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OG2022
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Manufacturers of mechanical pencils make most of their profit on pencil leads rather than on the pencils themselves. The Write Company, which cannot sell its leads as cheaply as other manufacturers can, plans to alter the design of its mechanical pencil so that it will accept only a newly designed Write Company lead, which will be sold at the same price as the Write Company's current lead.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the Write Company's projection that its plan will lead to an increase in its sales of pencil leads?
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OG2022
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Although exposure to asbestos is the primary cause of mesothelioma, a slow-developing cancer, researchers believe that infection by the SV40 virus is a contributing cause, since in the United States 60 percent of tissue samples from mesotheliomas, but none from healthy tissue, contain SV40. SV40 is a monkey virus; however, in 1960 some polio vaccine was contaminated with the virus. Researchers hypothesize that this vaccine was the source of the virus found in mesotheliomas decades later.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the researchers' hypothesis?
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OG2022
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In general, jobs are harder to get in times of economic recession because many businesses cut back operations. However, any future recessions in Vargonia will probably not reduce the availability of teaching jobs at government-funded schools. This is because Vargonia has just introduced a legal requirement that education in government-funded schools be available, free of charge, to all Vargonian children regardless of the state of the economy, and that current student-teacher ratios not be exceeded.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
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OG2022
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Offshore oil-drilling operations entail an unavoidable risk of an oil spill, but importing oil on tankers presently entails an even greater such risk per barrel of oil. Therefore, if we are to reduce the risk of an oil spill without curtailing our use of oil, we must invest more in offshore operations and import less oil on tankers.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
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OG2022
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A certain mayor has proposed a fee of five dollars per day on private vehicles entering the city, claiming that the fee will alleviate the city's traffic congestion. The mayor reasons that, since the fee will exceed the cost of round-trip bus fare from many nearby points, many people will switch from using their cars to using the bus.
Which of the following statements, if true, provides the best evidence that the mayor's reasoning is flawed?
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OG2022
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Metropolis regulation limiting to four days the period during which milk can be sold to consumers after pasteurization is unreasonable. Under optimal conditions, pasteurized milk kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit remains unspoiled for at least 14 days. If Metropolis current limitation were changed to eight days, milk prices would drop, but product quality would be unaffected.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?
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OG2022
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In the two years following the unification of Germany in 1989, the number of cars owned by residents of East Germany and the total distance traveled by cars in East Germany both increased by about 40 percent. In those two years, however, the number of East German residents killed each year as car occupants in traffic accidents increased by about 300 percent. Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the disproportionate increase in traffic fatalities?
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OG2022
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Which of the following most logically completes the passage? Mastitis is an infection of the udder in cows that, although not dangerous, causes them to give poor-quality milk. Most cases of mastitis are caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, against which antibiotics are ineffective. However, a related bacterium, Staphylococcus simulans, quickly clears up even severe infections of S. aureus simply by displacing the bacteria. S. simulans is nevertheless unlikely to become the preferred treatment for cases of mastitis, since ______.
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OG2022
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Neuroscientist: Memory evolved to help animals react appropriately to situations they encounter by drawing on the past experience of similar situations. But this does not require that animals perfectly recall every detail of all their experiences. Instead, to function well, memory should generalize from past experiences that are similar to the current one.
The neuroscientist's statements, if true, most strongly support which of the following conclusions?
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OG2022
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The ancient Nubians inhabited an area in which typhus occurred, yet surprisingly few of their skeletons show the usual evidence of this disease. The skeletons do show deposits of tetracycline, an antibiotic produced by a bacterium common in Nubian soil. This bacterium can flourish on the dried grain used for making two staples of the Nubian diet, beer and bread. Thus, tetracycline in their food probably explains the low incidence of typhus among ancient Nubians.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument relies?
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OG2022
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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?
