GMAT
Insect infestations in certain cotton-growing regions of the world have caused dramatic increases in the price of cotton on the world market. By contrast, the price of soybeans has long remained stable. Knowing that cotton plants mature quickly, many soybean growers in Ortovia plan to cease growing soybeans and begin raising cotton instead, thereby taking advantage of the high price of cotton to increase their income significantly, at least over the next several years.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the plan's chances for success?
In order to improve the long-term savings rate of its citizens, Levaska's government has decided to introduce special savings accounts. Citizens can save up to $3,000 a year in special accounts without having to pay tax on the interest, unless they withdraw money from the account before they reach the age of sixty-five. If they do withdraw any money before that age, they have to pay tax on the accumulated interest and a penalty.Which of the following, if true, most seriously threatens the success of the government's plan?
A study followed a group of teenagers who had never smoked and tracked whether they took up smoking and how their mental health changed. After one year, the incidence of depression among those who had taken up smoking was four times as high as it was among those who had not. Since nicotine in cigarettes changes brain chemistry, perhaps thereby affecting mood, it is likely that smoking contributes to depression in teenagers.Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
Advertisement: Ten years ago, the Cormond Hotel's lobby was carpeted with Duratex carpet while the lobby of a nearby hotel was being carpeted with our competitor's most durable carpet. Today, after a decade in which the two hotels have had similar amounts of foot traffic through their lobbies, that other hotel is having to replace the worn-out carpeting near its lobby entrances, whereas the Cormond's Duratex carpeting has years of wear left in it.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the force of the advertisement's evidence for concluding that Duratex carpet is more durable than the carpet of its competitor?
Comcorp Shipping Clerk: Last week, no shipments of building supplies were sent out on Friday. The five specially ordered shipments sent out last week were sent out on Thursday, and each of those specially ordered shipments consisted entirely of building supplies. Four shipments were sent to Truax Construction last week, none of which consisted of building supplies.If the shipping clerk's statements are true, which of the following must also be true?
Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the reasoning in the passage?Kernland's government restricts the export of unprocessed cashew nuts in order to ensure a low-cost supply for domestic processing plants. Though the policy constrains farm income and limits the number of farmers who can profitably grow cashews, the government defends it on the grounds that, since the processing plants are in urban areas, removing the restrictions would hurt efforts to reduce urban unemployment. However, the policy may actually have contributed to urban unemployment, since __________.
In response to mounting public concern, an airplane manufacturer implemented a program with the well-publicized goal of reducing by half the total yearly amount of hazardous waste generated by its passenger-jet division. When the program began in 1994, the division's hazardous waste output was 90 pounds per production worker; last year it was 40 pounds per production worker. Clearly, therefore, charges that the manufacturer's program has not met its goal are false.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Citizens of Parktown are worried by the increased frequency of serious crimes committed by local teenagers. In response, the city government has instituted a series of measures designed to keep teenagers at home in the late evening. Even if the measures succeed in keeping teenagers at home, however, they are unlikely to affect the problem that concerns citizens, since most crimes committed by local teenagers take place between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.Which of the following, if true, most substantially weakens the argument?
Kitchen magazine plans to license the use of its name by a line of cookware. For a magazine, licensing the use of its name for products involves some danger, since if the products disappoint consumers, the magazine's reputation suffers, with consequent reductions in circulation and advertising. However, experts have evaluated the cookware and found it superior to all other cookware advertised in Kitchen. Therefore, Kitchen can collect its licensing fee without endangering its other revenues.The argument above assumes which of the following?
The country of Baurisia has, until now, been self-sufficient in both grain and meat. However, with growing prosperity in Baurisia has come a steadily increasing per capita consumption of meat, and it takes several pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. Therefore, since per capita income in Baurisia is almost certain to rise further but increases in domestic grain production are highly unlikely, Baurisia is soon likely to become an importer of grain.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
Given that employees of the XYZ Company could, in theory, do their work at home, the company developed a radical plan to increase efficiency: eliminate office-space expenditures by having employees work at home. To evaluate this plan, XYZ's managers asked volunteers from the company's staff to try the arrangement for six months. There were several volunteers; significantly, their productivity during this period was as high as or higher than before.Which of the following, if true, would argue most strongly against deciding, on the basis of the trial results, to implement the company's plan?
In Arumville, among those young children with elevated levels of lead in their blood, few live in houses containing lead-based paint, but many live in areas where vehicular traffic is heavy. These children's elevated blood-lead levels probably result from lead added to gasoline, since, although gasoline sold in and around Arumville has been lead-free since 1990, lead from vehicle exhaust remains in the soil for many years.Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
Technological improvements and reduced equipment costs have made converting solar energy directly into electricity far more cost-efficient in the last decade. However, the threshold of economic viability for solar power (that is, the price per barrel to which oil would have to rise in order for new solar power plants to be more economical than new oil-fired power plants) is unchanged at thirty-five dollars.Which of the following, if true, does most to help explain why the increased cost-efficiency of solar power has not decreased its threshold of economic viability?
Many people suffer an allergic reaction to sulfites, including those that are commonly added to wine as preservatives. However, since there are several winemakers producing wine to which no sulfites are added, those who would like to drink wine but are allergic to sulfites can drink these wines without risking an allergic reaction to sulfites.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
The general availability of high-quality electronic scanners and color printers for computers has made the counterfeiting of checks much easier. In order to deter such counterfeiting, several banks plan to issue to their corporate customers checks that contain dots too small to be accurately duplicated by any electronic scanner currently available; when such checks are scanned and printed, the dots seem to blend together in such a way that the word "VOID" appears on the check.A questionable assumption of the plan is that
Every fall Croton's jays migrate south. The jays always join flocks of migrating crookbeaks with which they share the same summer and winter territories. If a jay becomes separated from the crookbeaks it is accompanying, it wanders until it comes across another flock of crookbeaks. Clearly, therefore, Croton's jays lack the navigational ability to find their way south on their own.Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
Junior biomedical researchers have long assumed that their hirings and promotions depend significantly on the amount of their published work. People responsible for making hiring and promotion decisions in the biomedical research field, however, are influenced much more by the overall impact that a candidate's scientific publications have on his or her field than by the number of those publications.The information above, if accurate, argues most strongly against which of the following claims?
Wolves generally avoid human settlements. For this reason, domestic sheep, though essentially easy prey for wolves, are not usually attacked by them. In Hylantia prior to 1910, farmers nevertheless lost considerable numbers of sheep to wolves each year. Attributing this to the large number for wolves, in 1910 the government began offering rewards to hunters for killing wolves. From 1910 to 1915, large numbers of wolves were killed. Yet wolf attacks on sheep increased significantly.Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the increase in wolf attacks on sheep?
The number of applications for teaching positions in Newtown's public schools was 5.7 percent lower in 1993 than in 1985 and 5.9 percent lower in 1994 than in 1985. Despite a steadily growing student population and an increasing number of teacher resignations, however, Newtown does not face a teacher shortage in the late 1990's.Which of the following, if true, would contribute most to an explanation of the apparent discrepancy above?
Which of the following most logically completes the argument?The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely predicted to result in a corresponding decline in television viewing. Recent studies have found that, in the United States, people who own computers watch, on average, significantly less television than people who do not own computers. In itself, however, this finding does very little to show that computer use tends to reduce television viewing time, since __________.