Prep2012-Pack1-CR-021 VCR014018 Easy
Manager: Although our corporation lists rules in an orientation booklet, few employees read the booklet carefully enough to familiarize themselves with all the rules. Lecturing employees for inadvertent rule violations often makes them resentful and less cooperative. Thus, to improve employee adherence to rules, we plan to issue gentle reminders about various rules in each issue of our weekly newsletter.
Which of the following would it be most helpful to discover about the employees in the corporation in order to evaluate the likelihood that the plan will succeed?
A. Whether most of them who are lectured for inadvertent rule violations are deterred from violating the same rule again
B. Whether most of them who inadvertently violate rules already feel resentful and uncooperative
C. Whether most of them violate at least some rules with which they are familiar
D. Whether most of them who regularly read the weekly newsletter are familiar with at least some rules
E. Whether most of them would usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-022 VCR008516 Easy
Letter to the editor: Our city plans to allow major commercial development along the south waterfront and, in so doing, to increase its tax revenue.
But, to succeed commercially, the development would inevitably create far more road traffic than the existing roads to the waterfront can handle, causing serious congestion. Providing enough roads or public transportation to the area would cost far more than the city could gain from the increased tax revenue.
Which of the following, if added to the city's plan, would be most likely to help solve the problem the letter describes?
A. Funding construction of new roads to the waterfront with a system of tolls on the new roads to the waterfront
B. Allowing residential development along the waterfront so that there will be waterfront residents who can walk to the commercial development
C. Giving tax breaks to developers of businesses along the waterfront to offset any tax levied on them for construction of roads or public transportation
D. Evaluating the net benefits that the commercial development would bring to the city in terms of improved quality of life for the city's residents rather than in financial terms
E. Allowing commercial development in other city neighborhoods whose roads are not seriously congested with traffic
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-023 VCR00710 Medium
Products sold under a brand name used to command premium prices because, in general, they were superior to nonbrand rival products. Technical expertise in product development has become so widespread, however, that special quality advantages are very hard to obtain these days and even harder to maintain. As a consequence, brand-name products generally neither offer higher quality nor sell at higher prices. Paradoxically, brand names are a bigger marketing advantage than ever.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the paradox above?
A. Brand names are taken by consumers as a guarantee of getting a product as good as the best rival products.
B. Consumers recognize that the quality of products sold under invariant brand names can drift over time.
C. In many acquisitions of one corporation by another, the acquiring corporation is interested more in acquiring the right to use certain brand names than in acquiring existing production facilities.
D. In the days when special quality advantages were easier to obtain than they are now, it was also easier to get new brand names established.
E. The advertising of a company's brand-name products is at times transferred to a new advertising agency, especially when sales are declining.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-024 VCR00762 Medium
A museum has been offered an undocumented statue, supposedly Greek and from the sixth century B.C. Possibly the statue is genuine but undocumented because it was recently unearthed or because it has been privately owned.
However, an ancient surface usually has uneven weathering, whereas the surface of this statue has the uniform quality characteristically produced by a chemical bath used by forgers to imitate a weathered surface. Therefore, the statue is probably a forgery.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A. Museums can accept a recently unearthed statue only with valid export documentation from its country of origin.
B. The subject's pose and other aspects of the subject's treatment exhibit all the most common features of Greek statues of the sixth century B.C.
C. The chemical bath that forgers use was at one time used by dealers and collectors to remove the splotchy
surface appearance of genuinely ancient sculptures.
D. Museum officials believe that forgers have no technique that can convincingly simulate the patchy weathering characteristic of the surfaces of ancient sculptures.
E. An allegedly Roman sculpture with a uniform surface similar to that of the statue being offered to the museum was recently shown to be a forgery.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-025 VCR06878 Medium
Manufacturers of mechanical pencils make most of their profit on pencil leads rather than on the pencils themselves.
The Write Company, which cannot sell its leads as cheaply as other manufacturers can, plans to alter the design of its mechanical pencil so that it will accept only a newly designed Write Company lead, which will be sold at the same price as the Write Company's current lead.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the Write Company's projection that its plan will lead to an increase in its sales of pencil leads?
A. First-time buyers of mechanical pencils tend to buy the least expensive mechanical pencils available.
B. Annual sales of mechanical are expected to triple over the next five years.
C. Write Company executive is studying ways to reduce the cost of manufacturing pencil leads.
D. A rival manufacturer recently announced similar plans to introduce a mechanical pencil that would accept only the leads produced by that manufacturer.
E. In extensive test marketing, mechanical-pencil users found the new Write Company pencil markedly superior to other mechaical pencils they had used.
答案解析
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-021 VCR014018 Easy
Reasoning
What information about the corporation’s employees would most help determine whether gentle reminders in the weekly newsletter would get them to follow the rules better? The corporation's current techniques for promoting the office rules do not work well-— most employees do not read the orientation booklet carefully, and verbal lectures about the rules make the employees resentful and less cooperative. For the reminders in the newsletter to work, they must avoid both of these pitfalls. Therefore, look for an answer option that suggests whether employees will learn about rules from the newsletter and will then follow the rules cooperatively.
A. Knowing how effective the lectures are does not indicate how effective reminders in the newsletter may be.
B. The plan involves using the newsletter to remind employees about rules and thus to reduce the frequency of inadvertent rule violations. Even if we know that most employees who inadvertently violate office rules already feel resentful and uncooperative, we cannot conclude that they will not follow the office rules better once they become more aware of what the rules are. Neither can we conclude that they will follow the rules better.
