according to how strongly and how often it comes to their attention. By placement and headlines, newspapers emphasize stories about local crime over stories about crime elsewhere and about many other major events. It can be concluded on the basis of the statements above that, if they are true, which of the following is most probably also true?
(A) The language used in newspaper headlines about local crime is inflammatory and fails to respect the rights of suspects.
(B) The coverage of international events in newspapers is neglected in favor of the coverage of local events.
(C) Readers of local news in newspapers tend to overestimate the amount of crime in their own localities relative to the amount of crime in other places.
(D) None of the events concerning other people that are reported in newspapers is so salient in people’s minds as their own personal experiences.
(E) The press is the news medium that focuses people’s attention most strongly on local crimes.

8. By analyzing the garbage of a large number of average-sized households, a group of modern urban anthropologists has found that a household discards less food the more standardized—made up of canned and prepackaged foods—its diet is. The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away. Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?
(A) An increasing number of households rely on a highly standardized diet.
(B) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more nonfood waste the household discards.
(C) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the smaller is the proportion of fresh produce in the household’s food waste.
(D) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more canned and prepackaged foods the household discards as waste.
(E) The more fresh produce a household buys, the more fresh produce it throws away.

Questions 9-10 are based on the following.

In the past, teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries were predominantly men; these occupations slipped in pay and status when they became largely occupied by
women. Therefore, if women become the majority in currently male-dominated professions like accounting, law, and medicine, the income and prestige of these
professions will also drop.

9. The argument above is based on
(A) another argument that contains circular reasoning
(B) an attempt to refute a generalization by means of an exceptional case
(C) an analogy between the past and the future
(D) an appeal to popular beliefs and values
(E) an attack on the character of the opposition

10. Which of the following, if true, would most likely be part of the evidence used to refute the conclusion above?
(A) Accountants, lawyers, and physicians attained their current relatively high levels of income and prestige at about the same time that the pay and status of
teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries slipped.
(B) When large numbers of men join a female-dominated occupation, such as airline flight attendant, the status and pay of the occupation tend to increase.
(C) The demand for teachers and secretaries has increased significantly in recent years, while the demand for bank tellers has remained relatively stable.
(D) If present trends in the awarding of law degrees to women continue, it will be at least two decades before the majority of lawyers are women.
(E) The pay and status of female accountants, lawyers, and physicians today are governed by significantly different economic and sociological forces than were the
pay and status of female teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries in the past.

11. An electric-power company gained greater profits and provided electricity to consumers at lower rates per unit of electricity by building larger- apacity more efficient plants and by stimulating greater use of electricity within its area. To continue these financial trends, the company planned to replace an old plant by a plant with triple the capacity of its largest plant. The company’s plan as described above assumed each of the following EXCEPT:
(A) Demand for electricity within the company’s area of service would increase in the future.
(B) Expenses would not rise beyond the level that could be compensated for by efficiency or volume of operation, or both.
(C) The planned plant would be sufficiently reliable in service to contribute a net financial benefit to the company as a whole.
(D) Safety measures to be instituted for the new plant would be the same as those for the plant it would replace.
(E) The tripling of capacity would not result in insuperable technological obstacles to efficiency.

Questions 12-13 are based on the following.

Meteorologists say that if only they could design an accurate mathematical model of the atmosphere with all its complexities, they could forecast the weather with real precision. But this is an idle boast, immune to any evaluation, for any inadequate weather forecast would obviously be blamed on imperfections in the model.

12. Which of the following, if true, could best be used as a basis for arguing against the author’s position that the meteorologists’ claim cannot be evaluated?
(A) Certain unusual configurations of data can serve as the basis for precise weather forecasts even though the exact causal mechanisms are not understood.
(B) Most significant gains in the accuracy of the relevant mathematical models are accompanied by clear gains in the precision of weather forecasts.
(C) Mathematical models of the meteorological aftermath of such catastrophic events as volcanic eruptions are beginning to be constructed.
(D) Modern weather forecasts for as much as a full day ahead are broadly correct about 80 percent of the time.
(E) Meteorologists readily concede that the accurate mathematical model they are talking about is not now in their power to construct.

13. Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the meteorologists’ boast, aside from the doubt expressed in the passage above?
(A) The amount of energy that the Earth receives from the Sun is monitored closely and is known not to be constant.
(B) Volcanic eruptions, the combustion of fossil fuels, and several other processes that also cannot be quantified with any accuracy are known to have a significant
and continuing impact on the constitution of the atmosphere.
(C) As current models of the atmosphere are improved, even small increments in complexity will mean large increases in the number of computers required for the
representation of the models.
(D) Frequent and accurate data about the atmosphere collected at a large number of points both on and above the ground are a prerequisite for the construction of
a good model of the atmosphere.
(E) With existing models of the atmosphere, large scale weather patterns can be predicted with greater accuracy than can relatively local weather patterns.

