All GMAT Ninja Complete Critical Reasoning Explanations

All GMAT Ninja Complete Critical Reasoning Explanations

Fun fact: in 2020 alone, we posted about 530,000 words on the GMAT Club forum. Tolstoy’s War and Peace has about 560,000 words.

Gauntlet thrown: we’re coming for you, Tolstoy!

In all seriousness, our verbivorousness (which probably isn’t a word, but should be) admittedly makes it harder for GMAT Club members to find worthwhile things that we’ve posted on the forum. So here’s part 1 in our attempt to fix that problem: this is every complete GMAT Critical Reasoning explanation we’ve produced, broken down by source.

How to use these complete CR explanations

First of all: memorizing our explanations -- or anybody’s explanations -- is a total waste of your time, especially for verbal questions.

Why?

Nobody likes to hear this, but the vast majority of critical reasoning errors happen when the test-taker fails to catch the EXACT meaning of the passage, question stem, or answer choices. A good, full explanation will rephrase the text in nice, clear language. And if we do our jobs well as explanation-writers, you’ll easily understand why the OA is correct.

But after reading our CR explanations, will you be in a better position to understand the EXACT meaning of a totally different CR question? Probably not. You might pick up some good tips on how to structure your thinking, or how to think about the logic underlying a particular type of CR question. But studying our explanations won’t make you a better, more precise reader -- and it definitely won’t do much to help you figure out where YOU went wrong in terms of your reading process.

Instead, here’s how we recommend practicing critical reasoning -- or anything else on the GMAT:

• After you’ve completed a set of practice CR questions, don’t review your mistakes (or read an explanation) right away. Instead, wait a few days, and then attempt the question again, doing your best to forget that you’ve ever seen it before.
• If you easily answer the question correctly when you redo it, pay close attention to what you did differently the second time -- and work on making whatever went right part of your process EVERY time you do a CR question.
• If you miss a question a second time, then reading a full explanation might help a bit. But keep in mind that your goal is to figure out where YOU went wrong, and how YOUR personal process can be optimized. So use our explanations as a tool for self-discovery -- not as a strict, step-by-step recipe.

Also, if you aren’t confident in your overall approach to critical reasoning, you might want to start with our beginner’s guide to CR, or our mountain of YouTube videos. We also discuss self-study strategies in depth in this video.

OK, rant over. Now, here’s the motherlode:

Recent Official Guide CR Questions (2020-present)

These are full explanations of CR questions that have appeared in the 2020 or more recent editions of the Official Guide. Fun!

• Although there is no record of poet Edmund Spenser's parentage...
• Guidebook writer: I have visited hotels throughout the country...
• Tiger beetles are such fast runners that they can capture virtually...
• A year ago, Dietz Foods launched a yearlong advertising campaign...
• Although the discount stores in Goreville's central shopping district...
• The average hourly wage of television assemblers in Vernland...
• Exposure to certain chemicals commonly used in elementary school...
• Last year all refuse collected by Shelbyville city services was...
• The percentage of households with an annual income of more...
• Metal rings recently excavated from seventh-century settlements...
• In the past, most children who went sledding in the winter snow...
• Guillemots are birds of Arctic regions. They feed on fish...
• Cheever College offers several online courses via remote computer...
• Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total...
• For years the beautiful Renaissance buildings in Palitito have...
• A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity...
• Since it has become known that several of a bank's top executives...
• Many people suffer an allergic reaction to certain sulfites, including...
• Studies in restaurants show that the tips left by customers who pay...
• Male bowerbirds construct elaborately decorated nests, or bowers...
• Psychologists conducted an experiment in which half of the volunteers...
• Infotek, a computer manufacturer in Katrovia, has just introduced...
• Airline Representative: The percentage of flight delays caused...
• Professor: A marine biologist argues that transmission of sea...
• Many economists hold that keeping taxes low helps to spur economic...
• Historian: Newton developed mathematical concepts and techniques...
• Trucking company owner: Theft of trucks containing valuable cargo...
• The city of Workney, in raising bus fares from $1.00 to $1.25...
• In order to achieve self-sufficiency in electricity production the...
• Many companies now have employee assistance programs that enable...
• Defense Department analysts worry that the ability of the United...
• United States politician: Although the amount of United States...
• Sascha: The attempt to ban parliament's right to pass directed-...
• Consultant: Ace Repairs ends up having to redo a significant number...
• Researchers hope to find clues about the A'mk peoples who lived...