C. Even if we know that most employees knowingly break one or two rules that they especially dislike, we cannot draw any conclusions about their level of rule-compliance if they become more aware of other rules.
D. The existing level of rule-awareness among regular readers will not tell us whether the plan will increase that level of awareness, nor whether such an increased level of awareness would promote greater compliance or not.
E. Correct. This addresses the issue of whether employees will read the newsletters’ reminders carefully, as discussed above. If the answer is no, then the plan is to fail.
The correct answer is E.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-022 VCR008516 Easy
Reasoning
What could be done to help solve the traffic problem the development would cause? The city wants the development to succeed commercially and thereby increase city tax revenue. But to deal with the major congestion that would result, the city would have to spend so much for new roads or public transportation that the development would no longer be financially worthwhile for the city. To solve this problem, the city needs some way to reduce traffic congestion without spending so much on new roads or public transportation--either by making the new roads and public transportation pay for themselves somehow, or else by finding another, cheaper way to get shoppers to the development while avoiding traffic congestion.
A. Correct. Tolls on the new roads could both alleviate congestion and pay for the roads, thus solving both of the problems mentioned in the passage.
B. This does not tell us whether there the suggested residential development would be large enough to make the new commercial development viable. Moreover, there's no reason to think the new waterfront residents would reduce traffic congestion coming from other areas, or provide substantial help with funding new roads or public transportation.
C. If the city gives tax breaks to the developers, the development will generate even loss tax revenue, so this will not make the development any more financially viable for the city.
D. Evaluating the benefits will not increase the benefits, and in any case, improved quality of life will not solve the financial problems or the congestion problems resulting from the development.
E. Commercial development in other neighborhoods could probably cause new congestion in those neighborhoods just as it would along the south waterfront.
The correct answer is A.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-023 VCR00710 Medium
Argument Evaluation
Situation
In both quality and price, brand-name and nonbrand products have now become similar. Yet brand names offer a bigger marketing advantage than ever.
Reasoning
How can this paradox be explained? It is given that a brand-name product's only distinction from its rival products is a recognizable name. What must be true to give brand-name products a bigger marketing advantage? Could consumers be relying on their outdated knowledge and believing that brand names continue to guarantee that a product's quality is at least as good as, and possibly higher than, that of the rival products at the same price? If so, they would choose to purchase the brand-name product trusting they would, at a minimum, get comparable quality for the same price.
A. Correct. This statement correctly identifies the consumer behavior that explains the marketing advantage of brand names.
B. Consumers would be less to buy brand-name products if they were unsure of their quality, so this statement does not resolve the paradox.
C. Corporations value brand names, but this statement does not say why, nor does it explain the marketing advantage of brand names.
D. The relative ease or difficulty of establishing brand names does not explain why they are a marketing advantage.
E. The shift from one advertising agency to another to counteract falling sales does not account for the general marketing advantage brand names enjoy.
The correct answer is A.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-024 VCR00762 Medium
Argument Evaluation
Situation
The authenticity of an undocumented statue, supposed to be Greek from the sixth century B.C., is questioned. Its surface shows a uniform quality typically achieved from a chemical bath, a technique used by forgers. Thus the statue is probably a forgery.
Reasoning
What point weakens the argument that the statue is a forgery? The argument that the statue is a forgery rests on one point: the statue's uniform surface suggests it may have been treated in a chemical bath used by forgers to simulate weathering. If the statue acquired its surface in some legitimate way, then the conclusion that it is not a true antiquity is weakened. If art dealers or collectors once used for esthetic reasons the same chemical baths now used by forgers for a different purpose, that fact would throw into doubt the conclusion about the statue's lack of authenticity.
A. Since the argument is about what might make the statue a forgery, not about museums’ acquisition protocols, this statement fails to weaken the argument.
B. Since successful forgers of antiquities might well be expected to produce a counterfeit work that typifies its supposed historical period, this statement does not affect the argument.
C. Correct. This statement properly identifies a possible historical source of the statue's uniform surface and thus undermines the one-point argument that the statue is a forgery.
D. This statement is not relevant to this case since the statue in question does not have patchy weathering, but rather a uniform surface.
E. A similar example suggests that this statue, too, could be proven a forgery, so the conclusion is not weakened.
The correct answer is C.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-025 VCR06878 Medium
Evaluation of a Plan
Situation
A manufacturer of mechanical pencils plans to produce a new pencil that accepts only the redesigned pencil leads that the company also intends to make and sell. Despite the fact that its leads are sold for a higher price than competitors’ leads, the company anticipates that this approach will generate increased lead sales.
Reasoning
What point supports the plan success? It is clear that increased lead sales are directly tied to the sales and ongoing use of the new pencil that can use only that type of lead. If the new pencils sell well and then get used frequently, the buyers will need to purchase leads regularly. If thorough test marketing has shown that potential buyers find the new pencil greatly superior to use, then the pencil buyers will have to purchase the only available leads that fit their pencils, no matter whether the leads are more expensive, and the projection that sales of these pencil leads will increase is strengthened.
A. It is not known whether the Write Company's pencil is the least expensive, nor are the lead-buying habits of first-time buyers known. This information thus does not strengthen the projection.
B. This expectation applies for all manufacturers and does not show that the Write Company's plan will cause increased sales of its pencil leads.
C. Reducing the cost of manufacturing the leads could lead to greater profits but not to greater sales, since the passage states that the price will remain the same.
D. A rival manufacture's announcement to follow the same plan does not affect whether the plan will be successful for the Write Company.
E. Correct. This statement properly identifies a point that supports the plan's success.
The correct answer is E.