winterschool wrote:
Q1. A local department store hires college students for one month every spring to audit its unsold inventory. It costs the department store 20 percent less to pay wages to students than it would cost to hire outside auditors from a temporary service. Even after factoring in the costs of training and insuring the students against work-related injury, the department store spends less money by hiring the student auditors than it would by hiring auditors from the temporary service. The statements above, if true, best support which of the following assertions? (A) The amount spent on insurance for college-student auditors is more than 20 percent of the cost of paying the college students’ basic wages. (B) It takes 20 percent less time for the college students to audit the unsold inventory than it does for the outside auditors. (C) The department store pays its college-student auditors 20 percent less than the temporary service pays its auditors. (D) By hiring college students, the department store will cause 20 percent of the auditors at the temporary service to lose their jobs. (E) The cost of training its own college-student auditors is less than 20 percent of the cost of hiring auditors from the temporary service.
winterschool wrote:
Q2. Those influenced by modern Western science take it for granted that a genuine belief in astrology is proof of a credulous and unscientific mind. Yet, in the past, people of indisputable intellectual and scientific brilliance accepted astrology as a fact. Therefore, there is no scientific basis for rejecting astrology. The argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds? (A) A belief can be consistent with the available evidence and accepted scientific theories at one time but not with the accepted evidence and theories of a later time. (B) Since it is controversial whether astrology has a scientific basis, any argument that attempts to prove that it has will be specious. (C) Although the conclusion is intended to hold in all cultures, the evidence advanced in its support is drawn only from those cultures strongly influenced by modern Western science. (D) The implicit assumption that all practitioners of Western science believe in astrology is false. (E) The fact that there might be legitimate nonscientific reasons for rejecting astrology has been overlooked.
CR Questions December - 28 :Q1. When the heart is under duress, it releases proteins known as troponins into the bloodstream. In elite marathoners and cyclists, troponin levels become so elevated after a race that they are indistinguishable from those observed in patients who have recently suffered a heart attack. Despite the benefits of exercise, it is evident that too much running or cycling, even for one day, has a detrimental effect on health.
Which of the following would be most useful to determine to evaluate the argument?
(A) Whether non-elite runners and cyclists, after prolonged exercise, have more troponin in their bloodstream than do elite athletes.
(B) How long the body takes, on average, to restore elevated troponin levels to normal.
(C) Whether the body produces any other substances after extended periods of exercise that may be harmful.
(D) Whether the body sustains irreparable damage as a result of a long-distance run or bicycle ride.
(E) Whether other forms of prolonged cardiovascular exercise, such as swimming, also lead to elevated levels of troponin in the body.
Difficulty - Hard
Q2. Plantings of cotton bioengineered to produce its own insecticide against bollworms, a major cause of crop failure, sustained little bollworm damage until this year. This year the plantings are being seriously damaged by bollworms. Bollworms, however, are not necessarily developing resistance to the cotton’s insecticide. Bollworms breed on corn, and last year more corn than usual was planted throughout cotton-growing regions. So it is likely that the cotton is simply being overwhelmed by corn-bred bollworms.
In evaluating the argument, which of the following would be most useful to establish?
(A) Whether corn could be bioengineered to produce the insecticide
(B) Whether plantings of cotton that does not produce the insecticide are suffering unusually extensive damage from bollworms this year
(C) Whether other crops that have been bioengineered to produce their own insecticide successfully resist the pests against which the insecticide was to protect them
(D) Whether plantings of bioengineered cotton are frequently damaged by insect pests other than bollworms
(E) Whether there are insecticides that can be used against bollworms that have developed resistance to the insecticide produced by the bioengineered cotton
Difficulty - Hard