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OG2022
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Historically, Starbucks Coffee has generated 50% of its revenue from sit-in customers, i.e. customers who spend 30 minutes or more in the coffee shop, and the remaining 50% from take-out customers, who buy and eat food outside. Since take-out customers are much more profitable and it is extremely difficult to attract new customers, Starbucks has started an advertising campaign in which it is creating new convenient offerings suitable for take-out customers. Because of this campaign, Starbucks' daily revenue has increased. Therefore, the average ticket price of take-out customer must have gone up since the total number of sit-in customers has remained unchanged.
What is the assumption that the author makes while drawing his conclusion?
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OG2022
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In Wareland last year, 16 percent of licensed drivers under 21 and 11 percent of drivers ages 21-24 were in serious accidents. By contrast, only 3 percent of licensed drivers 65 and older were involved in serious accidents. These figures clearly show that the greater experience and developed habits of caution possessed by drivers in the 65-and-older group make them far safer behind the wheel than younger drivers are.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
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OG2022
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Excavations of the Roman city of Sepphoris have uncovered numerous detailed mosaics depicting several readily identifiable animal species: a hare, a partridge, and various Mediterranean fish. Oddly, most of the species represented did not live in the Sepphoris region when these mosaics were created. Since identical motifs appear in mosaics found in other Roman cities, however, the mosaics of Sepphoris were very likely created by traveling artisans from some other part of the Roman Empire.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
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OG2022
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To improve its chance of winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Porsche needs to improve the acceleration on its cars. It can achieve the same by installing higher quality turbo chargers on its engines, thereby boosting their power output or by reducing weight of the car by rebuilding the chassis using carbon fiber instead of aluminum. Since reducing weight is estimated to improve the acceleration more than boosting engine power would, Porsche would be doing the most it can to improve acceleration if it decided to rebuild the chassis.
What is the assumption that the author makes while drawing his conclusion?
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OG2022
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Amazon Web Services (AWS) makes money by offering computing infrastructure to companies that provide ayalytics tools. Recently AWS's engineering team demonstrated their own analytics tool codenamed SILVERFOX to stock analysts. The team was also made aware that an AWS Branded analytics tool that is unstable and that cannot handle large computing loads will tarnish the brand name of AWS' infrastructure offering. However, since internal testing has demonstrated that SILVERFOX is both stable and capable of handling large coumputing loads, SILVERFOX can provide incremental revenue to AWS without impacting its computing infrastructure business.
What is the assumption that the author makes while drawing his conclusion?
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OG2022
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During the 1980s and 1990s, the annual number of people who visited the Sordellian Mountains increased continually, and many new ski resorts were built. Over the same period, however, the number of visitors to ski resorts who were caught in avalanches decreased, even though there was no reduction in the annual number of avalanches in the Sordellian Mountains.
Which of the following, if true in the Sordellian Mountains during the 1980s and 1990s, most helps to explain the decrease?
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OG2022
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The faster a car is traveling, the less time the driver has to avoid a potential accident, and if a car does crash, higher speeds increase the risk of a fatality. Between 1995 and 2000, average highway speeds increased significantly in the United States, yet, over that time, there was a drop in the number of car-crash fatalities per highway mile driven by cars.
Which of the following, if true about the United States between 1995 and 2000, most helps to explain why the fatality rate decreased in spite of the increase in average highway speeds?
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OG2022
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For the United States meat industry, there is good news and bad news. The bad news in that over the last three years people in the United States have been eating less meat. The good news is that during this same time period meat producer's profits have risen steadily.
Which of the following, if true during the last three years, contributes most to a resolution of the apparent discrepancy above?
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OG2022
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The population of desert tortoises in Targland's Red Desert has declined, partly because they are captured for sale as pets and partly because people riding all-terrain vehicles have damaged their habitat. Targland plans to halt this population decline by blocking the current access routes into the desert and announcing new regulations to allow access only on foot. Targland's officials predict that these measures will be adequate, since it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle.
Which of the following would it be most important to establish in order to evaluate the officials' prediction?
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