14. Of the countries that were the world’s twenty largest exporters in 1953, four had the same share of total world exports in 1984 as in 1953. Theses countries can therefore serve as models for those countries that wish to keep their share of the global export trade stable over the years. Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the suitability of those four countries as models in the sense described?
(A) Many countries wish to increase their share of world export trade, not just keep it stable.
(B) Many countries are less concerned with exports alone than with he balance between exports and imports.
(C) With respect to the mix of products each exports, the four countries are very different from each other.
(D) Of the four countries, two had a much larger, and two had a much smaller, share of total world exports in 1970 than in 1984.
(E) The exports of the four countries range from 15 percent to 75 percent of the total national output.

Questions 15-16 are based on the following.

In the United States, the Postal Service has a monopoly on first-class mail, but much of what is sent first class could be transmitted electronically. Electronic transmittal operators argue that if the Postal Service were to offer electronic transmission, it would have an unfair advantage, since its electronic transmission service could be subsidized from the profits of the monopoly.

15. Which of the following, if each is true, would allay the electronic transmittal operators’ fears of unfair competition?
(A) If the Postal Service were to offer electronic transmission, it could not make a profit on first-class mail.
(B) If the Postal Service were to offer electronic transmission, it would have a monopoly on that kind of service.
(C) Much of the material that is now sent by first-class mail could be delivered much faster by special package couriers, but is not sent that way because of cost.
(D) There is no economy of scale in electronic transmission—that is, the cost per transaction does not go down as more pieces of information are transmitted.
(E) Electronic transmission will never be cost-effective for material not sent by first-class mail such as newspapers and bulk mail.

16. Which of the following questions can be answered on the basis of the information in the passage above?
(A) Is the Postal Service as efficient as privately owned electric transmission services?
(B) If private operators were allowed to operate first-class mail services, would they choose to do so?
(C) Do the electronic transmittal operators believe that the Postal Service makes a profit on first-class mail?
(D) Is the Postal Service prohibited from offering electronic transmission services?
(E) Is the Postal Service expected to have a monopoly on electronic transmission?

17. Lists of hospitals have been compiled showing which hospitals have patient death rates exceeding the national average. The data have been adjusted to allow for differences in the ages of patients. Each of the following, if true, provides a good logical ground for hospitals to object to interpreting rank on these lists as one of the indices of the quality of hospital care EXCEPT:
(A) Rank order might indicate insignificant differences, rather than large differences, in numbers of patient deaths.
(B) Hospitals that keep patients longer are likely to have higher death rates than those that discharge patients earlier but do not record deaths of patients at home
after discharge.
(C) Patients who are very old on admission to a hospital are less likely than younger patients to survive the same types of illnesses or surgical procedures.
(D) Some hospitals serve a larger proportion of low-income patients, who tend to be more seriously ill when admitted to a hospital.
(E) For-profit hospitals sometimes do not provide intensive-care units and other expensive services for very sick patients but refer or transfer such patients to other
hospitals.

18. Teresa: Manned spaceflight does not have a future, since it cannot compete economically with other means of accomplishing the objectives of spaceflight. Edward: No mode of human transportation has a better record of reliability: two accidents in twenty-five years. Thus manned spaceflight definitely has a positive future. Which of the following is the best logical evaluation of Edward’s argument as a response to Teresa’s argument?
(A) It cites evidence that, if true, tends to disprove the evidence cited by Teresa in drawing her conclusion.
(B) It indicates a logical gap in the support that Teresa offers for her conclusion.
(C) It raises a consideration that outweighs the argument Teresa makes.
(D) It does not meet Teresa’s point because it assumes that there is no serious impediment to transporting people into space, but this was the issue raised by Teresa.
(E) It fails to respond to Teresa’s argument because it does not address the fundamental issue of whether space activities should have priority over other claims on
the national budget.

19. Black Americans are, on the whole, about twice as likely as White Americans to develop high blood pressure. This likelihood also holds for westernized Black Africans when compared to White Africans. Researchers have hypothesized that this predisposition in westernized Blacks may reflect an interaction between western high-salt diets and genes that adapted to an environmental scarcity of salt. Which of the following statements about present-day, westernized Black Africans, if true, would most tend to confirm the researchers’ hypothesis?
(A) The blood pressures of those descended from peoples situated throughout their history in Senegal and Gambia, where salt was always available, are low.
(B) The unusually high salt consumption in certain areas of Africa represents a serious health problem.
(C) Because of their blood pressure levels, most White Africans have markedly decreased their salt consumption.
(D) Blood pressures are low among the Yoruba, who, throughout their history, have been situated far inland from sources of sea salt and far south of Saharan salt
mines.
(E) No significant differences in salt metabolism have been found between those people who have had salt available throughout their history and those who have not.

