Previously, the nation of Diaturna made heavy use of imported iron in its steel foundries. Recently, Diaturna adopted legislation that would shift its industrial emphasis from the production of steel to the production of aluminum, which does not require iron. At present, Diaturna harvests more aluminum ore than it uses for industrial purposes, and iron procurement from Diaturnan mines is increasing at a predictable rate. If this shift in mining and production continues, therefore, Diaturnan dependence on foreign countries for metal production will soon decline.

Which of the following would it be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?

Prolonged exposure to exceptionally violent or chaotic circumstances can cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in some individuals. Psychiatrists in Virginia indicate that the proportion of patients coming to them for treatment of symptoms related to PTSD has increased enormously over the previous five years. Thus, either Virginia has become a much more violent and chaotic place over the last five years or individuals are more sensitive to violence and chaos than they were five years ago.

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

The multiple chambers of a cow’s stomach exist to process nutrition from high-fiber plant matter. This process is only necessary because this plant matter is difficult to digest. Therefore, paleontologists’ discovery that the three-toed dinosaur Rumindolus possessed similar multi-chambered stomachs evidences the theory that Rumindolus fed on similarly difficult-to-digest vegetation.

In the passage, the author develops the argument by

Some individuals have an allergic sensitivity to certain proteins, some of which are found in the rubber most often used to make surgical gloves. However, because Manufacturer X does not use those types of rubber in its gloves, individuals who need to use surgical gloves but are allergic to those proteins can use the gloves made by Manufacturer X without risking an allergic reaction.

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

The city government of Sporaville has not, in the past, made the purchase of departmental office supplies subject to any approval. A new rule will requires all purchases of office supplies to be approved by the manager of the government office purchasing the supplies. The rule is intended to save the government money by holding a single person accountable for expenses.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest reasoning for the city government’s decision?

Consumer advocate: Your company’s cars are likely to require major repairs in the third year after customers buy them. This shows that you intend for your cars to break down at the end of the two-year warranty period.

Car manufacturer: Our cars require fewer repairs in the first five years of ownership than our major competitor’s cars do.

The car manufacturer’s response is flawed as a refutation of the consumer advocate’s argument because it

Microchip Manufacturer’s Press Release: Electronic Analysis Quarterly described the DuoCore k457 as having the lowest failure rate of any computer processor in its category. This indicates that the DuoCore k457 may be the most reliable chip on the market.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument in the advertisement?

The Committee for Road Safety published a press release stating that car tires will develop wear through normal use, and that this wear can cause brake failures and traffic accidents. The committee stated that, on average, such wear can begin to develop in as few as three years. Because of this, most motorists should purchase and install new tires every three years, if not more often.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion above?

Society recognizes the accomplishments of exceptional individuals, whether in music, art, or science. It is generally believed that these individuals owe their success to an innate level of genius. However, studies reveal that most of those who perform at an expert level have followed strict regimens of deliberate practice beginning in childhood. Because by the time these exceptional individuals begin to make their contributions they have often been practicing for a minimum of ten years, the studies indicate that the reason certain individuals become experts is not inborn talent, but rather because they have dedicated extensive amounts of time to rehearsing and sharpening their skills.

In the argument given, the two sections in boldface play which of the following roles?

That future teachers do not always select the most rigorous preparation programs cannot truly be said that they are at fault: The National Council on Teacher Quality, a think tank that advocates for higher standards for classroom teachers, only began publishing comprehensive program rankings in 2013.

Although it is the primary purpose of improving the train system’s infrastructure is to make it be more reliable in winter weather, it is the ridership and therefore also the revenue that the repairs will ultimately help increase.

The artificial dichotomy between history and prehistory that has characterized Americanist archaeology since the 1960s have been seen as shunting historical archaeology to the periphery of a discipline hypocritically borrowing from but declines to acknowledge the methodologies developed within this important yet unrecognized field.

The recent increase in processing power and the usability of certain data analysis programs has inspired some small businesses to adopt a model in which basic tasks are taken care of by computers rather than by human employees.

Amelia Earhart left a lasting legacy in the sense that her achievements inspired a new generation of pilots that were women.

Unlike most art exhibitions, which require the viewer to appreciate the works in their current form, the Perpetual Motion Project invites guests to manipulate each work, which thereby changes the way it will be perceived by the next viewer.

The Great Red Spot, actually a series of prolonged anticyclonic storms on the surface of Jupiter, is usually considered a permanent element of the planet’s appearance but occasionally disappears when the planet experiences a period of relatively calm weather.

Czech regional manufacturers, as with other countries, assemble appliances by fabricating individual components and incorporating them into a larger framework based on a set of standardized schematics.

Cacti perform important roles in the desert ecosystems and horticultural communities of the Americas, serving as water sources for snake, insect, and bird species; producing prickly pears, other fruits, and medicinal substances; and sometimes help build earthen walls by exuding a fluid used as a binding agent in certain types of plaster.

Theorists of expeditions to extrasolar planets have typically been concerned with exceeding the speed of light and to what degree it could be, but aerospace engineers have long expected that the greatest obstacles to the manned exploration of other solar systems would be the difficulty of prolonged food storage and exposure to cosmic radiation.

The ancient Iberians were mostly agrarian, but complementing their production of wheat and barley with raids and piracy.