Old Official Guide CR Questions (pre-2020)

The following are full explanations of CR questions that appeared in older OG editions, but not in the editions published since 2020:

• Most employees in the computer industry move from company to company...
• Manufacturers sometimes discount the price of a product...
• Some anthropologists study modern-day societies of foragers...
• At a dinner party, 40 percent of the guests wore both jackets and ties...
• In Swartkans territory, archaeologists discovered charred bone...
• One way to judge the performance of a company is to compare...
• The difficulty with the proposed high-speed train line...
• Gortland has long been narrowly self-sufficient in both grain and meat...
• Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for...
• A researcher discovered that people who have low levels of immune...
• The irradiation of food kills bacteria and thus retards spoilage...
• A recent report determined that although only three percent of drivers...
• Roland: The alarming fact is that 90 percent of the people...
• Excavation of the ancient city of Kourion on the island...
• Codex Berinensis, a Florentine copy of an ancient Roman...
• When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are...
• In the United States, of the people who moved from one state...
• Community activist: If Morganville wants to keep its central shopping...
• Museums that house Renaissance oil paintings typically store them...
• A prominent investor who holds a large stake in the Burton Tool...
• Networks of blood vessels in bats' wings serve only to disperse...
• Studies have shown that elderly people who practice a religion...
• The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated...
• Although parapsychology is often considered a pseudoscience...
• Technological improvements and reduced equipment costs have made...
• Correctly measuring the productivity of service workers is complex...
• Advertisement: Today's customers expect high quality. Every advance...

Recent GMAT Verbal Review CR Questions (2020-present)

These guys appear in the 2020 or more recent versions of the GMAT Verbal Review guide:

• Leaf beetles damage willow trees by stripping away their leaves...
• Automobile ownership was rare in Sabresia as recently as 30 years ago...
• Many gardeners believe that the variety of clematis vine...
• Conventional wisdom suggests vaccinating elderly people first in flu...
• Pro-Tect Insurance Company has recently been paying out more...
• Plantings of cotton bioengineered to produce its own insecticide...
• While the total enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools...
• Meat from chickens contaminated with salmonella bacteria can...
• Utrania was formerly a major petroleum exporter, but in recent decades...
• Tanco, a leather manufacturer, uses large quantities of common...
• A product that represents a clear technological advance over...
• Commemorative plaques cast from brass are a characteristic art form...
• Archaeologists working in the Andes Mountains recently excavated...

Old GMAT Verbal Review CR Questions (pre-2020)

And these exciting things are full explanations of questions that appear in pre-2020 editions of the GMAT Verbal Review guide, but not in the more recent versions:

• Laws requiring the use of headlights during daylight hours...
• Political Advertisement: Mayor Delmont's critics complain about...
• At a recent conference on environmental threats to the North Sea...
• Journalist: Well-known businessman Arnold Bergeron has long...
• The cotton farms of Country Q became so productive that the market...
• Useful protein drugs, such as insulin, must still be administered...
• In response to viral infection, the immune systems of mice...
• A study of marital relationships in which one partner's sleeping...
• The price the government pays for standard weapons purchased from...
• When people evade income taxes by not declaring taxable income...
• Editorial: An arrest made by a Midville police officer is...
• Hardin argued that grazing land held in common (that is...
• A certain mayor has proposed a fee of five dollars per day...
• There is a great deal of geographical variation in the frequency...
• The tobacco industry is still profitable and projections are...

LSAT CR Questions

No, we’re not confused: we know that you’re (probably) studying for the GMAT, not the LSAT. But the LSAT can help a ton with your GMAT CR and RC studies -- click here for a long-winded rant on why LSAT questions can help with your GMAT studies.

And here are full explanations of some of our favorite LSAT CR questions:

• Building a space station, in which astronauts would live for a considerable...
• The nature of English literature reflects the rich and diverse...
• Kendrick: Governments that try to prevent cigarettes from...
• By examining fossilized beetles a research team has produced the...
• Researcher: Every year approximately the same number of people...
• Chlorofluorocarbons are the best possible solvents to have in car...
• Raymond: Although some people claim it is inconsistent...
• Advertising tends to have a greater influence on consumer preferences...
• Eva: A “smart highway” system should be installed, one that...
• Twelve healthy volunteers with the Apo-A- IV-l gene and twelve healthy...
• Conservationist: The risk to airplane passengers from collisions...
• Police statistics have shown that automobile antitheft devices reduce...
• Humans began to spread across North American around 12,000 years...
• Politician: A government that taxes incomes at a rate of 100 percent...
• Sociologist: The more technologically advanced a society is...
• In a survey of consumers in an Eastern European nation...
• The labeling of otherwise high-calorie foods as “sugar-free,” based...