20. The following proposal to amend the bylaws of an organization was circulated to its members for comment. When more than one nominee is to be named for an office, prospective nominees must consent to nomination and before giving such consent must be told who the other nominees will be. Which of the following comments concerning the logic of the proposal is accurate if it cannot be known who the actual nominees are until prospective nominees have given their consent to be nominated?
(A) The proposal would make it possible for each of several nominees for an office to be aware of who all of the other nominees are.
(B) The proposal would widen the choice available to those choosing among the nominees.
(C) If there are several prospective nominees, the proposal would deny the last nominee equal treatment with the first.
(D) The proposal would enable a prospective nominee to withdraw from competition with a specific person without making that withdrawal known.
(E) If there is more than one prospective nominee, the proposal would make it impossible for anyone to become a nominee.

ANSWERS

GMAT TEST-4 ( Questions)

30 Minutes 20 Questions

1. Which of the following best completes the passage below? In a survey of job applicants, two-fifths admitted to being at least a little dishonest. However, the survey may underestimate the proportion of job applicants who are dishonest, because______
(A) some dishonest people taking the survey might have claimed on the survey to be honest
(B) some generally honest people taking the survey might have claimed on the survey to be dishonest
(C) some people who claimed on the survey to be at least a little dishonest may be very dishonest
(D) some people who claimed on the survey to be dishonest may have been answering honestly
(E) some people who are not job applicants are probably at least a little dishonest

Questions 2-3 are based on the following.

The average life expectancy for the United States population as a whole is 73.9 years, but children born in Hawaii will live an average of 77 years, and those born in Louisiana, 71.7 years. If a newlywed couple from Louisiana were to begin their family in Hawaii, therefore, their children would be expected to live longer than would be the case if the family remained in Louisiana.

2. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn in the passage?
(A) Insurance company statisticians do not believe that moving to Hawaii will significantly lengthen the average Louisianian’s life.
(B) The governor of Louisiana has falsely alleged that statistics for his state are inaccurate.
(C) The longevity ascribed to Hawaii’s current population is attributable mostly to genetically determined factors.
(D) Thirty percent of all Louisianians can expect to live longer than 77 years.
(E) Most of the Hawaiian Islands have levels of air pollution well below the national average for the United States.

3. Which of the following statements, if true, would most significantly strengthen the conclusion drawn in the passage?
(A) As population density increases in Hawaii, life expectancy figures for that state are likely to be revised downward.
(B) Environmental factors tending to favor longevity are abundant in Hawaii and less numerous in Louisiana.
(C) Twenty-five percent of all Louisianians who move to Hawaii live longer than 77 years.
(D) Over the last decade, average life expectancy has risen at a higher rate for Louisianians than for Hawaiians.
(E) Studies show that the average life expectancy for Hawaiians who move permanently to Louisiana is roughly equal to that of Hawaiians who remain in Hawaii.

4. Insurance Company X is considering issuing a new policy to cover services required by elderly people who suffer from diseases that afflict the elderly. Premiums for the policy must be low enough to attract customers. Therefore, Company X is concerned that the income from the policies would not be sufficient to pay for the claims that would be made. Which of the following strategies would be most likely to minimize Company X’s losses on the policies?
(A) Attracting middle-aged customers unlikely to submit claims for benefits for many years
(B) Insuring only those individuals who did not suffer any serious diseases as children
(C) Including a greater number of services in the policy than are included in other policies of lower cost
(D) Insuring only those individuals who were rejected by other companies for similar policies
(E) Insuring only those individuals who are wealthy enough to pay for the medical services

5. A program instituted in a particular state allows parents to prepay their children’s future college tuition at current rates. The program then pays the tuition annually for the child at any of the state’s public colleges in which the child enrolls. Parents should participate in the program as a means of decreasing the cost for their children’s college education. Which of the following, if true, is the most appropriate reason for parents not to participate in the program?
(A) The parents are unsure about which pubic college in the state the child will attend.
(B) The amount of money accumulated by putting the prepayment funds in an interest-bearing account today will be greater than the total cost of tuition for any of
the pubic colleges when the child enrolls.
(C) The annual cost of tuition at the state’s pubic colleges is expected to increase at a faster rate than the annual increase in the cost of living.
(D) Some of the state’s public colleges are contemplating large increases in tuition next year.
(E) The prepayment plan would not cover the cost of room and board at any of the state’s public colleges.

6. Company Alpha buys free-travel coupons from people who are awarded the coupons by Bravo Airlines for flying frequently on Bravo airplanes. The coupons are sold to people who pay less for the coupons than they would pay by purchasing tickets from Bravo. This marketing of coupons results in lost revenue for Bravo. To discourage the buying and selling of free-travel coupons, it would be best for Bravo Airlines to restrict the
(A) number of coupons that a person can be awarded in a particular year
(B) use of the coupons to those who were awarded the coupons and members of their immediate families
(C) days that the coupons can be used to Monday through Friday
(D) amount of time that the coupons can be used after they are issued
(E) number of routes on which travelers can use the coupons

7. The ice on the front windshield of the car had formed when moisture condensed during the night. The ice melted quickly after the car was warmed up the next morning because the defrosting vent, which blows only on the front windshield, was turned on full force. Which of the following, if true, most seriously jeopardizes the validity of the explanation for the speed with which the ice melted?
(A) The side windows had no ice condensation on them.
(B) Even though no attempt was made to defrost the back window, the ice there melted at the same rate as did the ice on the front windshield.
(C) The speed at which ice on a window melts increases as the temperature of the air blown on the window increases.
(D) The warm air from the defrosting vent for the front windshield cools rapidly as it dissipates throughout the rest of the car.
(E) The defrosting vent operates efficiently even when the heater, which blows warm air toward the feet or faces of the driver and passengers, is on.

