В предыдущих уроках мы разобрались как подходить к штурму секции Critical Reasoning и определили основные типы вопросов, характерные для данной секции. Настало время потренироваться. Возьмите карандаш, поставьте таймер на 20 минут и вперед. Удачи!

Directions: На весь тест Вам отводится 20 минут. Зачеркните один из ответов. Правильные ответы можно увидеть в конце теста. И не подсматривать…

Question 1
In Los Angeles, a political candidate who buys saturation radio advertising will get maximum name recognition.

The statement above logically conveys which of the following?

(A) Radio advertising is the most important factor in political campaigns in Los Angeles.
(B) Maximum name recognition in Los Angeles will help a candidate to win a higher percentage of votes cast in the city.
(C) Saturation  radio  advertising  reaches  every demographically distinct sector of the voting population in Los Angeles.
(D) For maximum name recognition a candidate need not spend on media channels other than radio advertising.
(E) A candidate’s record of achievement in the Los Angeles area will do little to affect his or her name recognition there.

Question 2
In recent years, attacks by Dobermans on small children have risen dramatically. Last year saw 35 such attacks in the continental United States alone, an increase of almost 21 percent over the previous years total. Clearly, then, it is unsafe to keep dogs as pets if one has small children in the house.

The argument above depends upon which of the following assumptions?

(A) No reasonable justification for these attacks by Dobermans on small children has been discovered.
(B) Other household pets, such as cats, don’t display the same violent tendencies that dogs do.
(C) The number of attacks by Dobermans on small children will continue to rise in the coming years.
(D) A large   percentage   of   the    attacks    by Dobermans on small children could have been prevented by proper training.
(E) The behavior towards small children exhibited by Dobermans is representative of dogs general.

Question 3
An investigation must be launched into the operations of the private group that is training recruits to fight against the Balaland Republic. The United States Neutrality Act plainly forbids United States citizens from engaging in military campaigns against any nation with which we are not at war. Since no war has been declared between the United States and the Balaland Republic, we should bring charges against these fanatics, who are in open defiance of the law.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

(A) The Balaland Republic is currently engaged in a bloody and escalating civil war.
(B) Diplomatic  relations   between  the  United States and the Balaland Republic were severed last year.
(C) The recruits are being trained to fight only in the event the United States goes to war against the Balaland Republic.
(D) The training of recruits  is  funded not by United States citizens, but rather by a consortium of individuals from abroad.
(E) Charges cannot be brought against the private group that is training the recruits unless an investigation is first launched.
Question 4
Critics of strict «promotional gates» at the grade school level point to a recent study comparing students forced to repeat a grade with those promoted despite failing scores on an unscheduled, experimental competency test. Since there was no significant difference between the two groups’ scores on a second test administered after completion of the next higher grade level, these critics argue that the retention policy has failed in its expressed purpose of improving students’ basic skills.

Which of the following best expresses the argument made by critics of promotional gates?

(A) Anxiety over performance on standardized tests often hinders a student’s ability to master challenging new material.
(B) A student’s true intellectual development cannot be gauged by his score on a standardized competency test.
(C) The psychological damage a child suffers by repeat a grade outweights the potential intellectual benefits of a second chance at learning.
(D) Strict requirements for promotion do not lead to harder work and greater mastery of fundamentals among students fearful of being held back.
(E) Socioeconomic factors as well as test scores influenced whether a given student in the study was promoted or forced to repeat a grade.

Question 5
Statistics show that more than half of the nations murder victims knew their assailants; in fact, 24 percent last year were killed by relatives. Nor was death always completely unexpected. In one study, about half the murder victims in a particular city had called for police protection at least five times during the 24 months before they were murdered. Nonetheless, most people are more likely to fear being killed by a stranger in an unfamiliar situation than by a friend or relative at home.

Which of the following, if true, best explains the reaction of most people to the likelihood of being murdered?

