1. A law that is not consistently enforced does not serve its purpose. Law without enforcement is not law; it is merely statute—a promise of law. To institute real law is not merely to declare that such and such behavior is forbidden; it is also to punish those who violate that edict. Furthermore, those who enforce law must punish without favor for their friends or malice for their enemies. To punish only those one dislikes while forgiving others is not to enforce law but to engage in the arbitrary and unjust exercise of power.

The main point of the passage is that instituting real law consists in

2. Physiological research has uncovered disturbing evidence linking a number of structural disorders to jogging. Among the ailments seemingly connected with this now-popular sport are spinal disk displacements, stress fractures of the feet and ankles, knee and hip joint deterioration, and tendonitis. Furthermore, these injuries do not occur exclusively among beginning runners—veteran joggers suffer an equal percentage of injuries. What the accumulating data suggest is that the human anatomy is not able to withstand the stresses of jogging.

Which one of the following is an assumption of the argument?

3. All students at Pitcombe College were asked to label themselves conservative, liberal, or middle-of-the-road politically. Of the students, 25 percent labeled themselves conservative, 24 percent labeled themselves liberal, and 51 percent labeled themselves middle-of-the-road. When asked about a particular set of issues, however, 77 percent of the students endorsed what is generally regarded as a liberal position.

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

4. Lenore: It is naive to think that historical explanations can be objective. In evaluating evidence, historians are always influenced by their national, political, and class loyalties. Victor: Still, the very fact that cases of biased thinking have been detected and sources of bias identified shows that there are people who can maintain objectivity.

Victor’s response does not succeed as a rebuttal of Lenore’s argument because his response

5. The museum’s night security guard maintains that the thieves who stole the portrait did not enter the museum at any point at or above ground level. Therefore, the thieves must have gained access to the museum from below ground level.

The flawed pattern of reasoning in the argument above is most similar to that in which one of the following?

6. High-technology medicine is driving up the nation’s health care costs. Recent advances in cataract surgery illustrate why this is occurring. Cataracts are a major cause of blindness, especially in elderly people. Ten years ago, cataract surgery was painful and not always effective. Thanks to the new technology used in cataract surgery, the operation now restores vision dramatically and is less expensive. These two factors have caused the number of cataract operations performed to increase greatly, which has, in turn, driven up the total amount spent on cataract surgery.

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

7. High-technology medicine is driving up the nation’s health care costs. Recent advances in cataract surgery illustrate why this is occurring. Cataracts are a major cause of blindness, especially in elderly people. Ten years ago, cataract surgery was painful and not always effective. Thanks to the new technology used in cataract surgery, the operation now restores vision dramatically and is less expensive. These two factors have caused the number of cataract operations performed to increase greatly, which has, in turn, driven up the total amount spent on cataract surgery.

Each of the following, if true, would support a challenge to the author’s explanation of the increase in the number of cataract operations EXCEPT:

8. Some companies in fields where skilled employees are hard to find make signing an “agreement not to compete” a condition of employment. In such an agreement the employee promises not to go to work for a competing firm for a set period after leaving his or her current employer. Courts are increasingly ruling that these agreements are not binding. Yet paradoxically, for people who signed such agreements when working for competing firms, many firms are unwilling to consider hiring them during the period covered by the agreement.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the paradox?

9. Mary Ann: Our country should, above all, be strong. Strength gains the respect of other countries and makes a country admirable. Inez: There are many examples in history of countries that were strong but used their strength to commit atrocities. We should judge a country by the morality of its actions, not by its strength. If the actions are morally good, the country is admirable.

Which one of the following is a presupposition that underlies Inez’ argument?

10. All of John’s friends say they know someone who has smoked 40 cigarettes a day for the past 40 years and yet who is really fit and well. John does not know anyone like that and it is quite certain that he is not unique among his friends in this respect.

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

11. For democracy to survive, it is imperative that the average citizen be able to develop informed opinions about important policy issues. In today’s society, this means that citizens must be able to develop informed opinions on many scientific subjects, from ecosystems to defense systems. Yet, as scientific knowledge advances, the average citizen is increasingly unable to absorb enough information to develop informed opinions on many important issues.

Of the following, which one follows logically from the passage?

12. By dating fossils of pollen and beetles, which returned after an Ice Age glacier left an area, it is possible to establish an approximate date when a warmer climate developed. In one glacial area, it appears from the insect record that a warm climate developed immediately after the melting of the glacier. From the pollen record, however, it appears that the warm climate did not develop until long after the glacier disappeared.