8. To prevent some conflicts of interest, Congress could prohibit high-level government officials from accepting positions as lobbyists for three years after such officials leave government service. One such official concluded, however, that such a prohibition would be unfortunate because it would prevent high-level government officials from earning a livelihood for three years. The official’s conclusion logically depends on which of the following assumptions?
(A) Laws should not restrict the behavior of former government officials.
(B) Lobbyists are typically people who have previously been high-level government officials.
(C) Low-level government officials do not often become lobbyists when they leave government service.
(D) High-level government officials who leave government service are capable of earning a livelihood only as lobbyists.
(E) High-level government officials who leave government service are currently permitted to act as lobbyists for only three years.

9. A conservation group in the United States is trying to change the long-standing image of bats as frightening creatures. The group contends that bats are feared and persecuted solely because they are shy animals that are active only at night. Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the accuracy of the group’s contention?
(A) Bats are steadily losing natural roosting places such as caves and hollow trees and are thus turning to more developed areas for roosting.
(B) Bats are the chief consumers of nocturnal insects and thus can help make their hunting territory more pleasant for humans.
(C) Bats are regarded as frightening creatures not only in the United States but also in Europe, Africa, and South America.
(D) Raccoons and owls are shy and active only at night; yet they are not generally feared and persecuted.
(E) People know more about the behavior of other greatly feared animal species, such as lions, alligators, and snakes, than they do about the behavior of bats.

10. Meteorite explosions in the Earth’s atmosphere as large as the one that destroyed forests in Siberia, with approximately the force of a twelve- egaton nuclear blast, occur about once a century. The response of highly automated systems controlled by complex computer programs to unexpected circumstances is unpredictable. Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn, if the statements above are true, about a highly automated nuclear-missile defense system controlled by a complex computer program?
(A) Within a century after its construction, the system would react inappropriately and might accidentally start a nuclear war.
(B) The system would be destroyed if an explosion of a large meteorite occurred in the Earth’s atmosphere.
(C) It would be impossible for the system to distinguish the explosion of a large meteorite from the explosion of a nuclear weapon.
(D) Whether the system would respond inappropriately to the explosion of a large meteorite would depend on the location of the blast.
(E) It is not certain what the system’s response to the explosion of a large meteorite would be, if its designers did not plan for such a contingency.

Questions 11-12 are based on the following.

The fewer restrictions there are on the advertising of legal services, the more lawyers there are who advertise their services, and the lawyers who advertise a specific service usually charge less for that service than lawyers who do not advertise. Therefore, if the state removes any of its current restrictions, such as the one against advertisements that do not specify fee arrangements, overall consumer legal costs will be lower than if the state retains its current restrictions.

11. If the statements above are true, which of the following must be true?
(A) Some lawyers who now advertise will charge more for specific services if they do not have to specify fee arrangements in the advertisements.
(B) More consumers will use legal services if there are fewer restrictions on the advertising of legal services.
(C) If the restriction against advertisements that do not specify fee arrangements is removed, more lawyers will advertise their services.
(D) If more lawyers advertise lower prices for specific services, some lawyers who do not advertise will also charge less than they currently charge for those
services.
(E) If the only restrictions on the advertising of legal services were those that apply to every type of advertising, most lawyers would advertise their services.

12. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument concerning overall consumer legal costs?
(A) The state has recently removed some other restrictions that had limited the advertising of legal services.
(B) The state is unlikely to remove all of the restrictions that apply solely to the advertising of legal services.
(C) Lawyers who do not advertise generally provide legal services of the same quality as those provided by lawyers who do advertise.
(D) Most lawyers who now specify fee arrangements in their advertisements would continue to do so even if the specification were not required.
(E) Most lawyers who advertise specific services do not lower their fees for those services when they begin to advertise.

13. Defense Department analysts worry that the ability of the United States to wage a prolonged war would be seriously endangered if the machine- ool manufacturing base shrinks further. Before the Defense Department publicly connected this security issue with the import quota issue, however, the machine-tool industry raised the national security issue in its petition for import quotas. Which of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the machine-tool industry’s raising the issue above regarding national security?
(A) When the aircraft industries retooled, they provided a large amount of work for tool builders.
(B) The Defense Department is only marginally concerned with the effects of foreign competition on the machine-tool industry.
(C) The machine-tool industry encountered difficulty in obtaining governmental protection against imports on grounds other than defense.
(D) A few weapons important for defense consist of parts that do not require extensive machining.
(E) Several federal government programs have been designed which will enable domestic machine-tool manufacturing firms to compete successfully with foreign
toolmakers.

