winterschool
Q1. Railroad spokesperson: Of course it is a difficult task to maintain quality of service at the same time that the amount of subsidy the taxpayers give the railroad network is reduced. Over recent years, however, the number of passengers has increased in spite of subsidy reductions. This fact leads to the conclusion that our quality of service has been satisfactory. The spokesperson’s argument is based on which one of the following assumptions? (A) Taxpayers do not wish to have their taxes raised to subsidize the railroads. (B) Some people refuse to travel by train if they are dissatisfied with the quality of service. (C) The quality of service on the trains must have improved in spite of subsidy reductions. (D) It is impossible to reduce subsidies to the railroad network without some effect on the quality of service. (E) The increase in the number of passengers will increase revenue sufficiently to offset the subsidy reductions. Difficulty - Hard
winterschool
Q2. Customer reviews are becoming a fixture on retail and consumer brand websites, with over 70% of retailers planning to feature them by the end of the year. The accelerated adoption of customer reviews indicates a more enlightened approach to handling negative comments, that is, the acknowledgment that occasional negative reviews do not hurt sales. Under which of the following conditions is the above strategy likely to backfire? (A) The quality of the product in question is so poor that a customer is not likely to buy it in the first place. (B) There are frequent negative reviews for a product. (C) The 20% of the retailers who do not launch this feature decide to offer huge discounts on their products. (D) The customers of a product never come to know about the existence of this feature on the product website. (E) It costs retailers a considerable sum of money to implement this feature on their respective websites. Difficulty - Hard
CR Questions July - 13 :Q1. To reduce waste of raw materials, the government of Sperland is considering requiring household appliances to be broken down for salvage when discarded. To cover the cost of salvage, the government is planning to charge a fee, which would be imposed when the appliance is first sold. Imposing the fee at the time of salvage would reduce waste more effectively, however, because consumers tend to keep old appliances longer if they are faced with a fee for discarding them.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) Increasing the cost of disposing of an appliance properly increases the incentive to dispose of it improperly.
(B) The fee provides manufacturers with no incentive to produce appliances that are more durable.
(C) For people who have bought new appliances recently, the salvage fee would not need to be paid for a number of years.
(D) People who sell their used, working appliances to others would not need to pay the salvage fee.
(E) Many nonfunctioning appliances that are currently discarded could be repaired at relatively little expense.
Difficulty - Hard
Q2. Many consumers are concerned about the ecological effects of wasteful packaging. This concern probably explains why stores have been quick to stock new cleaning products that have been produced in a concentrated form. The concentrated form is packaged in smaller containers that use less plastic and require less transportation space.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the explanation offered above?
(A) Few consumers believe that containers of concentrated cleaning products are merely small packages of regular cleaning products.
(B) The containers in which concentrated cleaning products are packaged are no harder to recycle than those in which regular cleaning products are packaged.
(C) Those concentrated cleaning products that are intended to be used diluted have clear instructions for dilution printed on their labels.
(D) The smaller containers of concentrated cleaning products enable supermarkets and drugstores to increase their revenues from a given shelf space.
(E) Consumer pressure has led to the elimination of wasteful cardboard packaging that was used for compact discs.
Difficulty - Hard