The researchers’ conclusion that the bobcat had not been sacrificed would be most seriously undermined if it were found that

According to the passage, if researchers had NOT discovered the Hopewellian effigy pipe and ceramic figurine,

Magazine salesperson: Subscriptions to print magazines are a great deal compared to the “discounted” digital subscriptions. Digital magazines are not that cheap. The digital subscribers are the ones who pay for the expensive advertising that keeps the “discounted” digital subscription program running.

Which of the following, if true, is most damaging to the salesperson’s position?

Although the records of French playwright Molière’s early works are incomplete, we know that as a young man Molière worked with a traveling theater, La Troupe de Molière, from 1645 to 1658. Records from the time show that the troupe’s extensive repertoire included only three plays written by Molière himself: The Bungler, The Flying Doctor, and The Doctor in Love. Of these, the last seems likely to have been the first to have been truly successful—and most likely the one that that made Molière famous as a playwright, since the king of France became their patron after the troupe performed it for him upon their arrival in Paris.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

According to the passage, compared with most other megafauna, New Zealand’s moa

According to the passage, the scientists believe that one contributor to the rapidity of the moa’s decline was that humans

As the quality of sports has come to top the list of reasons students choose to attend a given college, the school has become increasingly willing to invest in athletic programs those funds they would in the past have allocated to academic pursuits.

Hockey arena owner: Private sports facilities are a bargain compared to the public parks and leagues in our county. Remember that these public parks are not really free. It is taxpayers, in the end, who subsidize the maintenance and staffing costs of public parks.

Which of the following, if true, is most damaging to the position of the hockey arena owner?

Homeowners aged 30 to 40 are more likely to subscribe to a newspaper and are more likely to receive both the daily print and electronic versions than are members of any other demographic group. The popular belief that senior citizens are the age group best informed about current events must, therefore, be false.

The argument is flawed primarily because the author

Against the Grain, a new carpentry company with a young workforce, has been putting all of its resources into filling custom cabinetry orders. This remains the company’s focus even though greater revenues can be generated by custom door orders, which take less time, than by custom cabinetry orders.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain why Against the Grain has been focusing on the less profitable of the two courses of action mentioned above?

The script on a recently discovered scroll was used solely by two scribal communities, the Bethel community and the Shemula community. Analysis of the jar in which the scroll was found, whose markings indicate that it is the scroll’s original container, showed that it was made of clay found in the vicinity of the Bethel community but not of the Shemula community, fifty miles away. This shows that the scroll most likely originated in the Bethel community.

Which of the following is an assumption that the argument makes?

In order to promote plant growth, experts recommend that gardeners spread a generous amount of mulch around the plants to inhibit weed growth. Accordingly, the director of Sunlight Community Garden instructed volunteers to use plenty of mulch in their yearly landscaping, and the volunteers enthusiastically used up all of the available mulch. Nevertheless, plant productivity later fell somewhat.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain why acting on the experts’ recommendation failed to achieve its goal?

The state highways historically ran from north to south, because that orientation fit the patterns of the existing cart paths through the mountains, but they were later diverted toward the coastal cities, often looping around the suburbs before terminating either in downtown transit centers or airports.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Edward Stratemeyer was advertising for writers to help him—people not only who could write children’s mystery books for his popular syndicate, but mimicking his successful formula also in order to continue the many series he had begun but was too busy to continue.

Although an increase in the reservoir levels have encouraged hopes that the drought is finally at an end, many meteorologists say that without a great deal more rain the drought conditions might not stop.

Obstetrics, with its unusually high malpractice insurance premiums, rates among the most expensive medical specialties for doctors to practice, eclipsed only by various forms of surgery.

A multi-year study of more than 10,000 families demonstrates that the more bullied the children were, the more they had a likelihood of depression as adults.

The complex structure of the adhesive footpad of the gecko, having hairlike structures called fibrillar adhesives, help clarify why researchers have posited that it could be instructive for the development of climbing robots.

In 1986 falling demand brought world oil prices down to less than $10 a barrel, more than 60 percent less than those of their 1985 level.

Although Kathryn Bigelow directed a number of commercials, short films, and television shows during the 1990s, her eighth feature film, The Hurt Locker, which was released in 2009, brought her the greatest accolades in that it won both the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture.