53. When investigators discovered that the director of a local charity had repeatedly overstated the number of people his charity had helped, the director accepted responsibility for the deception. However, the investigators claims that journalists were as much to blame as the director was for inflating the charity's reputation, since they had naively accepted what the director told them, and simply reported as fact the numbers he gave them.
Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the investigators' claim
(A) Anyone who works for a charitable organization is obliged to be completely honest about the activities of that organization.
(B) Anyone who knowingly aids a liar by trying to conceal the truth from others is also a liar.
(C) Anyone who presents as factual a story that turns out to be untrue without first attempting to verify that story is no less responsible for the consequences of that story than anyone else is.
(D) Anyone who lies in order to advance his or her own career is more deserving of blame than someone who lies in order to promote a good cause.
(E) Anyone who accepts responsibility for a wrongful act that he or she committed is less deserving of blame than someone who tries to conceal his or her own wrongdoing.
54. Telephone companies are promoting "voice mail" as an alternative to the answering machine. By recording messages from callers when a subscriber does not have access to his or her telephone, voice mail provides a service similar to that of an answering machine. The companies promoting this service argue that it will soon make answering machines obsolete, since it is much more convenient, more flexible, and less expensive than an answering machine.
which one of the following, if true, most calls into question the argument made by the companies promoting voice mail?
(A) Unlike calls made to owners of answering machines, all telephone calls made to voice-mail subscribers are completed, even if the line called is in use at the time of the call.
(B) The surge in sales of answering machines occurred shortly after they were first introduced to the electronics market.
(C) Once a telephone customer decides to subscribe to voice mail, that customer can cancel the service at any time.
(D) Answering machines enable the customer to hear who is calling before the customer decides whether to answer the telephone, a service voice mail does not provide.
(E) The number of messages a telephone answering machine can record is limited by the length of the magnetic tape on which calls are recorded
Questions 55-56
The simple facts are these: the number of people killed each year by bears is about the same as the number of people killed by lightning of golf courses. And the number of people killed by lightning on golf courses each year is about the same as the number of people electrocuted by electric blenders. All the horrible myths and gruesome stories aside, therefore a grizzly bear is in fact about as dangerous as an electric blender or a game of golf.
55. Which one of the following is an assumption that the author relies upon in the passage?
(A) Most incidents involving grizzly bears are fatal.
(B) Grizzly bears are no longer the danger they once were.
(C) The number of fatalities per year is an adequate indication of something's dangerousness.
(D) A golf course is a particularly dangerous place to be in a thunderstorm.
(E) Something is dangerous only if it results in death in the majority of cases.
56. Which one of the following, if true, would most effectively undermine the author's argument?
(A) Although the number of people killed by lightning on golf courses each year is very small, the total number of lightning fatalities is many times greater.
(B) Electric blenders are among the safest housed hold appliances; were the author to compare fatalities from electrical appliances in general, she would get a much higher figure.
(C) Most people would rather take their chances with benders and golf games than with grizzly bears.
(D) Bears in general——including black, brown, and cinnamon bears, as well as grizzly bears——kill many more people than do electric blenders.
(E) Statistics show that the number of times people use electric blenders each year exceeds the number of times people play golf each year, which in turn far exceeds the number of contacts people have with grizzly bears each year.
57. Free public education is the best FORM of education there is. Therefore, we must fight to ensure its continued existence; that is, we must be ready to defend the principle of equality of educational opportunity. Because this principle is well worth defending, it is clear that free public education is better than any other FORM of education.
Which one of the following illustrates the same weak reasoning as found in the passage?
(A) I love music, and that's why I listen to it constantly. I have my stereo or radio on every waking minute. Since I lay music all the time, I must really love it.
(B) Books are my most valuable possessions. My books are like my friends——each pleases me in different ways. Just as I would give up everything to save my friends, so too with my books.
(C) I would much rather be poor and respected than be rich and despises. To have the respect of others is far more valuable than to have millions of dollars.
(D) I have never been betrayed by any of my friends. They have been true to me through good times and bad. Therefore I will never betray any of my friends.
(E) Because every plant I have ever seen has green leaves, I have concluded that all plants must have green leaves. This looks like a plant but it does not have green leaves, so it cannot be a plant.
58. Some people say that the scarcity of food is a <I>function</I> of the finite limits of the earth's resources, coupled with a relentless rate of population growth. This analysis fails to recognize, however, that much of the world's agricultural resources are used to feed livestock instead of people. In the United States, for example, almost one-half of the agricultural acreage is devoted to crops fed to livestock. A steer reduces twenty-one pounds of inexpensive grain to one pound of expensive meat. Thus, the scarcity of food is not merely a <I>function</I> of limited resources and population growth.
Which one of the following is an assumption that would allow the conclusion in the argument to be properly drawn?
(A) People prefer eating meat to eating grain.
(B) Meat is twenty-one times more expensive than grain.
(C) The limits of the earth's agricultural resources are not finite.