14. Opponents of laws that require automobile drivers and passengers to wear seat belts argue that in a free society people have the right to take risks as long as the people do not harm others as a result of taking the risks. As a result, they conclude that it should be each person’s decision whether or not to wear a seat belt. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion drawn above?
(A) Many new cars are built with seat belts that automatically fasten when someone sits in the front seat.
(B) Automobile insurance rates for all automobile owners are higher because of the need to pay for the increased injuries or deaths of people not wearing seat belts.
(C) Passengers in airplanes are required to wear seat belts during takeoffs and landings.
(D) The rate of automobile fatalities in states that do not have mandatory seat-belt laws is greater than the rate of fatalities in states that do have such laws.
(E) In automobile accidents, a greater number of passengers who do not wear seat belts are injured than are passengers who do wear seat belts.

15. The cost of producing radios in Country Q is ten percent less than the cost of producing radios in Country Y. Even after transportation fees and tariff charges are added, it is still cheaper for a company to import radios from Country Q to Country Y than to produce radios in Country Y. The statements above, if true, best support which of the following assertions?
(A) Labor costs in Country Q are ten percent below those in Country Y.
(B) Importing radios from Country Q to Country Y will eliminate ten percent of the manufacturing jobs in Country Y.
(C) The tariff on a radio imported from Country Q to Country Y is less than ten percent of the cost of manufacturing the radio in Country Y.
(D) The fee for transporting a radio from Country Q to Country Y is more than ten percent of the cost of manufacturing the radio in Country Q.
(E) It takes ten percent less time to manufacture a radio in Country Q than it does in Country Y.

16. During the Second World War, about 375,000 civilians died in the United States and about 408,000 members of the United States armed forces died overseas. On the basis of those figures, it can be concluded that it was not much more dangerous to be overseas in the armed forces during the Second World War than it was to stay at home as a civilian. Which of the following would reveal most clearly the absurdity of the conclusion drawn above?
(A) Counting deaths among members of the armed forces who served in the United States in addition to deaths among members of the armed forces serving
overseas
(B) Expressing the difference between the numbers of deaths among civilians and members of the armed forces as a percentage of the total number of deaths
(C) Separating deaths caused by accidents during service in the armed forces from deaths caused by combat injuries
(D) Comparing death rates per thousand members of each group rather than comparing total numbers of deaths
(E) Comparing deaths caused by accidents in the United States to deaths caused by combat in the armed forces

17. One state adds a 7 percent sales tax to the price of most products purchased within its jurisdiction. This tax, therefore, if viewed as tax on income, has the reverse effect of the federal income tax: the lower the income, the higher the annual percentage rate at which the income is taxed. The conclusion above would be properly drawn if which of the following were assumed as a premise?
(A) The amount of money citizens spend on products subject to the state tax tends to be equal across income levels.
(B) The federal income tax favors citizens with high incomes, whereas the state sales tax favors citizens with low incomes.
(C) Citizens with low annual incomes can afford to pay a relatively higher percentage of their incomes in state sales tax, since their federal income tax is relatively
low.
(D) The lower a state’s sales tax, the more it will tend to redistribute income from the more affluent citizens to the rest of society.
(E) Citizens who fail to earn federally taxable income are also exempt from the state sales tax.

18. The average age of chief executive officers (CEO’s) in a large sample of companies is 57. The average age of CEO’s in those same companies 20 years ago was approximately eight years younger. On the basis of those data, it can be concluded that CEO’s in general tend to be older now. Which of the following casts the most doubt on the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The dates when the CEO’s assumed their current positions have not been specified.
(B) No information is given concerning the average number of years that CEO’s remain in office.
(C) The information is based only on companies that have been operating for at least 20 years.
(D) Only approximate information is given concerning the average age of the CEO’s 20 years ago.
(E) Information concerning the exact number of companies in the sample has not been given.

Questions 19-20 are based on the following.

Surveys show that every year only 10 percent of cigarette smokers switch brands. Yet the manufacturers have been spending an amount equal to 10 percent of their gross receipts on cigarette promotion in magazines. It follows from these figures that inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay, and that cigarette companies would have been no worse off economically if they had dropped their advertising.

19. Of the following, the best criticism of the conclusion that inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay is that the conclusion is based on
(A) computing advertising costs as a percentage of gross receipts, not of overall costs
(B) past patterns of smoking and may not carry over to the future
(C) the assumption that each smoker is loyal to a single brand of cigarettes at any one time
(D) the assumption that each manufacturer produces only one brand of cigarettes
(E) figures for the cigarette industry as a whole and may not hold for a particular company

20. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion that cigarette companies could have dropped advertising without suffering economically?
(A) Cigarette advertisements provide a major proportion of total advertising revenue for numerous magazines.
(B) Cigarette promotion serves to attract first-time smokers to replace those people who have stopped smoking.
(C) There exists no research conclusively demonstrating that increases in cigarette advertising are related to increases in smoking.
(D) Advertising is so firmly established as a major business activity of cigarette manufacturers that they would be unlikely to drop it.
(E) Brand loyalty is typically not very strong among those who smoke inexpensive cigarettes.

