GMAT
Companies O and P each have the same number of employees who work the same number of hours per week. According to records maintained by each company, the employees of Company O had fewer job-related accidents last year than did the employees of Company P. Therefore, employees of Company O are less likely to have job-related accidents than are employees of Company P.Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion above?
Mourdet Winery: Danville Winery's new wine was introduced to compete with our most popular wine, which is sold in a distinctive tall, black bottle. Danville uses a similar bottle. Thus, it is likely that many customers intending to buy our wine will mistakenly buy theirs instead.Danville Winery: Not so. The two bottles can be readily distinguished: the label on ours, but not on theirs, is gold colored.Which of the following, if true, most undermines Danville Winery's response?
Editorial: Regulations recently imposed by the government of Risemia call for unprecedented reductions in the amounts of pollutants manufacturers are allowed to discharge into the environment. It will take costly new pollution control equipment requiring expensive maintenance to comply with these regulations. Resultant price increases for Risemian manufactured goods will lead to the loss of some export markets. Clearly, therefore, annual exports of Risemian manufactured goods will in the future occur at diminished levels.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument in the editorial?
An unusually severe winter occurred in Europe after the continent was blanketed by a blue haze resulting from the eruption of the Laki Volcano in the European republic of Iceland in the summer of 1984. Thus, it is evident that major eruptions cause the atmosphere to become cooler than it would be otherwise.Which of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
According to the Tristate Transportation Authority, making certain improvements to the main commuter rail line would increase ridership dramatically. The authority plans to finance these improvements over the course of five years by raising automobile tolls on the two highway bridges along the route the rail line serves. Although the proposed improvements are indeed needed, the authority's plan for securing the necessary funds should be rejected because it would unfairly force drivers to absorb the entire cost of something from which they receive no benefit.Which of the following, if true, would cast the most doubt on the effectiveness of the authority's plan to finance the proposed improvements by increasing bridge tolls?
Treatment for hypertension forestalls certain medical expenses by preventing strokes and heart disease.Yet any money so saved amounts to only one-fourth of the expenditures required to treat the hypertensive population.Therefore, there is no economic justification for preventive treatment for hypertension.Which of the following, if true, is most damaging to the conclusion above?
Since the deregulation of airlines, delays at the nation's increasingly busy airports have increased by 25 percent.To combat this problem, more of the takeoff and landing slots at the busiest airports must be allocated to commercial airlines.Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the effectiveness of the solution proposed above?
Unlike the wholesale price of raw wool, the wholesale price of raw cotton has fallen considerably in the last year. Thus, although the retail price of cotton clothing at retail clothing stores has not yet fallen, it will inevitably fall.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
Reviewer: The book Art's Decline argues that European painters today lack skills that were common among European painters of preceding centuries. In this the book must be right, since its analysis of 100 paintings, 50 old and 50 contemporary, demonstrates convincingly that none of the contemporary paintings are executed as skillfully as the older paintings.Which of the following points to the most serious logical flaw in the reviewer's argument?
Start-up companies financed by venture capitalists have a much lower failure rate than companies financed by other means. Source of financing, therefore, must be a more important causative factor in the success of a start-up company than are such factors as the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur, the quality of strategic planning, or the management structure of the company.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?