(A) Statistics are likely to be discounted no matterwhat the source, if their implication seems to run counter to common sense.
(B) In the face of such upsetting problems as murder and assault, most people are more likely to react emotionally than rationally.
(C) A study taken in only one city is not likely to have an effect on attitudes until similar studies have been undertaken at the national level and yielded similar results.
(D) Most people do not consider themselves to be in the high-risk groups in which murder occurs frequently between relations, but do see themselves as at least minimally susceptible to random violence.
(E) People who seek police protection from relatives and friends are often unwilling to press charges when the emotions of the moment have cooled.

Question 6
The extent to which a society is really free can be gauged by its attitude towards artistic expression. Freedom of expression can easily be violated in even the most outwardly democratic of societies. When a government arts council withholds funding from a dance performance that its members deem «obscene,» the voices of a few bureaucrats have in fact censored the work of the choreographer, thereby committing the real obscenity of repression.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument above?

(A) Members of government arts councils are screened to ensure that their beliefs reflect those of the majority.
(B) The term obscenity has several different definitions that should not be used interchangeably for rhetorical effect.
(C) Failing to provide financial support for a performance is not the same as actively preventing or inhibiting it.
(D) The council’s decision could be reversed if the performance were altered to conform to public standards of appropriateness.
(E) The definition of obscenity is something on which most members of a society can agree.

Question 7
The local high school students have been clamoring for the freedom to design their own curricula. Allowing this would be as disastrous as allowing three-year-olds to choose their own diets. These students have neither the maturity nor the experience to equal that of the professional educators now doing the job.

Which of the following statements, if true, would most strengthen the above argument?

(A) High school students have less formal education than those who currently design the curricula.
(B) Three-year-olds do not, if left to their own devices, choose healthful diets.
(C) The local high school students are less intelligent than the average teenager.
(D) Individualized curricula are more beneficial to high school students than are the standard curricula, which are rigid and unresponsive to their particular strengths and weaknesses.
(E) The ability to design good curricula develops only after years of familiarity with educational life.

Question 8
The rate of violent crime in this state is up 30 percent from last year. The fault lies entirely in our court system: Recently our judges’ sentences have been so lenient that criminals can now do almost anything without fear of a long prison term.

The argument above would be weakened if it were true that

(A) 85 percent of the other states in the nation have lower crime rates than does this state
(B) white  collar  crime   in   this   state   has   also increased by over 25 percent in the last year
(C) 35 percent of the police in this state have been laid off in the last year due to budget cuts
(D) polls show that 65 percent of the population in this state oppose capital punishment
(E) the state has hired 25 new judges in the last year to compensate for deaths and retirements

Question 9
The education offered by junior colleges just after the Second World War had a tremendous practical effect on family-run businesses throughout the country. After learning new methods of marketing, finance, and accounting, the sons and daughters of merchants returned home, often to increase significantly the size of the family’s enterprise or to maximize profits in other ways.

Which of the following statements is best supported by the information above?

(A) The junior colleges principally emphasized methods of increasing the size of small businesses.
(B) The business methods taught in the junior colleges were already widespread before the second World War.
(C) The business curricula at junior colleges did not include theoretical principles of management.
(D) Without the influence of junior colleges, many family-run businesses would have been abandoned as unprofitable.
(E) Business methods in many postwar family-run businesses changed significantly as a result of the junior colleges.

Question 10
Techniques to increase productivity in the performance of discrete tasks, by requiring less human labor in each step of the production process, are widely utilized. Consultants on productivity enhancement point out, however, that although these techniques achieve their specific goal, they are not without drawbacks. They often instill enough resentment in the workforce eventually to lead to a slowdown in the production process as a whole.

Which of the following can be reasonably inferred from the statements above?

(A) Productivity enhancement techniques do not attain their intended purpose and should not be employed in the workplace.
(B) The fact that productivity enhancement techniques are so widely employed has led to a decline in the ability of American businesses to compete abroad.
(C) If productivity enhancement consultants continue to utilize these techniques, complete work stoppages will eventually result.
(D) Ironically, an increase in the productivity of discrete tasks may result in a decrease in the productivity of the whole production process.
(E) Production managers are dissatisfied with the efforts that productivity enhancement consultants have made to increase productivity.

А теперь ответы: 1) D; 2) E; 3) C; 4) D; 5) D; 6) C; 7) E; 8) C; 9) E; 10) D;

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