ANSWERS

GMAT TEST-5 ( Questions)

30 Minutes 20 Questions

1. Toughened hiring standards have not been the primary cause of the present staffing shortage in public schools. The shortage of teachers is primarily caused by the fact that in recent years teachers have not experienced any improvements in working conditions and their salaries have not kept pace with salaries in other professions. Which of the following, if true, would most support the claims above?
(A) Many teachers already in the profession would not have been hired under the new hiring standards.
(B) Today more teachers are entering the profession with a higher educational level than in the past.
(C) Some teachers have cited higher standards for hiring as a reason for the current staffing shortage.
(D) Many teachers have cited low pay and lack of professional freedom as reasons for their leaving the profession.
(E) Many prospective teachers have cited the new hiring standards as a reason for not entering the profession.

2. A proposed ordinance requires the installation in new homes of sprinklers automatically triggered by the presence of a fire. However, a home builder argued that because more than ninety percent of residential fires are extinguished by a household member, residential sprinklers would only marginally decrease property damage caused by residential fires. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the home builder’s argument?
(A) Most individuals have no formal training in how to extinguish fires.
(B) Since new homes are only a tiny percentage of available housing in the city, the new ordinance would be extremely narrow in scope.
(C) The installation of smoke detectors in new residences costs significantly less than the installation of sprinklers.
(D) In the city where the ordinance was proposed, the average time required by the fire department to respond to a fire was less than the national average.
(E) The largest proportion of property damage that results from residential fires is caused by fires that start when no household member is present.

3. Even though most universities retain the royalties from faculty members’ inventions, the faculty members retain the royalties from books and articles they write. Therefore, faculty members should retain the royalties from the educational computer software they develop. The conclusion above would be more reasonably drawn if which of the following were inserted into the argument as an additional premise?
(A) Royalties from inventions are higher than royalties from educational software programs.
(B) Faculty members are more likely to produce educational software programs than inventions.
(C) Inventions bring more prestige to universities than do books and articles.
(D) In the experience of most universities, educational software programs are more marketable than are books and articles.
(E) In terms of the criteria used to award royalties, educational software programs are more nearly comparable to books and articles than to inventions.

4. Increases in the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the human bloodstream lower bloodstream-cholesterol levels by increasing the body’s capacity to rid itself of excess cholesterol. Levels of HDL in the bloodstream of some individuals are significantly increased by a program of regular exercise and weight reduction. Which of the following can be correctly inferred from the statements above?
(A) Individuals who are underweight do not run any risk of developing high levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream.
(B) Individuals who do not exercise regularly have a high risk of developing high levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream late in life.
(C) Exercise and weight reduction are the most effective methods of lowering bloodstream cholesterol levels in humans.
(D) A program of regular exercise and weight reduction lowers cholesterol levels in the bloodstream of some individuals.
(E) Only regular exercise is necessary to decrease cholesterol levels in the bloodstream of individuals of average weight.

5. When limitations were in effect on nuclear-arms testing, people tended to save more of their money, but when nuclear-arms testing increased, people tended to spend more of their money. The perceived threat of nuclear catastrophe, therefore, decreases the willingness of people to postpone consumption for the sake of saving money. The argument above assumes that
(A) the perceived threat of nuclear catastrophe has increased over the years
(B) most people supported the development of nuclear arms
(C) people’s perception of the threat of nuclear catastrophe depends on the amount of nuclear-arms testing being done
(D) the people who saved the most money when nuclear-arms testing was limited were the ones who supported such limitations
(E) there are more consumer goods available when nuclear-arms testing increases

6. Which of the following best completes the passage below? People buy prestige when they buy a premium product. They want to be associated with something special. Mass-marketing techniques and price-reduction strategies should not be used because______
(A) affluent purchasers currently represent a shrinking portion of the population of all purchasers
(B) continued sales depend directly on the maintenance of an aura of exclusivity
(C) purchasers of premium products are concerned with the quality as well as with the price of the products
(D) expansion of the market niche to include a broader spectrum of consumers will increase profits
(E) manufacturing a premium brand is not necessarily more costly than manufacturing a standard brand of the same product

7. A cost-effective solution to the problem of airport congestion is to provide high-speed ground transportation between major cities lying 200 to 500 miles apart. The successful implementation of this plan would cost far less than expanding existing airports and would also reduce the number of airplanes clogging both airports and airways. Which of the following, if true, could proponents of the plan above most appropriately cite as a piece of evidence for the soundness of their plan?
(A) An effective high-speed ground-transportation system would require major repairs to many highways and mass-transit improvements.
(B) One-half of all departing flights in the nation’s busiest airport head for a destination in a major city 225 miles away.
(C) The majority of travelers departing from rural airports are flying to destinations in cities over 600 miles away.
(D) Many new airports are being built in areas that are presently served by high-speed ground-transportation systems.
(E) A large proportion of air travelers are vacationers who are taking long-distance flights.

