25 Minutes 16 Questions

　　1. A publisher is now providing university professors with the option of ordering custom textbooks for their courses. The professors can edit out those chapters of a book they are not interested in and add material of their own choosing.

　　The widespread use of the option mentioned above is LEAST likely to contribute to fulfilling which of the following educational objectives?

　　(A) Coverage of material relevant to a particular student body’s specific needs

　　(B) Offering advanced elective courses that pursue in-depth investigation of selected topics in a field

　　(C) Ensuring that students nationwide engaged in a specific course of study are uniformly exposed to a basic set of readings

　　(D) Making the textbooks used in university courses more satisfactory from the individual teacher’s point of view(C)

　　(E) Keeping students’ interest in a course by offering lively, well-written reading assignments

　　2. Mechanicorp’s newest product costs so little to make that it appears doubtful the company will be able to sell it without increasing the markup the company usually allows for profit: potential clients would simply not believe that something so inexpensive would really work. Yet Mechanicorp’s reputation is built on fair prices incorporating only modest profit margins.

　　The statements above, if true, most strongly support which of the following?

　　(A) Mechanicorp will encounter difficulties in trying to set a price for its newest product that will promote sales without threatening to compromise the company’s reputation.

　　(B) Mechanicorp achieves large annual profits, despite small profits per unit sold, by means of a high volume of sales.

　　(C) Mechanicorp made a significant computational error in calculating the production costs for its newest product.

　　(D) Mechanicorp’s newest product is intended to perform tasks that can be performed by other devices costing less to manufacture.(A)

　　(E) Mechanicorp’s production processes are designed with the same ingenuity as are the products that the company makes.

　　3. Companies in the country of Kollontay can sell semiconductors in the country of Valdivia at a price that is below the cost to Valdivian companies of producing them. To help those Valdivian companies, the Valdivian legislature plans to set a minimum selling price in Valdivia for semiconductors manufactured in Kollontay that is ten percent greater than the average production costs for companies in Valdivia.

　　Which of the following, if true, most seriously threatens the success of the plan?

　　(A) The annual rate of inflation in Kollontay is expected to exceed ten percent within the next year.

　　(B) Valdivia is not the only country where companies in Kollontay currently sell semiconductors.

　　(C) Some Valdivian companies that sell semiconductors have announced that they plan to decrease their price for semiconductors.

　　(D) The government of Kollontay will also set a minimum price for selling semiconductors in that country.(E)

　　(E) Emerging companies in countries other than Kollontay will still be able to sell semiconductors in Valdivia at a price below the cost to Valdivian companies to manufacture them.

　　4. An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth. Rather, it heats water on clothes, thereby saving electricity and protecting delicate fibers by operating at a lower temperature. Microwaves are waves that usually heat metal objects, but developers of a microwave dryer are perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects such as hairpins from heating up and burning clothes.

　　Which of the following, if true, most strongly indicates that the process, when perfected, will be insufficient to make the dryer readily marketable?

　　(A) Metal snap fasteners on clothes that are commonly put into drying machines are about the same thickness as most hairpins.

　　(B) Many clothes that are currently placed into mechanical dryers are not placed there along with hairpins or other thin metal objects.

　　(C) The experimental microwave dryer uses more electricity than future, improved models would be expected to use.

　　(D) Drying clothes with the process would not cause more shrinkage than the currently used mechanical drying process causes.(E)

　　(E) Many clothes that are frequently machine-dried by prospective customers incorporate thick metal parts such as decorative brass studs or buttons.

　　5. Airplane manufacturer: I object to your characterization of our X-387 jets as dangerous. No X-387 in commercial use has ever crashed or even had a serious malfunction.

　　Airline regulator: The problem with the X-387 is not that it, itself, malfunctions, but that it creates a turbulence in its wake that can create hazardous conditions for aircraft in its vicinity.

　　The airline regulator responds to the manufacturer by doing which of the following?

　　(A) Characterizing the manufacturer’s assertion as stemming from subjective interest rather than from objective evaluation of the facts

　　(B) Drawing attention to the fact that the manufacturer’s interpretation of the word “dangerous” is too narrow

　　(C) Invoking evidence that the manufacturer has explicitly dismissed as irrelevant to the point at issue

　　(D) Citing statistical evidence that refutes the manufacturer’s claim(B)

　　(E) Casting doubt on the extent of the manufacturer’s knowledge of the number of recent airline disasters

　　6. Damaged nerves in the spinal cord do not regenerate themselves naturally, nor even under the spur of nerve-growth stimulants. The reason, recently discovered, is the presence of nerve-growth inhibitors in the spinal cord. Antibodies that deactivate those inhibitors have now been developed. Clearly, then, nerve repair will be a standard medical procedure in the foreseeable future.

　　Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the accuracy of the prediction above?

　　(A) Prevention of the regeneration of damaged nerves is merely a by-product of the main function in the human body of the substances inhibiting nerve growth.

　　(B) Certain nerve-growth stimulants have similar chemical structures to those of the antibodies against nerve-growth inhibitors.

　　(C) Nerves in the brain are similar to nerves in the spinal cord in their inability to regenerate themselves naturally.

　　(D) Researchers have been able to stimulate the growth of nerves not located in the spinal cord by using only nerve-growth stimulants.(A)

　　(E) Deactivating the substances inhibiting nerve growth for an extended period would require a steady supply of antibodies.

　　7. The human body secretes more pain-blocking hormones late at night than during the day. Consequently, surgical patients operated on at night need less anesthesia. Since larger amounts of anesthesia pose greater risks for patients, the risks of surgery could be reduced if operations routinely took place at night.

　　Which of the following, if true, argues most strongly against the view that surgical risks could be reduced by scheduling operations at night?

　　(A) Energy costs in hospitals are generally lower at night than they are during the day.

　　(B) More babies are born between midnight and seven o’clock in the morning than at any other time.

　　(C) Over the course of a year, people’s biological rhythms shift slightly in response to changes in the amounts of daylight to which the people are exposed.

　　(D) Nurses and medical technicians are generally paid more per hour when they work during the night than when they work during the day.(E)

　　(E) Manual dexterity and mental alertness are lower in the late night than they are during the day, even in people accustomed to working at night.

　　Questions 8-9

　　Walter: A copy of an artwork should be worth exactly what the original is worth if the two works are visually indistinguishable. After all, if the two works are visually indistinguishable, they have all the same qualities, and if they have all the same qualities, their prices should be equal.

　　Marissa: How little you understand art! Even if someone could make a perfect copy that is visually indistinguishable from the original, the copy would have a different history and hence not have all the same qualities as the original.

　　8. Which of the following is a point at issue between Walter and Marissa?

　　(A) Whether a copy of an artwork could ever be visually indistinguishable from the original

　　(B) Whether the reproduction of a work of art is ever worth more than the original is worth

　　(C) Whether a copy of a work of art is ever mistaken for the original

　　(D) Whether a copy of a work of art could have all the same qualities as the original(D)

　　(E) Whether originality is the only valuable attribute that a work of art can possess

　　25 Minutes 16 Questions

　　1. A publisher is now providing university professors with the option of ordering custom textbooks for their courses. The professors can edit out those chapters of a book they are not interested in and add material of their own choosing.

　　The widespread use of the option mentioned above is LEAST likely to contribute to fulfilling which of the following educational objectives?

　　(A) Coverage of material relevant to a particular student body’s specific needs

　　(B) Offering advanced elective courses that pursue in-depth investigation of selected topics in a field

　　(C) Ensuring that students nationwide engaged in a specific course of study are uniformly exposed to a basic set of readings

　　(D) Making the textbooks used in university courses more satisfactory from the individual teacher’s point of view(C)

　　(E) Keeping students’ interest in a course by offering lively, well-written reading assignments

　　2. Mechanicorp’s newest product costs so little to make that it appears doubtful the company will be able to sell it without increasing the markup the company usually allows for profit: potential clients would simply not believe that something so inexpensive would really work. Yet Mechanicorp’s reputation is built on fair prices incorporating only modest profit margins.

　　The statements above, if true, most strongly support which of the following?

　　(A) Mechanicorp will encounter difficulties in trying to set a price for its newest product that will promote sales without threatening to compromise the company’s reputation.

　　(B) Mechanicorp achieves large annual profits, despite small profits per unit sold, by means of a high volume of sales.

　　(C) Mechanicorp made a significant computational error in calculating the production costs for its newest product.

　　(D) Mechanicorp’s newest product is intended to perform tasks that can be performed by other devices costing less to manufacture.(A)

　　(E) Mechanicorp’s production processes are designed with the same ingenuity as are the products that the company makes.

　　3. Companies in the country of Kollontay can sell semiconductors in the country of Valdivia at a price that is below the cost to Valdivian companies of producing them. To help those Valdivian companies, the Valdivian legislature plans to set a minimum selling price in Valdivia for semiconductors manufactured in Kollontay that is ten percent greater than the average production costs for companies in Valdivia.

　　Which of the following, if true, most seriously threatens the success of the plan?

　　(A) The annual rate of inflation in Kollontay is expected to exceed ten percent within the next year.

　　(B) Valdivia is not the only country where companies in Kollontay currently sell semiconductors.

　　(C) Some Valdivian companies that sell semiconductors have announced that they plan to decrease their price for semiconductors.

　　(D) The government of Kollontay will also set a minimum price for selling semiconductors in that country.(E)

　　(E) Emerging companies in countries other than Kollontay will still be able to sell semiconductors in Valdivia at a price below the cost to Valdivian companies to manufacture them.

　　4. An experimental microwave clothes dryer heats neither air nor cloth. Rather, it heats water on clothes, thereby saving electricity and protecting delicate fibers by operating at a lower temperature. Microwaves are waves that usually heat metal objects, but developers of a microwave dryer are perfecting a process that will prevent thin metal objects such as hairpins from heating up and burning clothes.

　　Which of the following, if true, most strongly indicates that the process, when perfected, will be insufficient to make the dryer readily marketable?

　　(A) Metal snap fasteners on clothes that are commonly put into drying machines are about the same thickness as most hairpins.

　　(B) Many clothes that are currently placed into mechanical dryers are not placed there along with hairpins or other thin metal objects.

　　(C) The experimental microwave dryer uses more electricity than future, improved models would be expected to use.

　　(D) Drying clothes with the process would not cause more shrinkage than the currently used mechanical drying process causes.(E)

　　(E) Many clothes that are frequently machine-dried by prospective customers incorporate thick metal parts such as decorative brass studs or buttons.

　　5. Airplane manufacturer: I object to your characterization of our X-387 jets as dangerous. No X-387 in commercial use has ever crashed or even had a serious malfunction.

　　Airline regulator: The problem with the X-387 is not that it, itself, malfunctions, but that it creates a turbulence in its wake that can create hazardous conditions for aircraft in its vicinity.

　　The airline regulator responds to the manufacturer by doing which of the following?

　　(A) Characterizing the manufacturer’s assertion as stemming from subjective interest rather than from objective evaluation of the facts

　　(B) Drawing attention to the fact that the manufacturer’s interpretation of the word “dangerous” is too narrow

　　(C) Invoking evidence that the manufacturer has explicitly dismissed as irrelevant to the point at issue

　　(D) Citing statistical evidence that refutes the manufacturer’s claim(B)

　　(E) Casting doubt on the extent of the manufacturer’s knowledge of the number of recent airline disasters

　　6. Damaged nerves in the spinal cord do not regenerate themselves naturally, nor even under the spur of nerve-growth stimulants. The reason, recently discovered, is the presence of nerve-growth inhibitors in the spinal cord. Antibodies that deactivate those inhibitors have now been developed. Clearly, then, nerve repair will be a standard medical procedure in the foreseeable future.

　　Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the accuracy of the prediction above?

　　(A) Prevention of the regeneration of damaged nerves is merely a by-product of the main function in the human body of the substances inhibiting nerve growth.

　　(B) Certain nerve-growth stimulants have similar chemical structures to those of the antibodies against nerve-growth inhibitors.

　　(C) Nerves in the brain are similar to nerves in the spinal cord in their inability to regenerate themselves naturally.

　　(D) Researchers have been able to stimulate the growth of nerves not located in the spinal cord by using only nerve-growth stimulants.(A)

　　(E) Deactivating the substances inhibiting nerve growth for an extended period would require a steady supply of antibodies.

　　7. The human body secretes more pain-blocking hormones late at night than during the day. Consequently, surgical patients operated on at night need less anesthesia. Since larger amounts of anesthesia pose greater risks for patients, the risks of surgery could be reduced if operations routinely took place at night.

　　Which of the following, if true, argues most strongly against the view that surgical risks could be reduced by scheduling operations at night?

　　(A) Energy costs in hospitals are generally lower at night than they are during the day.

　　(B) More babies are born between midnight and seven o’clock in the morning than at any other time.

　　(C) Over the course of a year, people’s biological rhythms shift slightly in response to changes in the amounts of daylight to which the people are exposed.

　　(D) Nurses and medical technicians are generally paid more per hour when they work during the night than when they work during the day.(E)

　　(E) Manual dexterity and mental alertness are lower in the late night than they are during the day, even in people accustomed to working at night.

　　Questions 8-9

　　Walter: A copy of an artwork should be worth exactly what the original is worth if the two works are visually indistinguishable. After all, if the two works are visually indistinguishable, they have all the same qualities, and if they have all the same qualities, their prices should be equal.

　　Marissa: How little you understand art! Even if someone could make a perfect copy that is visually indistinguishable from the original, the copy would have a different history and hence not have all the same qualities as the original.

　　8. Which of the following is a point at issue between Walter and Marissa?

　　(A) Whether a copy of an artwork could ever be visually indistinguishable from the original

　　(B) Whether the reproduction of a work of art is ever worth more than the original is worth

　　(C) Whether a copy of a work of art is ever mistaken for the original

　　(D) Whether a copy of a work of art could have all the same qualities as the original(D)

　　(E) Whether originality is the only valuable attribute that a work of art can possess