GRE Reading comprehension- Reasoning questions -1 Joseph Priestley, Sr. Verbal Instructor

1. Gortland has long been narrowly self-sufficient in both grain and meat. However, as per capita income in Gortland has risen toward the world average, per capita consumption of meat has also risen toward the world average, and it takes several pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. Therefore, since per capita income continues to rise, whereas domestic grain production will not increase, Gortland will soon have to import either grain or meat or both.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends? (A) The total acreage devoted to grain production in Gortland will not decrease substantially. (B) The population of Gortland has remained relatively constant during the countrys years of growing prosperity. (C) The per capita consumption of meat in Gortland is roughly the same across all income levels. (D) In Gortland, neither meat nor grain is subject to government price controls. (E) People in Gortland who increase their consumption of meat will not radically decrease their consumption of grain.2. In a certain wildlife park, park rangers are able to track the movements of many rhinoceroses because those animals wear radio collars. When, as often happens, a collar slips off, it is put back on. Putting a collar on a rhinoceros involves immobilizing the animal by shooting it with a tranquilizer dart. Female rhinoceroses that have been frequently recollared have significant lower fetility rate than uncollared females. Probably, therefore, some subtances in the tranquilizer inhibit fertility. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?A. The dose of tranquilizer delivered by a tranquilizer dart is large enough to give the rangers putting collars on rhinoceroses a generous margin of safety.B. The fertility rate of uncollared female rhinoceroses in the park has been increasing in the past few decades.C. Any stress that female rhinoceroses may suffer as a result of being immobilized and handled has little or no negative effect on their fertility.D. The male rhinoceroses in the wildlife park do not lose their collars as often as the park's female rhinoceroses do. E. The tranquilizer used in immobilizing rhinoceroses is the same as the tranquilizer used in working with other large mammals.3. Traditionally, decision-making by managers that is reasoned step-by-step has been considered preferable to intuitive decision-making. However, a recent study found that top managers used intuition significantly more than did most middle- or lower-level managers. This confirms the alternative view that intuition is actually more effective than careful, methodical reasoning.

The conclusion above is based on which of the following assumptions? (A) Methodical, step-by-step reasoning is inappropriate for making many real-life management decisions. (B) Top managers have the ability to use either intuitive reasoning or methodical, step-by-step reasoning in making decisions. (C) The decisions made by middle- and lower-level managers can be made as easily by using methodical reasoning as by using intuitive reasoning. (D) Top managers use intuitive reasoning in making the majority of their decisions. (E) Top managers are more effective at decision-making than middle- or lower-level managers.4. A famous singer recently won a lawsuit against an advertising firm for using another singer in a commercial to evoke the famous singers well-known rendition of a certain song. As a result of the lawsuit, advertising firms will stop using imitators in commercials. Therefore, advertising costs will rise, since famous singers services cost more than those of their imitators.

The conclusion above is based on which of the following assumptions?(A) Most people are unable to distinguish a famous singers rendition of a song from a good imitators rendition of the same song.(B) Commercials using famous singers are usually more effective than commercials using imitators of famous singers.(C) The original versions of some well-known songs are unavailable for use in commercials.(D) Advertising firms will continue to use imitators to mimic the physical mannerisms of famous singers.(E) The advertising industry will use well-known renditions of songs in commercials.

5. In order to increase profits during a prolonged slowdown in sales, the largest manufacturers of automobiles in the United States have instituted record-setting price increases on all their models. The manufacturers believe that this strategy will succeed, even though it is inconsistent with the normal relationship between price and demand. The manufacturers plan to increase profits relies on which of the following assumptions? (A) Automobile manufacturers will, of necessity, raise prices whenever they introduce a new model. (B) The smaller automobile manufacturers will continue to take away a large percentage of business from the largest manufacturers.(C) The increased profit made on cars sold will more than compensate for any decline in sales caused by the price increases. (D) New safety restraints that will soon become mandatory for all new cars will not be very costly for manufacturers to install. (E) Low financing and extended warranties will attract many price-conscious consumers.