Questions 8-9 are based on the following.

If there is an oil-supply disruption resulting in higher international oil prices, domestic oil prices in open-market countries such as the United States will rise as well, whether such countries import all or none of their oil.

8. If the statement above concerning oil-supply disruptions is true, which of the following policies in an open-market nation is most likely to reduce the long-term economic impact on that nation of sharp and unexpected increases in international oil prices?
(A) Maintaining the quantity of oil imported at constant yearly levels
(B) Increasing the number of oil tankers in its fleet
(C) Suspending diplomatic relations with major oil-producing nations
(D) Decreasing oil consumption through conservation
(E) Decreasing domestic production of oil

9. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the statement above?
(A) Domestic producers of oil in open-market countries are excluded from the international oil market when there is a disruption in the international oil supply.
(B) International oil-supply disruptions have little, if any, effect on the price of domestic oil as long as an open-market country has domestic supplies capable of
meeting domestic demand.
(C) The oil market in an open-market country is actually part of the international oil market, even if most of that country’s domestic oil is usually sold to consumers
within its borders.
(D) Open-market countries that export little or none of their oil can maintain stable domestic oil prices even when international oil prices rise sharply.
(E) If international oil prices rise, domestic distributors of oil in open-market countries will begin to import more oil than they export.

10. The average normal infant born in the United States weighs between twelve and fourteen pounds at the age of three months. Therefore, if a three-month-old child weighs only ten pounds, its weight gain has been below the United States average. Which of the following indicates a flaw in the reasoning above?
(A) Weight is only one measure of normal infant development.
(B) Some three-month-old children weigh as much as seventeen pounds.
(C) It is possible for a normal child to weigh ten pounds at birth.
(D) The phrase “below average” does not necessarily mean insufficient.
(E) Average weight gain is not the same as average weight.

11. Red blood cells in which the malarial-fever parasite resides are eliminated from a person’s body after 120 days. Because the parasite cannot travel to a new generation of red blood cells, any fever that develops in a person more than 120 days after that person has moved to a malaria-free region is not due to the malarial parasite. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?
(A) The fever caused by the malarial parasite may resemble the fever caused by flu viruses.
(B) The anopheles mosquito, which is the principal insect carrier of the malarial parasite, has been eradicated in many parts of the world.
(C) Many malarial symptoms other than the fever, which can be suppressed with antimalarial medication, can reappear within 120 days after the medication is
discontinued.
(D) In some cases, the parasite that causes malarial fever travels to cells of the spleen, which are less frequently eliminated from a person’s body than are red blood
cells.
(E) In any region infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes, there are individuals who appear to be immune to malaria.

12. Fact 1: Television advertising is becoming less effective: the proportion of brand names promoted on television that viewers of the advertising can recall is slowly decreasing. Fact 2: Television viewers recall commercials aired first or last in a cluster of consecutive commercials far better than they recall commercials aired somewhere in the middle. Fact 2 would be most likely to contribute to an explanation of fact 1 if which of the following were also true?
(A) The average television viewer currently recalls fewer than half the brand names promoted in commercials he or she saw.
(B) The total time allotted to the average cluster of consecutive television commercials is decreasing.
(C) The average number of hours per day that people spend watching television is decreasing.
(D) The average number of clusters of consecutive commercials per hour of television is increasing.
(E) The average number of television commercials in a cluster of consecutive commercials is increasing.

13. The number of people diagnosed as having a certain intestinal disease has dropped significantly in a rural county this year, as compared to last year, Health officials attribute this decrease entirely to improved sanitary conditions at water-treatment plants, which made for cleaner water this year and thus reduced the incidence of the disease. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the health officials’ explanation for the lower incidence of the disease?
(A) Many new water-treatment plants have been built in the last five years in the rural county.
(B) Bottled spring water has not been consumed in significantly different quantities by people diagnosed as having the intestinal disease, as compared to people who
did not contract the disease.
(C) Because of a new diagnostic technique, many people who until this year would have been diagnosed as having the intestinal disease are now correctly diagnosed
as suffering from intestinal ulcers.
(D) Because of medical advances this year, far fewer people who contract the intestinal disease will develop severe cases of the disease.
(E) The water in the rural county was brought up to the sanitary standards of the water in neighboring counties ten years ago.

14. The price the government pays for standard weapons purchased from military contractors is determined by a pricing method called “historical costing.” Historical costing allows contractors to protect their profits by adding a percentage increase, based on the current rate of inflation, to the previous year’s contractual price. Which of the following statements, if true, is the best basis for a criticism of historical costing as an economically sound pricing method for military contracts?
(A) The government might continue to pay for past inefficient use of funds.
(B) The rate of inflation has varied considerably over the past twenty years.
(C) The contractual price will be greatly affected by the cost of materials used for the products.
(D) Many taxpayers question the amount of money the government spends on military contracts.
(E) The pricing method based on historical costing might not encourage the development of innovative weapons.

