1. If you have a large amount of money in the bank, your spending power is great. If your spending power is great, you are happy. So if you have a large amount of money in the bank, you are happy.

Which one of the following most closely parallels the reasoning in the argument above?

2. For a television program about astrology, investigators went into the street and found twenty volunteers born under the sign of Gemini who were willing to be interviewed on the program and to take a personality test. The test confirmed the investigators’ personal impressions that each of the volunteers was more sociable and extroverted than people are on average. This modest investigation thus supports the claim that one’s astrological birth sign influences one’s personality.

Which one of the following, if true, indicates the most serious flaw in the method used by the investigators?

3. In Europe, schoolchildren devote time during each school day to calisthenics. North American schools rarely offer a daily calisthenics program. Tests prove that North American children are weaker, slower, and shorter-winded than European children. We must conclude that North American children can be made physically fit only if they participate in school calisthenics on a daily basis.

Which one of the following is assumed in the passage?

4. A work of architecture, if it is to be both inviting and functional for public use, must be unobtrusive, taking second place to the total environment. Modern architects, plagued by egoism, have violated this precept. They have let their strong personalities take over their work, producing buildings that are not functional for public use.

Which one of the statements below follows logically from the statements in the passage?

5. Observatory director: Some say that funding the megatelescope will benefit only the astronomers who will work with it. This dangerous point of view, applied to the work of Maxwell, Newton, or Einstein, would have stifled their research and deprived the world of beneficial applications, such as the development of radio, that followed from that research.

If the statements above are put forward as an argument in favor of development of the megatelescope, which one of the following is the strongest criticism of that argument?

6. The Transit Authority’s proposal to increase fares by 40 percent must be implemented. Admittedly, this fare increase will impose a hardship on some bus and subway riders. But if the fare is not increased, service will have to be cut severely and that would result in an unacceptably large loss of ridership.

The passage employs which one of the following argumentative strategies?

7. Those who participate in local politics include people who are genuinely interested in public service and people who are selfish opportunists. Everyone who participates in local politics has an influence on the community’s values.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true?

8. Although nondairy coffee lighteners made with coconut oil contain 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, or 7 times more than does whole milk, those lighteners usually contain no cholesterol. Yet one tablespoon of such lighteners causes the consumer’s blood cholesterol to rise to a higher level than does an identical amount of whole milk, which contains 2 milligrams of cholesterol per tablespoon.

Which one of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the apparent discrepancy noted above?

9. Although nondairy coffee lighteners made with coconut oil contain 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, or 7 times more than does whole milk, those lighteners usually contain no cholesterol. Yet one tablespoon of such lighteners causes the consumer’s blood cholesterol to rise to a higher level than does an identical amount of whole milk, which contains 2 milligrams of cholesterol per tablespoon. Manufacturers of coffee lighteners based on coconut oil claim that their products usually cause the typical consumer’s blood cholesterol to rise to a lower level than does the use of whole milk as a lightener.

Which one of the following, if true, provides the most support for the manufacturers’ claim?

10. People with serious financial problems are so worried about money that they cannot be happy. Their misery makes everyone close to them—family, friends, colleagues—unhappy as well. Only if their financial problems are solved can they and those around them be happy.

Which one of the following statements can be properly inferred from the passage?

11. It is often said that people should be rewarded for doing a given job in proportion to the effort it costs them to do it. However, a little reflection will show that this is, in fact, a very bad idea, since it would mean that those people with the least skill or natural aptitude for a particular task would be the ones given the most incentive to do it.

Which one of the following argumentative strategies is used above?

12. Photovoltaic power plants produce electricity from sunlight. As a result of astonishing recent technological advances, the cost of producing electric power at photovoltaic power plants, allowing for both construction and operating costs, is one-tenth of what it was 20 years ago, whereas the corresponding cost for traditional plants, which burn fossil fuels, has increased. Thus, photovoltaic power plants offer a less expensive approach to meeting demand for electricity than do traditional power plants.

The conclusion of the argument is properly drawn if which one of the following is assumed?

13. If that insect is a bee, it can only sting once. It only did sting once. So it is a bee.

Which one of the following exhibits a pattern of reasoning most similar to that in the argument above?

14. Pamela: Physicians training for a medical specialty serve as resident staff physicians in hospitals.They work such long hours—up to 36 consecutive hours—that fatigue impairs their ability to make the best medical decisions during the final portion of their shifts. Quincy: Thousands of physicians now practicing have been trained according to the same regimen, and records show they generally made good medical decisions during their training periods.

