Prep2012-Pack1-CR-066 VCR003941 Hard
A product that represents a clear technological advance over competing products can generally command a high price. Surprisingly, perhaps, the strategy to maximize overall profit from a new product is to charge than the greatest price the market will bear. Many companies charge the maximum possible price for such a product, because they want to make as much profit as they can and technological advances tend to be quickly surpassed. The drawback is that large profits on the new product give competitors a strong incentive to quickly match the new product's capabilities.
In the argument above, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
A. The first is the position the argument advocates; the second presents grounds for rejecting an alternative position.
B. The first is the position the argument advocates; the second is an alternative position that the argument rejects.
C. The first presents a strategy for achieving a certain goal; the second presents a drawback to that strategy.
D. The first presents a strategy for achieving a certain goal; the second presents grounds for preferring a different goal.
E. The first presents a strategy that, according to the argument, is ineffective; the second presents a way of improving the effectiveness of that strategy.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-067 VCR005068 Hard
Which of the following most logically completes the argument?
A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly reducing congestion on the province's highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results contain an indication that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, might be unlikely to achieve its goal of reducing congestion, because________________.
A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience
B. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other
C. the twice-dairy periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown, over the past 20 years, from about an hour each to about two hours each
D. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new bed
E. the proposed expansion would make commuting by rail possible for many people who Eve in one suburb and work in a different suburb of the province's main city
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-068 VCR005084 Hard
Editorial in Krenlandian Newspaper:
Krenland's steelmakers are losing domestic sales because of lower-priced imports, in many cases because foreign governments subsidize their steel industries in ways that are banned by international treaties. But whatever the cause, the cost is ultimately going to be jobs in Krenland’s steel industry. Therefore, it would protect not only steelmaking companies but also industrial employment in Krenland if our government took measures to reduce cheap steel imports.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the edit0rial’s argument?
A. Because steel from Krenland is rarely competitive in international markets, only a very small portion of Krenlandian steelmakers' revenue comes from exports.
B. The international treaties that some governments are violating by giving subsidies to steelmakers do not specify any penalties for such violations.
C. For many Krenlandian manufacturers who face severe international competition in both domestic and export markets, steel constitutes a significant part of their raw material costs.
D. Because of advances in order-taking, shipping, and inventory systems, the cost of shipping steel from foreign producers to Krenland has fallen in recent years.
E. Wages paid to workers in the steel industry in Krenland do not differ significantly from wages paid to workers in many of the countries that export steel to Krenland.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-069 VCR005518 Hard
Southington University's fund-raisers succeeded in getting donations from 80 percent of the potential donors they contacted this year. This rate would be the expected rate if the only potential donors contacted were those who have donated in the past. But good fund-raisers constantly contact less likely prospects in an effort to expand the donor base. Thus the high success rate, far from showing that the fund-raisers did a good job, shows insufficient canvassing effort.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A. Among potential donors contacted by Southington University's fund-raisers, the majority of those who did not make donations were people who had made donations to the university in the past.
B. The amount of money raised by Southington University's fundraisers this year was lower than the amount they had raised in any of the previous several years.
C. Individual donations made to Southington University this year were, on average, slightly larger than were average individual donations made to many other universities.
D. Fund-raisers contacting past donors are not only to get new donations but also to get names of potential new donors to contact.
E. The majority of the donations that fund-raisers succeeded in getting for Southington University were from donors who had never given to the university before.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-070 VCR005704 Hard
Frobisher, a sixteenth-century English explorer, had soil samples from Canada's Kodlunarn Island examined for gold content. Because high gold content was reported, Elizabeth I funded two mining expeditions. Neither expedition found any gold there. Modern analysis of the island's soil indicates a very low gold content. Thus the methods used to determine the gold content of Frobisher‘s samples must have been inaccurate.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
A. The gold content of the soil on Kodlunarn Island is much lower today than it was in the sixteenth century.
B. The two mining expeditions funded by I did not mine the same part of Kodlunarn Island.
C. The methods used to assess gold content of the soil samples provided by Frobisher were different from those generally used in the sixteenth century.
