Prep2012-Pack1-CR-016 VCR007831 Easy

　　Fashion company executive: The number of competing brands of clothing is increasing much more quickly than is consumer demand for new clothing. As a result, it is becoming ever more for our clothing company to keep consumers focused on our products. To increase our sales, therefore, our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.

　　To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

　　A. Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce newlines of clothing

　　B. To what extent consumers’ attention tends to be focused on innovative, eye-catching products in other industries

　　C. Why the number of competing brands of clothing is increasing more quickly than consumer demand for new clothing

　　D. How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing

　　E. Whether the executive's company is currently selling any innovative and eye-catching fines of clothing

　　Prep2012-Pack1-CR-017 VCR007918 Easy

　　A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity. In the Wistar region of Bellaria, the average age at death is considerably higher than in any other part of the country. Wistar is the only mountainous part of

　　Bellaria. A mountainous terrain makes even such basic activities as walking relatively strenuous; it essentially imposes a physically active lifestyle on people. Clearly, this circumstance explains the long lives of people in Wistar.

　　Which of the following, true, most seriously weakens the argument?

　　A. In Bellaria all medical expenses are paid by the government, so that personal income does not affect the quality of health care a person receives.

　　B. People living in Wistar do not have a significantly better diet than people living in other parts of Bellaria.

　　C. Many people who live in the Wistar region have moved there in middle age or upon retirement.

　　D. The many opportunities for hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities that Wistar’s mountains offer make it a favorite destination for vacationing Bellarians.

　　E. Per capita spending on recreational activities is no higher in Wistar than it is in other regions of Bellaria.

　　Prep2012-Pack1-CR-018 VCR014017 Easy

　　Airport official: Local residents have been complaining that night fights into Plainsville airport disturb their sleep and should be sharply reduced in number. This complaint is completely unreasonable—there have been night flights coming into the airport from the very beginning, twenty years ago, and these residents should have taken that fact into account when buying their homes.

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

　　A. There are fewer night flights now than there were originally.

　　B. The residents who are complaining have been in their current homes fewer than twenty years.

　　C. The residents who are complaining are ignoring the benefits they gain from the presence of the airport.

　　D. The economic success of the airport depends entirely on the existence of the night flights.

　　E. People buying houses in Plainville all avoid buying houses near the airport if they can.

　　Prep2012-Pack1-CR-019 VCR008048 Easy

　　Paper and plastic grocery bags are a continuing problem for the city, both as litter and in landfills. To discourage their use, the city has proposed a tax on each bag, to be paid by the supermarkets that supply them. Several environmental groups, however, oppose the tax, despite having brought the issue to the council's attention in the first place.

　　Which of the following, if true, would best explain the environmental groups’ opposition to the proposed tax?

　　A. The city's current tax revenue is insufficient to pay the cost of recycling paper and plastic grocery bags.

　　B. The cost to the city of collecting and disposing of a grocery bag is greater than the proposed tax per bag.

　　C. Plastic bags account for 90 percent of the grocery bags that litter the city's streets and take up space in landfills.

　　D. Only supermarkets distributing more than a certain number of grocery bags each month would be subject to the proposed tax.

　　E. Supermarkets plan to pass the tax on to consumers, who are unlikely to change their behavior based on the small increase in their grocery bills.

　　Prep2012-Pack1-CR-020 VCR008063 Easy

　　Public health official: Some researchers suspect that magnetic fields from high-voltage power lines can cause health problems for people who five especially near the fines. However, this is extremely unlikely: Beyond a distance of a few feet, the strength of the magnetic fields from high-voltage power lines is less than the average strength of magnetic fields in homes that are not located near such lines.

　　Which of the following would it be most useful to establish in order to evaluate the public health argument?

　　A. Whether magnetic fields in homes that are not located near high-voltage power lines can cause health problems for the residents of those homes

　　B. What proportion of people who live near high-voltage power fines believe that those fines may cause health problems

　　C. Whether high-voltage power lines are routed near residential in urban areas

　　D. What specific diseases or conditions are suspected by some researchers to result from exposure to magnetic fields from high-voltage power lines

　　E. What is the average strength of magnetic fields in workplaces that are not located near high-voltage power lines