GMAT Club Test CR Questions

If you’ve read a few of our forum posts, you probably know that we tend to discourage test-takers from relying on non-official GMAT verbal questions. GMAC spends literally thousands of dollars creating, testing, and perfecting each question that makes it into the exam; even the best test-prep companies can’t compete, and GMAT Club is (unfortunately!) no exception.

But if you’re here, odds are decent that you’re using the GMAT Club tests, so the list below features full explanations of some of our favorite CR questions from the GMAT Club tests. Full disclosure: we wrote or at least heavily edited most of these, but they’re still far from perfect. So please take them with a grain of salt.

Also, if you still plan to take the GMAT Club verbal tests, we’d recommend holding off on reading these explanations -- they’ll definitely bias your results.

• An anthropologist studying the social function of human skin...
• From 2000 to 2010, beverage containers accounted for a steadily...
• Aldolase is a protein found in the brain. In an experiment...
• The popular belief that a snake's age can be determined by counting...
• Scientists studying climate change have found that global warming...
• During the 1930s, Roosevelt’s New Deal expanded federal authority...
• Financial Analyst: Healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses...
• City planner: Our city center will not be adequately revitalized...
• In order to maintain the competitive edge our company has gained...
• Discontinuing the use of most habit-forming drugs causes emotional...
• The executive committee of the shopping mall announced that more...
• Neuropeptide substance P is released in the spinal cord in response...
• For the first time since influenza vaccines became popular, the demand...
• A major film studio announced the release date of a movie based...
• In their search for Mayan ruins in the jungles of Guatemala...
• Community spokesperson: As a result of a recent surge of foreclosures...
• Sol Citrus, a small orchard that produces only organic citrus...
• The Dear One Baby Carrier is the safest and most comfortable...
• A study released by a major medical center has found that people...
• In the nation of Pelmenia, 20% of 18-year-olds are left-handed...
• Unripe lychee fruit contains a compound called hypoglycin, which is...
• Ski Resort Board Member: The free skier safety courses that...
• A five-year clinical trial was conducted to study the effectiveness...
• In a taste test, participants were asked to try two versions...
• Cultural anthropologists have hypothesized that smiling is a submissive...
• Hyperkalemia is a potentially fatal condition found most often in...

Official MBA.com (formerly known as GMATPrep) CR Questions

Please be particularly careful with these!

The six official mba.com exams are the next-best thing to the real GMAT exam -- and if you’re already familiar with some of the questions, you’ll warp your results in unfortunate ways, as discussed in this article.

In other words: don’t read any of the full CR explanations on this list unless you’re SURE that you don’t plan to retake the mba.com exams.

• Capuchin monkeys in Venezuela often rub a certain type of millipede...
• Shipping Clerk: The five specially ordered shipments sent out last...
• Kernland imposes a high tariff on the export of unprocessed cashew...
• Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenville...
• Environmentalist: The use of snowmobiles in the vast park north...
• Smithtown University's fund-raisers succeeded in getting donations...
• Proposal: Carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere block the...
• Twenty years ago, Balzania put in place regulations requiring operator...
• As a large corporation in a small country, Hachnut wants its managers...
• Junior biomedical researchers have long assumed that their hirings...
• Charcoal from a hearth site in Colorado, 2,000 miles south of...
• The number of applications for teaching positions in Newtown’s...
• Telomerase is an enzyme that is produced only in cells that are...

Want more?

• All GMAT Ninja LIVE YouTube videos, by topic
• CR Guide for Beginners
• RC Guide for Beginners
• bb’s epic CR question directory by topic and difficulty
• carcass‘s incredible master directory to official verbal questions
• souvik101990‘s comprehensive collection of all official CRs
• Using LSAT materials for extra practice on CR and RC
• A thread about note-taking on GMAT CR
• What to do about timing on GMAT verbal