Each one of the following, if true, helps to explain the apparent discrepancy EXCEPT:

13. Using clean-coal technologies to “repower” existing factories promises ultimately a substantial reduction of polluting emissions, and will affect the full range of pollutants implicated in acid rain. The strategy of using these technologies could cut sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 80 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 50 percent. The emission of a smaller quantity of nitrogen pollutants would in turn reduce the formation of noxious ozone in the troposphere.

Which one of the following statements is an inference that can be drawn from the information given in the passage?

14. Joshua Smith’s new novel was criticized by the book editor for The Daily Standard as implausible. That criticism, like so many other criticisms from the same source in the past, is completely unwarranted. As anyone who has actually read the novel would agree, each one of the incidents in which Smith’s hero gets involved is the kind of incident that could very well have happened to someone or other.

Which one of the following is the most serious error of reasoning in the argument?

15. J. J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics, trained many physicists, among them seven Nobel Prize winners, 32 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and 83 professors of physics. This shows that the skills needed for creative research can be taught and learned.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

16. The ancient Romans understood the principles of water power very well, and in some outlying parts of their empire they made extensive and excellent use of water as an energy source. This makes it all the more striking that the Romans made do without water power in regions dominated by large cities.

Which one of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the difference described above in the Romans’ use of water power?

17. From a book review: The authors blithely claim that there are “three basic ways to store energy: as heat, as electricity, or as kinetic energy.” However, I cannot call to mind any effective ways to store energy as electricity, whereas any capable student of physics could readily suggest a few more ways to store energy: chemical, gravitational, nuclear.

The reviewer makes which one of the following criticisms of a claim that appears in the book under review?

18. There is no mystery as to why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. People want to look at recognizable images. Sorting out art theories reflected in abstract paintings is no substitute for the sense of empathy that comes from looking at a realistic painting of a figure in a landscape. Perhaps members of the art-viewing public resented abstract art because they felt that its lack of realistic subject matter was a rejection of the viewers and their world.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

19. Valitania’s long-standing practice of paying high salaries to its elected politicians has had a disastrous effect on the level of integrity among politicians in that country. This is because the prospect of earning a high salary is always attractive to anyone whose primary aim in life is to make money, so that inevitably the wrong people must have been attracted into Valitanian politics: people who are more interested in making money than in serving the needs of the nation.

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

20. Policy Adviser: Freedom of speech is not only a basic human right; it is also the only rational policy for this government to adopt. When ideas are openly aired, good ideas flourish, silly proposals are easily recognized as such, and dangerous ideas can be responded to by rational argument. Nothing is ever gained by forcing citizens to disseminate their thoughts in secret.

The policy adviser’s method of persuasion, in recommending a policy of free speech to the government, is best described by which one of the following?

21. Policy Adviser: Freedom of speech is not only a basic human right; it is also the only rational policy for this government to adopt. When ideas are openly aired, good ideas flourish, silly proposals are easily recognized as such, and dangerous ideas can be responded to by rational argument. Nothing is ever gained by forcing citizens to disseminate their thoughts in secret.

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

22. The trustees of the Avonbridge summer drama workshop have decided to offer scholarships to the top 10 percent of local applicants and the top 10 percent of nonlocal applicants as judged on the basis of a qualifying audition. They are doing this to ensure that only the applicants with the most highly evaluated auditions are offered scholarships to the program.

Which one of the following points out why the trustees’ plan might not be effective in achieving its goal?

23. Book Review: When I read a novel set in a city I know well, I must see that the writer knows the city at least as well as I do if I am to take that writer seriously. If the writer is faking, I know immediately and do not trust that writer. When a novelist demonstrates the required knowledge, I trust the storyteller, so I trust the tale. This trust increases my enjoyment of a good novel. Peter Lee’s second novel is set in San Francisco. In this novel, as in his first, Lee passes my test with flying colors.

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

24. Someone’s benefiting from having done harm to another person is morally justifiable only if the person who was harmed knew that what was done could cause that harm but consented to its being done anyway.

Which one of the following judgments most closely conforms to the principle above?

25. Certain governments subsidize certain basic agricultural products in order to guarantee an adequate domestic production of them. But subsidies encourage more intensive farming, which eventually leads to soil exhaustion and drastically reduced yields.

The situation above is most nearly similar to which one of the following situations with respect to the relationship between the declared intent of a governmental practice and a circumstance relevant to it?