GMAT
Although Ackerburg's subway system is currently operating at a deficit, the transit authority will lower subway fares next year. The authority projects that the lower fares will result in a ten percent increase in the number of subway riders. Since the additional income from the larger ridership will more than offset the decrease due to lower fares, the transit authority actually expects the fare reduction to reduce or eliminate the subway system's operating deficit for next year.Which of the following, if true, provides the most support for the transit authority's expectation of reducing the subway system's operating deficit?
Consumer health advocate: Your candy company adds caffeine to your chocolate candy bars so that each one delivers a specified amount of caffeine. Since caffeine is highly addictive, this indicates that you intend to keep your customers addicted. Candy manufacturer: Our manufacturing process results in there being less caffeine in each chocolate candy bar than in the unprocessed cacao beans from which the chocolate is made.The candy manufacturer's response is flawed as a refutation of the consumer health advocate's argument because it
High levels of fertilizer and pesticides, needed when farmers try to produce high yields of the same crop year after year, pollute water supplies. Experts therefore urge farmers to diversify their crops and to rotate their plantings yearly.To receive governmental price-support benefits for a crop, farmers must have produced that same crop for the past several years.The statements above, if true, best support which of the following conclusions?
Many office buildings designed to prevent outside air from entering have been shown to have elevated levels of various toxic substances circulating through the air inside, a phenomenon known as sick building syndrome. Yet the air in other office buildings does not have elevated levels of these substances, even though those buildings are the same age as the “sick” buildings and have similar designs and ventilation systems.Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain why not all office buildings designed to prevent outside air from entering have air that contains elevated levels of toxic substances?
A computer equipped with signature-recognition software, which restricts access to a computer to those people whose signatures are on file, identifies a person's signature by analyzing not only the form of the signature but also such characteristics as pen pressure and signing speed.Even the most adept forgers cannot duplicate all of the characteristics the program analyzes.Which of the following can be logically concluded from the passage above?
Patrick usually provides child care for six children. Parents leave their children at Patrick's house in the morning and pick them up after work. At the end of each workweek, the parents pay Patrick at an hourly rate for the child care provided that week. The weekly income Patrick receives is usually adequate but not always uniform, particularly in the winter, when children are likely to get sick and be unpredictably absent.Which of the following plans, if put into effect, has the best prospect of making Patrick's weekly income both uniform and adequate?
Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?Within the earth's core, which is iron, pressure increases with depth. Because the temperature at which iron melts increases with pressure, the inner core is solid and the outer core is molten. Physicists can determine the melting temperature of iron at any given pressure and the pressure for any given depth in the earth. Therefore, the actual temperature at the boundary of the earth's outer and inner cores-the melting temperature of iron there – can be determined, since_______.
It is often said that high rates of inflation tend to diminish people's incentive to save and invest. This view must be incorrect, however, because people generally saved and invested more of their income in the 1970's when inflation rates were high than they did in the 1980's when inflation rates were low.Of the following, the best criticism of the argument above is that it overlooks the possibility that
Which of the following most logically completes the passage?A business analysis of the Appenian railroad system divided its long-distance passenger routes into two categories: rural routes and interurban routes. The analysis found that, unlike the interurban routes, few rural routes carried a high enough passenger volume to be profitable. Closing unprofitable rural routes, however, will not necessarily enhance the profitability of the whole system, since_________.
Nutritionists are advising people to eat more fish, since the omega-3 fatty acids in fish help combat many diseases. If everyone took this advice, however, there would not be enough fish in oceans, rivers, and lakes to supply the demand; the oceans are already being overfished. The obvious method to ease the pressure on wild fish populations is for people to increase their consumption of farmed fish.Which of the following, if true, raises the most serious doubt concerning the prospects for success of the solution proposed above?
Premature babies who receive regular massages are more active than premature babies who do not. Even when all the babies drink the same amount of milk, the massaged babies gain more weight than do the unmassaged babies. This is puzzling because a more active person generally requires a greater food intake to maintain or gain weight.Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the apparent discrepancy described above?
Ten years ago the number of taxpayers in Green County was slightly greater than the number of registered voters. The number of taxpayers has doubled over the last ten years, while the number of registered voters has increased, but at a lower rate than has the number of taxpayers.Which of the following must be true in Greenspace County if the statements above are true?
An eyeglass manufacturer tried to boost sales for the summer quarter by offering its distributors a special discount if their orders for that quarter exceeded those for last year's summer quarter by at least 20 percent.Many distributors qualified for this discount.Even with much merchandise discounted, sales increased enough to produce a healthy gain in net profits.The manufacturer plans to repeat this success by offering the same sort of discount for the fall quarter.Which of the following, if true, most clearly points to a flaw in the manufacturer's plan to repeat the successful performance of the summer quarter?
Laws requiring the use of headlights during daylight hours can prevent automobile collisions. However,since daylight visibility is worse in countries farther from the equator, any such laws would obvisouly be moreeffective in preventing collisions in those countries. In fact, the only countries that actually have such laws arefarther from the equator than is the continental United States.Which of the following conclusions could be most properly drawn from the information given above?
Art restorers who have been studying the factors that cause Renaissance oil paintings to deteriorate physically when subject to climatic changes have found that the oil paint used in these paintings actually adjusts to these changes well. The restorers therefore hypothesize that it is a layer of material called gesso, which is under the paint, that causes the deterioration.Which of the following, if true , most strongly supports the restorers' hypothesis?