15. Some who favor putting governmental enterprises into private hands suggest that conservation objectives would in general be better served if private environmental groups were put in charge of operating and financing the national park system, which is now run by the government. Which of the following, assuming that it is a realistic possibility, argues most strongly against the suggestion above?
(A) Those seeking to abolish all restrictions on exploiting the natural resources of the parks might join the private environmental groups as members and eventually
take over their leadership.
(B) Private environmental groups might not always agree on the best ways to achieve conservation objectives.
(C) If they wished to extend the park system, the private environmental groups might have to seek contributions from major donors and the general public.
(D) There might be competition among private environmental groups for control of certain park areas.
(E) Some endangered species, such as the California condor, might die out despite the best efforts of the private environmental groups, even if those groups are not
hampered by insufficient resources.

16. A recent spate of launching and operating mishaps with television satellites led to a corresponding surge in claims against companies underwriting satellite insurance. As a result, insurance premiums shot up, making satellites more expensive to launch and operate. This, in turn, has added to the pressure to squeeze more performance out of currently operating satellites. Which of the following, if true, taken together with the information above, best supports the conclusion that the cost of television satellites will continue to increase?
(A) Since the risk to insurers of satellites is spread over relatively few units, insurance premiums are necessarily very high.
(B) When satellites reach orbit and then fail, the causes of failure are generally impossible to pinpoint with confidence.
(C) The greater the performance demands placed on satellites, the more frequently those satellites break down.
(D) Most satellites are produced in such small numbers that no economies of scale can be realized.
(E) Since many satellites are built by unwieldy international consortia, inefficiencies are inevitable.

17. Tocqueville, a nineteenth-century writer known for his study of democracy in the United States, believed that a government that centralizes power in one individual or institution is dangerous to its citizens. Biographers claim that Tocqueville disliked centralized government because he blamed Napoleon’s rule for the poverty of his childhood in Normandy. Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the biographers’ claim?
(A) Although Napoleon was popularly blamed at the time for the terrible living conditions in Normandy, historians now know that bad harvests were really to blame
for the poor economic conditions.
(B) Napoleon was notorious for refusing to share power with any of his political associates.
(C) Tocqueville said he knew that if his father had not suffered ill health, his family would have had a steady income and a comfortable standard of living.
(D) Although Tocqueville asserted that United States political life was democratic, the United States of the nineteenth century allowed political power to be
concentrated in a few institutions.
(E) Tocqueville once wrote in a letter that, although his childhood was terribly impoverished, it was not different from the experience of his friends and neighbors in
Normandy.

18. Radio interferometry is a technique for studying details of celestial objects that combines signals intercepted by widely spaced radio telescopes. This technique requires ultraprecise timing, exact knowledge of the locations of the telescopes, and sophisticated computer programs. The successful interferometric linking of an Earth-based radio telescope with a radio telescope on an orbiting satellite was therefore a significant technological accomplishment. Which of the following can be correctly inferred from the statements above?
(A) Special care was taken in the launching of the satellite so that the calculations of its orbit would be facilitated.
(B) The signals received on the satellite are stronger than those received by a terrestrial telescope.
(C) The resolution of detail achieved by the satellite-Earth interferometer system is inferior to that achieved by exclusively terrestrial systems.
(D) The computer programs required for making use of the signals received by the satellite required a long time for development.
(E) The location of an orbiting satellite relative to locations on Earth can be well enough known for interferometric purposes.

19. Recent estimates predict that between 1982 and 1995 the greatest increase in the number of people employed will be in the category of low- aying service occupations. This category, however, will not increase its share of total employment, whereas the category of high-paying service occupations will increase its share. If the estimates above are accurate, which of the following conclusions can be drawn?
(A) In 1982 more people were working in low-paying service occupations than were working in high-paying service occupations.
(B) In 1995 more people will be working in high-paying service occupations than will be working in low-paying service occupations.
(C) Nonservice occupations will account for the same share of total employment in 1995 as in 1982.
(D) Many of the people who were working in low-paying service occupations in 1982 will be working in high-paying service occupations by 1995.
(E) The rate of growth for low-paying service occupations will be greater than the overall rate of employment growth between 1982 and 1995.

20. For a local government to outlaw all strikes by its workers is a costly mistake, because all its labor disputes must then be settled by binding arbitration, without any negotiated public-sector labor settlements guiding the arbitrators. Strikes should be outlawed only for categories of public- ector workers for whose services no acceptable substitute exists. The statements above best support which of the following conclusions?
(A) Where public-service workers are permitted to strike, contract negotiations with those workers are typically settled without a strike.
(B) Where strikes by all categories of pubic-sector workers are outlawed, no acceptable substitutes for the services provided by any of those workers are available.
(C) Binding arbitration tends to be more advantageous for public-service workers where it is the only available means of settling labor disputes with such workers.
(D) Most categories of public-sector workers have no counterparts in the private sector.
(E) A strike by workers in a local government is unlikely to be settled without help from an arbitrator.

ANSWERS