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
答案解析
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-016 VCR007831 Easy
Reasoning
What information would provide the strongest evidence about whether introducing more innovative, eye-catching clothing would help the company Increase sales? The company is struggling to keep consumers’ attention because the number of competing clothing brands is increasing faster than demand for clothing. Although innovative, eye-catching clothing would probably attract attention, the plan's ultimate goal is to increase sales. Therefore, look for an answer option that addresses the issue of whether more innovative, eye-catching clothing would actualy increase the company's sales.
A. The company's plan might or might not work regardless of whether competing companies also frequently introduce new lines of clothing; it might depend on whether those competing fines are also innovative and eye-catching.
B. As explained above, the question is not whether innovative, eye-catching clothing will attract attention, but rather whether it will increase sales.
C. This does not speak to whether the company's plan can meet the challenge of the rapidly-changing marketplace
by introducing more innovative, eye-catching clothing.
D. Correct. This addresses the issue of whether innovative, eye-catching clothing would actually increase the company's sales.
E. Knowing whether the company currently sells any innovative, eye-catching clothing does not indicate whether introducing more such clothing would increase or decrease sales.
The correct answer is D.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-017 VCR007918 Easy
Reasoning
What would suggest that the reason people in Wistar live longer is not the extra exercise they get from walking in mountainous terrain? The argument is that exercise increases longevity, and people in Wistar have to exercise just to get around in the mountainous terrain. Consequently, that extra exercise must explain their unusual longevity. The argument would be weakened if some other plausible factor could explain their greater longevity; if people in other parts of Bellaria actually get just as much exercise as people in Wistar; or if many people in Wistar have not [wed there long enough to accrue significant benefits from mountain exercise. Therefore, look for an answer option that undermines the argument in one of these ways.
A. Since we do not know whether people have higher or lower personal incomes in Wistar than elsewhere in Bellaria, the relevance of this information is unclear.
B. By out the possibility that diet could explain the greater longevity of people in Wistar, this supports the arguments conclusion that mountain exercise is the explanation.
C. Correct. People who moved to Wistar in middle age or upon retirement have not pursued a typically Wistarian lifestyle for a major part of their fives, even if they five to be near 100. This indicates that factors other than the Wisterian lifestyle may well have the greatest impact on longevity among that substantial group. This group may have greater longevity than among the Wistarian population in general, rendering hazardous any generalizations about the causes of longevity in Wistar.
D. This indicates that Wistar offers many opportunities for mountain exercise--which other Bellarians seem to get only during vacation. Therefore, this option supports the argument's conclusion that such exercise accounts for the greater longevity of people living in Wistar.
E. The argument is that people living in Wistar five longer just because of the exercise they get walking in the mountainous terrain as part of their daily routines; they do not have to spend money on recreational activities to get this exercise.
The correct answer is C.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-018 VCR014017 Easy
Reasoning
In order to adequately support the arguments conclusion, what piece of information must be an implicit part of the argument? The conclusion of the argument is residents’ complaints about night flights that disturb their sleep are unreasonable. The officials point is that if the residents chose to move into an area with noisy night flights, they cannot reasonably complain about those flights. But this presupposes that the area already experienced noise from night fights when the residents moved there; that the residents knew or should have known about the noise when they bought their homes; and that they could have chosen to live elsewhere. Therefore, look for an answer option that expresses or follows from one or more of these assumptions.
A. The point could make sense even if the frequency of night flights hasn't changed.
B. Correct. As explained above, the argument presupposes that the night flights were already happening when the complaining residents first moved to the area; since the night flights started twenty years ago, the argument assumes the residents moved there less than twenty years ago.
C. Even if the residents acknowledged the benefits they gain from the airport, their complaints about the night flights might still be unreasonable.
D. Even if the airport could scrape by without night flights, the residents’ complaints about the night flights might still be unreasonable.
E. Without assuming this, the argument would still be successful--for example, even if it included the information that no homebuyers who can avoid buying houses near the airport do so.
The correct answer is B.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-019 VCR008048 Easy
Reasoning
Why would environmental groups oppose a tax intended to discourage the use of bags that cause environmental problems? The environmental groups brought the issue to the city council's attention, so they do want to prevent the problems the bags cause. If the environmental groups oppose the tax, they must think that the tax will not actually help solve the problem, or that it will cause other problems. Therefore, look for an answer option that explains why the environmental groups might think that.
A. If the city cannot currently afford to recycle the bags, that's all the more reason for environmental groups to support the tax, which could discourage use of the bags and give the city enough funding to recycle them.
B. The objective of the tax is to discourage the use of paper and plastic grocery bags, but the information in this answer option gives no reason to think that the environmental groups oppose the tax on the grounds that it would fail to achieve the objective.
C. If plastic bags are a worse problem than paper bags, that would be a reason to tax the plastic bags more heavily, not to oppose taxing bags at all.
D. If most bags are distributed by smaller supermarkets that would not be subject to the tax, that might be a reason to extend the tax to cover those supermarkets as well, but it would not be a reason to oppose the tax.
E. Correct. This suggests that the tax will not help reduce the litter and landfill problems the environmental groups want to solve. Therefore, it could be a reason for them to oppose the tax (perhaps in order to institute an alternative measure that would be more likely to achieve the desired result).
The correct answer is E.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-020 VCR008063 Easy
Reasoning
What additional evidence would most help determine whether magnetic fields from high-voltage power lines cause health problems for people who live near the lines? The public health official argues that power lines’ magnetic fields probably do not cause health problems beyond a few feet from the lines, because those magnetic fields are weaker than magnetic fields usually are in homes far from such fines. This argument assumes that magnetic fields in homes far from the fines do not cause health problems and that people who live near the fines do not spend much time within a few feet of them. Therefore, look for an answer option that indicates whether one or both of these assumptions is correct.
A. Correct. This information would straightforwardly indicate whether the first assumption discussed above is true.
B. People's beliefs about whether the power lines cause health problems may be ill-founded and mistaken; they are not relevant to whether magnetic fields can cause health problems.
C. This would indicate whether many people live near the power fines, but not whether those who five near the fines suffer health problems as a result.
D. Without further information (e.g., whether the incidence of such diseases or conditions is greater among people who live especially near higher-voltage power fines), knowing which specific health problems the researchers think the fines cause would suffice to evaluate the public health argument.
E. The argument concerns magnetic fields in homes, not magnetic fields in workplaces; but knowing how strong the magnetic fields are even in homes would not suffice to know whether such magnetic fields cause health problems or not.
The correct answer is A.