D. Frobisher did not have soil samples from any other Canadian island examined for gold content.
E. Gold was not added to the samples collected by Frobisher before the samples were examined.
答案解析
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-066 VCR003941 Hard
Reasoning
What roles do the two boldfaced portions play in the passage? The passage's first sentence just introduces the general topic of prices for new, technologically advanced products. In the second sentence, the first boldfaced portion explicitly recommends a strategy for maximizing overall profit from such products. The third sentence describes a popular alternative strategy. In the fourth sentence, the second boldfaced portion explicitly describes a drawback of that alternative strategy.
A. Correct. The argument advocates the strategy recommended in the first boldfaced portion; the second boldfaced portion states a drawback of an alternative strategy and thus presents grounds for rejecting the position that the alternative strategy is effective.
B. The second boldfaced portion is not an alternative position, but rather a reason for rejecting an alternative position.
C. The second boldfaced portion presents a drawback not to the strategy presented in the first boldfaced portion, but rather to an alternative strategy.
D. The second boldfaced portion does not present any reason to prefer a goal other than maximizing presents a drawback to a strategy for attaining that goal.
E. The first boldfaced portion presents a strategy the argument recommends, and the second presents a reason why an alternative strategy might be ineffective.
The correct answer is A.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-067 VCR005068 Hard
Reasoning
What most supports the claim that the poll data indicate that the rail system expansion may not reduce congestion?
The expansion will not reduce highway congestion unless it results in fewer people driving during congested periods, such as rush hours when many people commute. Therefore, look for an answer option that takes the poll results as suggesting that not many drivers would switch to commuting on the expanded rail system.
A. Correct. This shows that the poll data indicate that most of the residents who favor the new rail system plan to keep commuting by car—thus still contributing to highway congestion.
B. The fact that 10 percent of the residents "have no opinion" provides no evidence that the poll data indicate the rail system expansion would not reduce congestion.
C. The claim that the time needed for daily commutes has doubled says nothing at all about the interpretation of the poll data—and therefore nothing about what the poll data might indicate about the possible failure of the rail expansion to reduce congestion. It is thus irrelevant.
D. This claim says nothing at all about the interpretation of the poll data and is incorrect because irrelevant.
E. This claim says nothing at all about the interpretation of the poll data and is incorrect because irrelevant.
The correct answer is A.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-068 VCR005084 Hard
Reasoning
What would make it least likely that government measures to reduce cheap steel imports would protect both steelmakers and overall industrial employment in Krenland? The edit0rla|'s reasoning is that cheap steel imports are hurting steelmakers and steelmaking jobs. Since steelmaking jobs contribute to industrial employment, the editorial infers that government measures to protect steelmaking jobs will also help protect industrial employment in general.
But this inference may be incorrect if the measures would reduce employment in industries other than steelmaking.
Therefore, look for an answer option that suggests how measures to reduce cheap steel imports might hurt other Krenlandian industries.
A. If Krenland exports very steel, then Krenlandian steelmakers will not be hurt, even if other nations retahate with restrictions against Krenlandian steel imports. Therefore, this would strengthen the editorial's argument.
B. This is compatible with the success of the strategy that the editorial’s argument suggests. Even if the treaties do not specify any penalties, they may not forbid whatever penalties Krenland's government chooses to impose. Thus the government may be able to act as the editorial recommends without any special risk of international sanctions.
C. Correct. This suggests that reducing cheap steel imports would hurt other Krenlandian industries by driving up their raw material costs, which in turn could reduce employment in those industries and thereby reduce overall industrial employment in Krenland—contrary to what the editorials conclusion claims.
D. This fact is compatible with the success of the strategy that the editorial suggests. It helps explain why the imports hurt domestic steelmakers. But it provides no reason to think that the import-reduction strategy would be ineffective in attaining its objectives.