6. Within 20 years it will probably be possible to identify the genetic susceptibility an individual may have toward any particular disease. Eventually, effective strategies will be discovered to counteract each such susceptibility. Once these effective strategies are found, therefore, the people who follow them will never get sick. The argument above is based on which of the following assumptions? (A) For every disease there is only one strategy that can prevent its occurrence. (B) In the future, genetics will be the only medical specialty of any importance. (C) All human sicknesses are in part the result of individuals genetic susceptibilities. (D) All humans are genetically susceptible to some diseases. (E) People will follow medical advice when they are convinced that it is effective.

7. A researcher discovered that people who have low levels of immune system activity tend to score much lower on tests of mental health than do people with normal or high immune-system activity. The researcher concluded from this experiment that the immune system protects against mental illness as well as against physical disease.

The researcher conclusion depends on which of the following assumptions?

(A) High immune-system activity protects against mental illness better than normal immune-system activity does. (B) Mental illness is similar to physical disease in its effects on body systems. (C) People with high immune-system activity cannot develop mental illness. (D) Mental illness does not cause people's immune-system activity to decrease. (E) Psychological treatment of mental illness is not as effective as is medical treatment.8. Wood smoke contains dangerous toxins that cause changes in human cells. Because wood smoke presents such a high health risk, legislation is needed to regulate the use of open-air fires and wood-burning stoves. Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the argument above? (A) The amount of dangerous toxins contained in wood smoke is much less than the amount contained in an equal volume of automobile exhaust. (B) Within the jurisdiction covered by the proposed legislation, most heating and cooking is done with oil or natural gas. (C) Smoke produced by coal-burning stoves is significantly more toxic than smoke from wood-burning stoves. (D) No significant beneficial effect on air quality would result if open-air fires were banned within the jurisdiction covered by the proposed legislation. (E) In valleys where wood is used as the primary heating fuel, the concentration of smoke results in poor air quality.9. Because postage rates are rising, Home Decorator magazine plans to maximize its profits by reducing by one half the numbers of issues it publishes each year. The quality of articles, the number of articles published per year, and the subscription price will not change. Market research shows that neither subscribers nor advertisers will be lost if the magazines plan is instituted.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest evidence that the magazines profits are likely to decline if the plan is instituted? (A) With the new postage rates, a typical issue under the proposed plan would cost about one-third more to mail than a typical current issue would. (B) The majority of the magazines subscribers are less concerned about a possible reduction in the quantity of the magazines articles than about a possible loss of the current high quality of its articles. (C) Many of the magazines long-time subscribers would continue their subscriptions even if the subscription price were increased. (D) Most of the advertisers that purchase advertising space in the magazine will continue to spend the same amount on advertising per issue as they have in the past. (E) Production costs for the magazine are expected to remain stable.

10. Often patients with ankle fractures that are stable, and thus do not require surgery, are given follow-up x-rays because their orthopedists are concerned about possibly having misjudged the stability of the fracture. When a number of follow-up x-rays were reviewed, however, all the fractures that had initially been judged stable were found to have healed correctly. Therefore, it is a waste of money to order follow-up x-rays of ankle fracture initially judged stable.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument? A. Doctors who are general practitioners rather than orthopedists are less likely than orthopedists to judge the stability of an ankle fracture correctly. B. Many ankle injuries for which an initial x-ray is ordered are revealed by the x-ray not to involve any fracture of the ankle. C. X-rays of patients of many different orthopedists working in several hospitals were reviewed. D. The healing of ankle fractures that have been surgically repaired is always checked by means of a follow-up x-ray. E. Orthopedists routinely order follow-up x-rays for fractures of bone other than ankle bones.11 Manufacturers sometimes discount the price of a product to retailers for a promotion period when the product is advertised to consumers. Such promotions often result in a dramatic increase in amount of product sold by the manufacturers to retailers. Nevertheless, the manufacturers could often make more profit by not holding the promotions.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the claim above about the manufacturers' profit?