Why should what has worked in the past be changed now? Which one of the following, if true, is the most effective counter Pamela might make to Quincy’s argument?

15. When a group of children who have been watching television programs that include acts of violence is sent to play with a group of children who have been watching programs that do not include acts of violence, the children who have been watching violent programs commit a much greater number of violent acts in their play than do the children who have been watching nonviolent programs. Therefore, children at play can be prevented from committing violent acts by not being allowed to watch violence on television.

The argument in the passage assumes which one of the following?

16. It is repeatedly claimed that the dumping of nuclear waste poses no threat to people living nearby. If this claim could be made with certainty, there would be no reason for not locating sites in areas of dense population. But the policy of dumping nuclear waste only in the more sparsely populated regions indicates, at the very least, some misgiving about safety on the part of those responsible for policy.

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

17. A society’s infant mortality rate is an accepted indicator of that society’s general health status. Even though in some localities in the United States the rate is higher than in many developing countries, in the United States overall the rate has been steadily declining. This decline does not necessarily indicate, however, that babies in the United States are now, on the average, healthier at birth than they were in the past.

Which one of the following reasons, if true, most strongly supports the claim made above about the implications of the decline?

18. Like a number of other articles, Ian Raghnall’s article relied on a recent survey in which over half the couples applying for divorces listed “money” as a major problem in their marriages. Raghnall’s conclusion from the survey data is that financial problems are the major problem in marriages and an important factor contributing to the high divorce rate. Yet couples often express other types of marital frustrations in financial terms. Despite appearances, the survey data do not establish that financial problems are the major problem in contemporary marriages.

Which one of the following sentences best expresses the main point of the passage?

19. Like a number of other articles, Ian Raghnall’s article relied on a recent survey in which over half the couples applying for divorces listed “money” as a major problem in their marriages. Raghnall’s conclusion from the survey data is that financial problems are the major problem in marriages and an important factor contributing to the high divorce rate. Yet couples often express other types of marital frustrations in financial terms. Despite appearances, the survey data do not establish that financial problems are the major problem in contemporary marriages.

In the passage, the author does which one of the following?

20. In Brazil, side-by-side comparisons of Africanized honeybees and the native honeybees have shown that the Africanized bees are far superior honey producers. Therefore, there is no reason to fear that domestic commercial honey production will decline in the United States if local honeybees are displaced by Africanized honeybees.

Each of the following, if true, would weaken the argument EXCEPT:

21. The public is well aware that high blood cholesterol levels raise the risk of stroke caused by blood clots. But a recent report concludes that people with low blood cholesterol levels are at increased risk of the other lethal type of stroke—cerebral hemorrhage, caused when a brain artery bursts. The report suggests that because blood cholesterol plays a vital role in maintaining cell membranes, low blood cholesterol weakens artery walls, making them prone to rupture. The conclusion thus supports a long-standing contention by Japanese researchers that Western diets better protect against cerebral hemorrhage than do non-Western diets.

The argument is based on which one of the following assumptions?

22. Public reports by national commissions, governors’ conferences, and leadership groups have stressed the great need for better understanding of international affairs by the citizenry. If the country is to remain a leading nation in an era of international competitiveness, the need is undeniable. If there is such a need for the citizenry to have a better understanding of international affairs, then all of our new teachers must be prepared to teach their subject matter with an international orientation.

If all of the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

23. “DNA fingerprinting” is a recently-introduced biochemical procedure that uses a pattern derived from a person’s genetic material to match a suspect’s genetic material against that of a specimen from a crime scene. Proponents have claimed astronomically high odds against obtaining a match by chance alone. These odds are based on an assumption that there is independence between the different characteristics represented by a single pattern.

Which one of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the claim of the proponents of DNA fingerprinting?

24. Anthropologists assert that cultures advance only when independence replaces dependence—that is, only when imposition by outsiders is replaced by initiative from within. In other words, the natives of a culture are the only ones who can move that culture forward. Non-natives may provide valuable advice, but any imposition of their views threatens independence and thus progress. If one looks at individual schools as separate cultures, therefore, the key to educational progress is obvious: ____ .

Which one of the following best completes the passage?

25. The public in the United States has in the past been conditioned to support a substantial defense budget by the threat of confrontation with the Eastern bloc. Now that that threat is dissolving, along with the Eastern bloc itself, it is doubtful whether the public can be persuaded to support an adequate defense budget.

Which one of the following indicates a weakness in the position expressed above?