E. This fact is compatible with the success of the strategy that the editorial suggests. The editorial says that the imports are cheaper than Krenlandian steel. Therefore, reducing these cheaper imports could help protect Krenlandian steelmakers, even if wage differences do not account for the imports’ tower prices.
The correct answer is C.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-069 VCR005518 Hard
Reasoning
What would undermine the case made for the argument's conclusion? The argument's conclusion is that the high success rate is evidence that the fund-raisers did not try hard enough to contact new potential donors. The argument is that since normally such a high donation rate could have been achieved even if only previous donors had been contacted, the fund-raisers must not have tried hard enough to contact people outside this group. But this reasoning neglects the possibility that the fund-raisers did contact lots of people who previously hadn't donated. If they had done that, one would expect the overall donation percentage to be lower than 80 percent. The 80 percent rate they actually achieved might mean, then, that they were unusually successful in getting donations from previous non-donors. Therefore, look for an answer option that suggests that that might have happened.
A. This answer option is compatible with the case the argument makes and does not weaken it. Given the argument's suggestion that the fund-raisers contacted almost nobody other than previous donors, then it is to be expected that most of the contacted people who to make donations would be previous donors.
B. If the fund-raisers did not raise much money this year, that would be further evidence that they did not try hard enough--which would strengthen rather than weaken the case the argument makes.
C. This is compatible with the case the argument makes. To the extent that it is some evidence of effort on the part of S0uthington's fundraisers, at best it weakens the argument only very slightly. This is because we are not given information that would contextualize this new information and make clearer its significance. For example, have Southington University's fund-raisers always raised much larger average individual donations than other universities’ fundraisers? Were there special circumstances this year (e.g., a centenary), resulting in higher
average donations from Southington's typical donors than from most other universities’ donors? Thus the information in this answer option does not significantly weaken the case the argument makes that Southington's fund-raisers might not have tried hard enough.
D. This does not weaken the argument. It is a highly general claim about fund-raisers, not specifically about Southington's fund-raisers. We are not given information about the extent to which this was true of Southington's fund-raisers this year. Moreover, even if S0uthington's fund-raisers got the names of potential new donors to contact, this would not indicate that the fund-raisers actually contacted these potential donors.
E. Correct. If most of the donations were from people who hadn't donated before, then the fund-raisers must have contacted lots of those unlikely prospects and been quite successful in persuading them to donate.
The correct answer is E.
Prep2012-Pack1-CR-070 VCR005704 Hard
Reasoning
What additional information must be implicit in the argument if it is to justify the conclusion that the methods for determining the gold con tent in the soil samples were inaccurate? The argument is that after the gold content in soil samples from the island was determined using these methods, high gold content was reported. But neither the subsequent expeditions nor modern soil analysis found any significant gold in the soil. Therefore, the initial methods for determining the gold content must have been inaccurate. This reasoning assumes that the soil samples used were representative of the island's soil; that the gold content found was reported accurately; and that the subsequent expeditions and the modern soil analysis prove that there wasn't really much gold in the island's soil when Frobisher took the samples. Therefore, look for an answer option that expresses or follows from one of these
assumptions.
A. By citing a modern soil analysis as evidence of how gold was in the soil, the argument assumes that the gold content of the island's soil is not lower today than it was in the sixteenth century.
B. The argument does need to assume this. In fact, information to the contrary—that is, that both mining expeditions mined the same part of the island—would, if included in the argument, make it better.
C. The issue of whether the methods used were accurate or not is quite separate from the issue of whether those methods were standard in the sixteenth century. Therefore, the argument does not need any assumption concerning the latter issue.
D. The argument is not about any samples Frobisher may have taken on other islands, only those he took on Kodlunarn Island.
E. Correct. To conclude that the methods that found gold in the samples were inaccurate, the argument needs to assume that the samples accurately reflected the content of the island's s0H—but they would not do so if extra gold had been added. Thus the argument must assume that no gold was added.
The correct answer is E.