(A) The amount of discount generally offered by manufacturers to retailers is carefully calculated to represent the minimum needed to draw consumers' attention to the product. (B) For many consumer products the period of advertising discounted prices to consumers is about a week, not sufficiently long for consumers to become used to the sale price. (C) For products that are not newly introduced, the purpose of such promotions is to keep the products in the minds of consumers and to attract consumers who are currently using competing products. (D) During such a promotion retailers tend to accumulate in their warehouses inventory bought at discount; they then sell much of it later at their regular price. (E) If a manufacturer falls to offer such promotions but its competitor offers them, that competitor will tend to attract consumers away from the manufacturer's product.

12. In Swartkans territory, archaeologists discovered charred bone fragments dating back one million years. Analysis of the fragments, which came from a variety of animals, showed that they had been heated to temperatures no higher than those produced in experimental campfires made from branches of white stinkwood, the most common tree around Swartkans.

Which of the following, if true, would, together with the information above, provide the best basis for the claim that the charred bone fragments are evidence of the use of fire by early hominids? (A) The white stinkwood tree is used for building material by the present-day inhabitants of Swartkans. (B) Forest fires can heat wood to a range of temperatures that occur in campfires. (C) The bone fragments were fitted together by the archaeologists to form the complete skeletons of several animals. (D) Apart from the Swartkans discovery, there is reliable evidence that early hominids used fire as many as 500,000 years ago. (E) The bone fragments were found in several distinct layers of limestone that contained primitive cutting tools known to have been used by early hominids.

13. Male bowerbirds construct elaborately decorated nests, or bowers. Basing their judgment on the fact that different local populations of bowerbirds of the same species build bowers that exhibit different building and decorative styles, researchers have concluded that the bowerbirds building styles are a culturally acquired, rather than a genetically transmitted, trait.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion drawn by the researchers? (A) There are more common characteristics than there are differences among the bower-building styles of the local bowerbird population that has been studied most extensively. (B) Young male bowerbirds are inept at bower building and apparently spend years watching their elders before becoming accomplished in the local bower style. (C) The bowers of one species of bowerbird lack the towers and ornamentation characteristic of the bowers of most other species of bowerbird. (D) Bowerbirds are found only in New Guinea and Australia, where local populations of the birds apparently seldom have contact with one another. (E) It is well known that the song dialects of some songbirds are learned ratherthan transmitted genetically14. Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of these cereals provide 100 percent of the recommended daily requirement of vitamins. Nevertheless, a well-balanced breakfast, including a variety of foods, is a better source of those vitamins than are such fortified breakfast cereals alone. Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the position above? (A) In many foods, the natural combination of vitamins with other nutrients makes those vitamins more usable by the body than are vitamins added in vitamin supplements. (B) People who regularly eat cereals fortified with vitamin supplements sometimes neglect to eat the foods in which the vitamins occur naturally. (C) Foods often must be fortified with vitamin supplements because naturally occurring vitamins are removed during processing. (D) Unprocessed cereals are naturally high in several of the vitamins that are usually added to fortified breakfast cereals(E) Cereals containing vitamin supplements are no harder to digest than similar cereals without added vitamins

15. Because mining and refining nickels is costly, researchers have developed an alternative method for extracting nickels using Streptanthus polygaloides, a plant that absorbs and stores nickel from the soil as it grows. The researchers incinerated a crop of Streptanthus they grow in nickel-rich soil. By chemically extracting nickel form the ash, they produced 100 pounds of nickel per acre of land at a total cost per pound slightly above that of current mining.Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the conclusion that the use of Streptanthus to extract nickel will be commercially adopted?A. The season in which the researchers grew Streptanthus was an unusually favorable one, with the right amount of precipitation to maximize the growth rate of Streptanthus.B. Because lowering the concentration of nickel in the soil can make land much better for agriculture in general, a plot in which Streptanthus has been grown and harvested can be sold for substantially more than it costC. More air pollution is generated for each pound of nickel produced by extracting it from Streptanthus than is generated using conventional mining and refiningD. The land on which the researchers planted Streptanthus was unusually free of the various weeds that can compete with Streptanthus for water, nutrients, and sunlight.E. It is extremely rare for soil to contain higher concentrations of nickel than the concentrations present in the researchers experimental plot.