Critical Reasoning

To entice customers away from competitors, Red Label supermarkets have begun offering discounts on home appliances to customers who spend $50ormoreonanyshoppingtriptoRedLabel.RedLabelexecutivesclaimthatthediscountprogramhasbeenahugesuccess,sincecashregisterreceiptsof$50 or more are up thirty percent since the beginning of the program. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the claim of the Red Label executives?

Y has been believed to cause Z. A new report, noting that Y and Z are often observed to be preceded by X, suggests that X, not Y, may be the cause of Z. Which of the following further observations would best support the new report�s suggestion?

Meteorologists say that if only they could design an accurate mathematical model of the atmosphere with all its complexities, they could forecast the weather with real precision. But this is an idle boast, immune to any evaluation, for any inadequate weather forecast would obviously be blamed on imperfections in the model. Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the meteorologists� boast?

Six months or so after getting a video recorder, many early buyers apparently lost interest in obtaining videos to watch on it. The trade of businesses selling and renting videos is still buoyant, because the number of homes with video recorders is still growing. But clearly, once the market for video recorders is saturated, businesses distributing videos face hard times. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion above?

Reviewing historical data, medical researchers in California found that counties with the largest number of television sets per capita have had the lowest incidence of a serious brain disease, mosquito-borne encephalitis. The researchers have concluded that people in these counties stay indoors more and thus avoid exposure to the disease. The researchers conclusion would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?

This year the New Hampshire Division of Company X, set a new record for annual sales by that division. This record is especially surprising since the New Hampshire Division has the smallest potential market and the lowest sales of any of Company X's divisions. Which of the following identifies a flaw in the logical coherence of the statement above?

Of the countries that were the world�s twenty largest exporters in 1953, four had the same share of total world exports in 1984 as in 1953. Theses countries can therefore serve as models for those countries that wish to keep their share of the global export trade stable over the years. Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the suitability of those four countries as models in the sense described?

By analyzing the garbage of a large number of average-sized households, a group of modern urban anthropologists has found that a household discards less food the more standardized- made up of canned and prepackaged foods-its diet is. The more standardized a household�s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away. Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

Lark Manufacturing Company initiated a voluntary Quality Circles program for machine operators. Independent surveys of employee attitudes indicated that the machine operators participating in the program were less satisfied with their work situations after two years of the program�s existence than they were at the program�s start. Obviously, any workers who participate in a Quality Circles program will, as a result, become less satisfied with their jobs. Each of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion drawn above EXCEPT:

The city�s public transportation system should be removed from the jurisdiction of the municipal government, which finds it politically impossible either to raise fares or to institute cost-saving reductions in service. If public transportation were handled by a private firm, profits would be vigorously pursued, thereby eliminating the necessity for covering operating costs with government funds. The statements above best support the conclusion that

Lists of hospitals have been compiled showing which hospitals have patient death rates exceeding the national average. The data have been adjusted to allow for differences in the ages of patients. Each of the following, if true, provides a good logical ground for hospitals to object to interpreting rank on these lists as one of the indices of the quality of hospital care EXCEPT:

Teenagers are often priced out of the labor market by the government-mandated minimum-wage level because employers cannot afford to pay that much for extra help. Therefore, if Congress institutes a subminimum wage, a new lower legal wage for teenagers, the teenage unemployment rate, which has been rising since 1960, will no longer increase. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

Teresa: Manned spaceflight does not have a future, since it cannot compete economically with other means of accomplishing the objectives of spaceflight. Edward: No mode of human transportation has a better record of reliability: two accidents in twenty-five years. Thus manned spaceflight definitely has a positive future. Which of the following is the best logical evaluation of Edward's argument as a response to Teresa's argument?

Advertiser: The revenue that newspapers and magazines earn by publishing advertisements allows publishers to keep the prices per copy of their publications much lower than would otherwise be possible. Therefore, consumers benefit economically from advertising. Consumer: But who pays for the advertising that pays for low-priced newspapers and magazines? We consumers do, because advertisers pass along advertising costs to us through the higher prices they charge for their products. Which of the following best describes how the consumer counters the advertiser�s argument?

Child�s World, a chain of toy stores, has relied on a �supermarket concept� of computerized inventory control and customer self-service to eliminate the category of sales clerks from its force of employees. It now plans to employ the same concept in selling children�s clothes. The plan of Child�s World assumes that

In the United States, the Postal Service has a monopoly on first-class mail, but much of what is sent first class could be transmitted electronically. Electronic transmittal operators argue that if the Postal Service were to offer electronic transmission, it would have an unfair advantage, since its electronic transmission service could be subsidized from the profits of the monopoly. Which of the following, if each is true, would allay the electronic transmittal operators' fears of unfair competition?

In the past, teachers, bank tellers, and secretaries were predominantly men; these occupations slipped in pay and status when they became largely occupied by women. Therefore, if women become the majority in currently male-dominated professions like accounting, law, and medicine, the income and prestige of these professions will also drop. The argument above is based on

Mr. Primm: If hospitals were private enterprises, dependent on profits for their survival, there would be no teaching hospitals, because of the intrinsically high cost of running such hospitals. Ms. Nakai: I disagree. The medical challenges provided by teaching hospitals attract the very best physicians. This, in turn, enables those hospitals to concentrate on nonroutine cases. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen Ms. Nakai�s attempt to refute Mr. Primm�s claim?

A weapons-smuggling incident recently took place in country Y. We all know that Y is a closed society. So Y's government must have known about the weapons. B If a government claims that it knew nothing about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have known everything about it. C If a government does not permit weapons to enter a country, it is a closed society. D If a country is a closed society, its government has a large contingent of armed guards patrolling its borders. E If a country is a closed society, its government has knowledge about everything that occurs in the country.

An electric-power company gained greater profits and provided electricity to consumers at lower rates per unit of electricity by building larger-capacity more efficient plants and by stimulating greater use of electricity within its area. To continue these financial trends, the company planned to replace an old plant by a plant with triple the capacity of its largest plant. The company's plan as described above assumed each of the following EXCEPT: