Debater: The average amount of overtime per month worked by an employee in the manufacturing division of
the Haglut Corporation is 14 hours. Most employees of the Haglut Corporation work in the manufacturing
division. Furthermore, the average amount of overtime per month worked by any employee in the company
generally does not fluctuate much from month to month. Therefore, each month, most employees of the Haglut
Corporation almost certainly work at least some overtime.
The debater’s argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which of these grounds?
Parland's alligator population has been declining in recent years,
primarily because of hunting. Alligators prey heavily on a species of
freshwater fish that is highly valued as food by Parlanders, who had
hoped that the decline in the alligator population would lead to an
increase in the numbers of these fish available for human consumption.
Yet the population of this fish species has also declined, even though
the annual number caught for human consumption has not increased.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the decline in the population of the fish species? [Source OG 13]
In virtually any industry, technological improvements increase labor
productivity, which is the output of goods and services per person-hour
worked. In Parland's industries, labor productivity is significantly
higher than it is in Vergia's industries. Clearly, therefore, Parland's
industries must, on the whole, be further advanced technologically than
Vergia's are.
The argument is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms?
In order to reduce the number of items damaged while in transit to
customers, packaging consultants recommended that the TrueSave
mail-order company increase the amount of packing material so as to fill
any empty spaces in its cartons. Accordingly, TrueSave officials
instructed the company’s packers to use more packing material than
before, and the packers zealously acted on these instructions and used
as much as they could. Nevertheless, customer reports of damaged items rose somewhat.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain why acting on the consultants’ recommendation failed to achieve its goal?
A certain automaker aims to increase its market share by deeply discounting its vehicles' prices for the next several months. The discounts will cut into profits, but because they will be heavily advertised the manufacturer hopes that they will attract buyers away from rival manufacturers' cars. In the longer term, the automaker envisions that customers initially attracted by the discounts may become loyal customers.
In assessing the plan's chances of achieving its aim, it would be most useful to know which of the following?
Ferber's syndrome, a viral disease that frequently affects cattle, is
transmitted to these animals through infected feed. Even though chickens
commercially raised for meat are often fed the type of feed identified
as the source of infection in cattle, Ferber's syndrome is only rarely
observed in chickens. This fact, however, does not indicate that most
chickens are immune to the virus that causes Ferber's syndrome, since
_____________
Which of the following most logically completes the argument?
The
growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely predicted to
result in a corresponding decline in television viewing. Recent studies
have found that, in the United States, people who own computers watch,
on average, significantly less television than people who do not own
computers. In itself, however, this finding does very little to show
that computer use tends to reduce television viewing time, since_______.
Although computers can enhance people's ability to communicate, computer
games are a cause of underdeveloped communication skills in children.
After school hours spent playing computer games are hours not spent
talking to people. Therefore, children who spent their spare time
playing these games have less experience in interpersonal communication
than other children have.
The argument depends on which of the following assumption?
Maize contains the vitamin niacin, but not in a form the body can
absorb. Pellagra is a disease that results from niacin deficiency.
When maize was introduced into southern Europe from the Americas in the
eighteenth century, it quickly became a dietary staple, and many
Europeans who came to subsist primarily on maize developed pellagra. Pellagra was virtually unknown at that time in the Americas, however, even among people who subsisted primarily on maize.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the contrasting incidence of pellagra described above?
Insurance Company X is considering issuing a new policy to cover services
required by elderly people who suffer from diseases that afflict the
elderly. Premiums for the policy must be low enough to attract
customers. Therefore, Company X is concerned that the income from the
policies would not be sufficient to pay for the claims that would be
made.
Which of the following strategies would be most likely to minimize Company X's losses on the policies?
Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself,
establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace.
Both are required simultaneously since standards of living can rise
because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a
decline in a country's standard of living.
If the facts stated in the passage above are true, a proper test of a country's ability to be competitive is its ability to
When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then asked
whether they can hear the hypnotist, they reply, "No." Some theorists
try to explain this result by arguing that the selves of hypnotized
subjects are dissociated into separate parts, and that the part that is
deaf is dissociated from the part that replies. Which of the following challenges indicates the most serious weakness in the attempted explanation described above?
While political discourse and the media in the United States have
focused on the rise of job outsourcing, few have mentioned the sharp
fall of talent "insourcing," or the drop in enrollment of foreign-born
graduate students since 2001, and its dire results. The decrease in such
insourcing will hurt America's competitiveness in basic research and
applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come. The
de-internationalization of graduate programs across the country will
also negatively affect the global outlook and experience of the American
students remaining in those programs; they will not have the
opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of
those cultures. What distinguishes the decline of talent insourcing from
the rise of job outsourcing is that the former can be easily rectified
by a policy change of the United States government. The answer to which
of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the
author's claim regarding the impact of decreased insourcing in America?
Pecan growers get a high price for their crop when pecans are comparatively scarce, but the price drops sharply when pecans are abundant. Thus, in high-yield years, growers often hold back part of their crop in refrigerated warehouses for one or two years, hoping for higher prices in the future. This year's pecan crop was the smallest in five years. It is nonetheless quite possible that a portion of this year's crop will be held back, since _____________ .
Community activist: If Morganville wants to keep its central shopping
district healthy, it should prevent the opening of a huge SaveAll
discount department store on the outskirts of Morganville. Records from
other small towns show that whenever SaveAll has opened a store outside
the central shopping district of a small town, within five years the
town has experienced the bankruptcies of more than a quarter of the
stores in the shopping district.
The answer to which of the following would be most useful for evaluating the community activists reasoning?
The recording industry is fighting a losing battle: it simply does not
have the resources to prosecute all of the individuals who illegally
download music from the Internet. Because the number of individuals who
will be charged with a crime is so limited, the actions of the recording
industry will have a minimal impact on the number of people who
illegally download music. The answer to which of the following questions
would best help evaluate the accuracy of the conclusion above?
Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?
Using
broad-spectrum weed killers on weeds that are competing with crops for
sunlight, water, and nutrients presents a difficulty: how to keep the
crop from being killed along with the weeds. For at least some food
crops, specially treated seed that produces plants resistant to weed
killers is under development. This resistance wears off as the plants
mature. Therefore, the special seed treatment will be especially useful
for plants that _____________ .
A recent report determined that although only three percent of drivers
on Maryland highways equipped their vehicles with radar detectors,
thirty-three percent of all vehicles ticketed for exceeding the speed
limit were equipped with them. Clearly, drivers who equip their vehicles
with radar detectors are more likely to exceed the speed limit
regularly than are drivers who do not.
The conclusion drawn above depends on which of the following assumptions?