GMAT
Editorial in Krenlandian Newspaper:Krenland's steelmakers are losing domestic sales because of lower-priced imports, in many cases because foreign governments subsidize their steel industries in ways that are banned by international treaties. But whatever the cause, the cost is ultimately going to be jobs in Krenland's steel industry. Therefore, it would protect not only steel companies but also industrial employment in Krenland if our government took measures to reduce cheap steel imports.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the editorial's argument?
Smithtown University's fund-raisers succeeded in getting donations from 80 percent of the potential donors they contacted. This success rate, exceptionally high for university fund-raisers, does not indicate that they were doing a good job. On the contrary, since the people most likely to donate are those who have donated in the past, good fund-raisers constantly try less-likely prospects in an effort to expand the donor base. The high success rate shows insufficient canvassing effort.Which of the following, if true, provides more support for the argument?
Frobisher, a sixteenth-century English explorer, had soil samples from Canada's Kodlunarn Island examined for gold content. Because high gold content was reported, Elizabeth I funded two mining expeditions. Neither expedition found any gold there. Modern analysis of the island's soil indicates a very low gold content. Thus the methods used to determine the gold content of Frobisher's samples must have been inaccurate.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Which of the following most logically completes the argument?Yorco and Zortech are two corporations that employ large numbers of full-time workers who are paid by the hour. Publicly available records indicate that Yorco employs roughly the same number of such hourly wage workers as Zortech does but spends a far higher total sum per year on wages for such workers. Therefore, hourly wages must be higher, on average, at Yorco than at Zortech, since _____.
The Earth's rivers constantly carry dissolved salts into its oceans. Clearly, therefore, by taking the resulting increase in salt levels in the oceans over the past hundred years and then determining how many centuries of such increases it would have taken the oceans to reach current salt levels from a hypothetical initial salt-free state, the maximum age of the Earth's oceans can be accurately estimated.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
An overwhelming proportion of the most productive employees at SaleCo's regional offices work not eight hours a day, five days a week, as do other SaleCo employees, but rather ten hours a day, four days a week, with Friday off. Noting this phenomenon, SaleCo's president plans to increase overall productivity by keeping the offices closed on Fridays and having all employees work the same schedule-ten hours a day, four days a week.Which of the following, if true, provides the most reason to doubt that the president's plan, if implemented, will achieve its stated purpose?
Certainly, pesticides can adversely affect the environment in localities distant from where the pesticide has actually been used. Nevertheless, regulation of pesticide use should not take place at the national level but at the local level. It is in the areas where pesticides are actually applied that they have their most serious effects. Just how serious these effects are depends on local conditions such as climate, soil type, and water supply. And local officials are much more likely than national legislators to be truly knowledgeable about such local conditions.In the argument given, the two boldface portions play which of the following roles?
Most of Western music since the Renaissance has been based on a seven-note scale known as the diatonic scale, but when did the scale originate? A fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite has four holes, which are spaced in exactly the right way for playing the third through sixth notes of a diatonic scale. The entire flute must surely have had more holes, and the flute was made from a bone that was long enough for these additional holes to have allowed a complete diatonic scale to be played. Therefore, the Neanderthals who made the flute probably used a diatonic musical scale.In the argument given, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
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 significantly lower fertility rates than uncollared females. Probably, therefore, some substance in the tranquilizer inhibits fertility.In evaluating the argument, it would be most useful to determine which of the following?
In the year following an eight-cent increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes, sales of cigarettes fell ten percent. In contrast, in the year prior to the tax increase, sales had fallen one percent. The volume of cigarette sales is therefore strongly related to the after-tax price of a pack of cigarettes.Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument above?
Which of the following most logically completes the argument?According to experts on shopping behavior, more shoppers would shop at Jerrod's department store if they were offered the convenience of shopping carts. In fact, even if the amount spent by these additional customers only just covered the cost of providing the carts, providing carts would still probably increase Jerrod's profits, since _______.
Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?Twenty percent of the stores in Morganville's downtown shopping district will fail within five years because they will be competing directly with the SaveMart discount department store newly opened in East Morganville. The downtown shopping district has lost business at this rate before and has always completely rebounded. Confidence that it will rebound again from the losses it is now about to suffer is ill founded, however, because __________.
To improve the long-term savings rate of the citizens of Levaska, the country's legislature decided to implement a plan that allows investors to save up to $1,000 per year in special accounts without paying taxes on the interest earned unless withdrawals are made before the investor reaches age sixty-five. Withdrawals from these accounts prior to age sixty-five would result in the investor's having to pay taxes on all the accumulated interest at the time of withdrawal.Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the prediction that the legislature's plan will have its intended effect?
In Europe, many large animal species, such as mammoths, became extinct soon after humans first migrated to the animals' areas of habitation. The spread of such extinctions closely followed the pattern of human migration. However, since humans tended to migrate to areas as the climate in those areas began to warm, the extinctions might have been precipitated by the climatic warming rather than by human migration.Which of the following, if true, provides the best evidence that it was human migration and not climatic change that precipitated the extinctions?
In many scientific disciplines, scientists generally do not do highly creative work beyond the age of forty, a tendency that has normally been taken to show that aging carries with it a loss of creative capacity. However, by the age of forty most scientists have been working in their chosen field for at least fifteen years, so an alternative explanation is that spending too long in a single field reduces the opportunity for creative thought.Investigating which of the following would be most useful in choosing between the competing explanations described above?
Environmentalist: Snowmobiles in the park north of Milville create unacceptable levels of air pollution and should be banned. Milville Business Spokesperson: Snowmobiling brings many out-of-towners to Milville in the winter months, to the great direct financial benefit of many local residents. In addition, the money the town collects in fees for the recreational use of the park indirectly benefits all Milville residents. So, it is basic economics for us to put up with the pollution.Which of the following, if true, could best be used by the environmentalist to counter the business spokesperson's argument?
When feeding, aquatic birds known as phalaropes often spin rapidly on the water's surface, pecking for food during each revolution. To execute these spins, phalaropes kick one leg harder than the other. This action creates upwelling currents. Because plankton on which phalaropes feed typically occurs in greater quantities well below the surface, it is hypothesized that by spinning phalaropes gain access to food that would otherwise be beyond their reach.Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis?
The economy around Lake Paqua depends on fishing of the lake's landlocked salmon population. In recent years, scarcity of food for salmon there has caused a decline in both the number and the size of the adult salmon in the lake. As a result, the region's revenues from salmon fishing have declined significantly. To remedy this situation, officials plan to introduce shrimp, which can serve as a food source for adult salmon, into Lake Paqua.Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the plan's chances for success?
In Borania many people who want to quit smoking wear nicotine skin patches, which deliver small doses of nicotine through the skin. Beginning next month, these patches can be purchased without a doctor's prescription. Although nonprescription patches will be no more effective than those obtained by prescription and will be equally expensive, patch manufacturers are nevertheless predicting that the patches' new nonprescription status will boost sales, which have slowed considerably in recent years.Which of the following, if true in Borania, most strongly supports the manufacturers' prediction?
Fearing that the use of titles indicating position in the corporation tends to make the corporate hierarchy rigid by inhibiting communication, some corporations shun the use of executive titles. A title, however, can facilitate an executive's dealings with external businesses since it encourages outsiders to treat the executive with respect. The obvious compromise is for these executives to use their titles externally but not within their corporations.Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the compromise suggested above?