(D) More than one-half of the agricultural acreage in the United States is devoted to drops fed to humans.
(E) Growing crops for human consumption on the acreage currently devoted to crops for livestock will yield more food for more people.
Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the investigators' claim
(A) Anyone who works for a charitable organization is obliged to be completely honest about the activities of that organization.
(B) Anyone who knowingly aids a liar by trying to conceal the truth from others is also a liar.
(C) Anyone who presents as factual a story that turns out to be untrue without first attempting to verify that story is no less responsible for the consequences of that story than anyone else is.
(D) Anyone who lies in order to advance his or her own career is more deserving of blame than someone who lies in order to promote a good cause.
(E) Anyone who accepts responsibility for a wrongful act that he or she committed is less deserving of blame than someone who tries to conceal his or her own wrongdoing.
54. Telephone companies are promoting "voice mail" as an alternative to the answering machine. By recording messages from callers when a subscriber does not have access to his or her telephone, voice mail provides a service similar to that of an answering machine. The companies promoting this service argue that it will soon make answering machines obsolete, since it is much more convenient, more flexible, and less expensive than an answering machine.
which one of the following, if true, most calls into question the argument made by the companies promoting voice mail?
(A) Unlike calls made to owners of answering machines, all telephone calls made to voice-mail subscribers are completed, even if the line called is in use at the time of the call.
(B) The surge in sales of answering machines occurred shortly after they were first introduced to the electronics market.
(C) Once a telephone customer decides to subscribe to voice mail, that customer can cancel the service at any time.
(D) Answering machines enable the customer to hear who is calling before the customer decides whether to answer the telephone, a service voice mail does not provide.
(E) The number of messages a telephone answering machine can record is limited by the length of the magnetic tape on which calls are recorded
Questions 55-56
The simple facts are these: the number of people killed each year by bears is about the same as the number of people killed by lightning of golf courses. And the number of people killed by lightning on golf courses each year is about the same as the number of people electrocuted by electric blenders. All the horrible myths and gruesome stories aside, therefore a grizzly bear is in fact about as dangerous as an electric blender or a game of golf.
55. Which one of the following is an assumption that the author relies upon in the passage?
(A) Most incidents involving grizzly bears are fatal.
(B) Grizzly bears are no longer the danger they once were.
(C) The number of fatalities per year is an adequate indication of something's dangerousness.
(D) A golf course is a particularly dangerous place to be in a thunderstorm.
(E) Something is dangerous only if it results in death in the majority of cases.
56. Which one of the following, if true, would most effectively undermine the author's argument?
(A) Although the number of people killed by lightning on golf courses each year is very small, the total number of lightning fatalities is many times greater.
(B) Electric blenders are among the safest housed hold appliances; were the author to compare fatalities from electrical appliances in general, she would get a much higher figure.
(C) Most people would rather take their chances with benders and golf games than with grizzly bears.
(D) Bears in general——including black, brown, and cinnamon bears, as well as grizzly bears——kill many more people than do electric blenders.
(E) Statistics show that the number of times people use electric blenders each year exceeds the number of times people play golf each year, which in turn far exceeds the number of contacts people have with grizzly bears each year.
57. Free public education is the best FORM of education there is. Therefore, we must fight to ensure its continued existence; that is, we must be ready to defend the principle of equality of educational opportunity. Because this principle is well worth defending, it is clear that free public education is better than any other FORM of education.
Which one of the following illustrates the same weak reasoning as found in the passage?
(A) I love music, and that's why I listen to it constantly. I have my stereo or radio on every waking minute. Since I lay music all the time, I must really love it.
(B) Books are my most valuable possessions. My books are like my friends——each pleases me in different ways. Just as I would give up everything to save my friends, so too with my books.
(C) I would much rather be poor and respected than be rich and despises. To have the respect of others is far more valuable than to have millions of dollars.
(D) I have never been betrayed by any of my friends. They have been true to me through good times and bad. Therefore I will never betray any of my friends.
(E) Because every plant I have ever seen has green leaves, I have concluded that all plants must have green leaves. This looks like a plant but it does not have green leaves, so it cannot be a plant.
58. Some people say that the scarcity of food is a <I>function</I> of the finite limits of the earth's resources, coupled with a relentless rate of population growth. This analysis fails to recognize, however, that much of the world's agricultural resources are used to feed livestock instead of people. In the United States, for example, almost one-half of the agricultural acreage is devoted to crops fed to livestock. A steer reduces twenty-one pounds of inexpensive grain to one pound of expensive meat. Thus, the scarcity of food is not merely a <I>function</I> of limited resources and population growth.
Which one of the following is an assumption that would allow the conclusion in the argument to be properly drawn?
(A) People prefer eating meat to eating grain.
(B) Meat is twenty-one times more expensive than grain.
(C) The limits of the earth's agricultural resources are not finite.
(D) More than one-half of the agricultural acreage in the United States is devoted to drops fed to humans.
(E) Growing crops for human consumption on the acreage currently devoted to crops for livestock will yield more food for more people.