Verbal Practice Exercise-05

Method of Reasoning:

Keith: The government is increasing the budget deficit to bail out the troubled banks and stimulate the economy. To reduce the deficit, the government will eventually have to increase taxes, thereby causing a detrimental impact on the economy.

Mason: The government aims to stimulate the economy by supporting the banks. This should increase the per-capita income, thereby increasing the tax revenue earned by the government without raising taxes.

1. Mason responded to Keith in which of the following way?

A. Mason provides an alternate means to stimulate the economy during the time of recession.

B. Mason explains the principle of stimulating the economy through injecting money in the economy through the banks.

C. Mason provides an alternate explanation to how the scenario may play out and refutes Keith’s argument that government will have to increases taxes.

D. Mason represents the government and presents their argument for bailing out the banks to stimulate the economy.

E. Mason reinforces Keith’s conclusion by providing a complementary interpretation on the increase of tax revenue.

Venture Capitalist: Your LED lamps are great, they last longer, consume less power and are not easily destructible. However, they cost 20 times as much as a regular incandescent lamp and at this price, I don’t see a market for them.

Entrepreneur: I disagree. These lamps last 5 times as much as a regular incandescent lamp does while consuming a tenth of the power. Hence, while these may be too expensive for homes, I can easily see them being used in scenarios where the repair and replacement cost is very high. Such examples would be street lights, lighting on ships, off shore oil platforms etc.

2. Which of the following below describe the conversation between the Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur?

A. The venture capitalist does not appreciate the product while the Entrepreneur proves the Venture Capitalist wrong.

B. The Venture capitalist appreciates the lamp’s qualities but nonetheless considers it too expensive. The Entrepreneur disagrees.

C. The Venture Capitalist does not see a bright future in the product while the Entrepreneur believes that the product could be deployed in every household.

D. The VC considers the lamp too expensive while the Entrepreneur believes that that lamps are priced appropriately for the qualities that they offer.

E. The Venture Capitalist is not convinced that there is a market for the lamps while the Entrepreneur provides examples of markets where the product could be an attractive alternative in-spite of its high cost.

Poonam is of the opinion that “Board Exams”, exams required to graduate high school in India are stressful for the students.

Rajat: I do not agree. “Board Exams” are just like regular exams except the that they are conducted by a central body rather than by your school.

Poonam: I agree that the exam structure of Board Exams is not very different. The major difference is that school exams constitute a very small portion of overall yearly assessment, but board exams constitute 100% of yearly assessment. Hence, you may graduate with good score if you do well all year long and don’t do as well in the school exams, which is not the case with Board Exams.

3. What roles do Rajat and Poonam play in the passage above?

A. They discuss their conflicting understanding of Board Exams where Poonam presents some convincing arguments in her favor.

B. Poonam is trying to put forward a point that Rajat does not agree with. She provides additional explanation to support her claim.

C. They talk about their differences between board exams and school exams.

D. Rajat and Poonam discuss the stress that exams cause and disagree on the role played by board exams to alleviate that stress.

E. Rajat’s opinion on the extra stress caused by board exams is strongly disputed 0 by Poonam, who presents some overlooked facts to prove that all exams are equally stressful.

Univ of Joguswen randomly verifies the credentials of 25% of its first year students. In all its verifications it has turned out only 1% of discrepancy. Therefore, it has deemed that most of its students provide only valid credentials and it is wasting its resources on verifying credentials.

Adcom managers have disagreed stating that only the possibility of verification holds students from producing fake credentials.

4. The adcom managers respond to the University’s argument by doing which of the following:

A. Providing argument that the University has enough bandwidth to accommodate the verification process.
B. Agreeing with the University’s conclusion and providing more evidence.
C. Rejecting the argument of the University and proposing to raise the percentage of credentials being verified.
D. Objecting to the argument on the basis that the data is only a sample from 1/4th of the college strength.
E. Addressing an advantage of the credential verification process that the argument of the University fails to consider.

It is inaccurate to say that a diet high in refined sugar cannot cause adult-onset diabetes, since a diet high in refined sugar can make a person overweight, and being overweight can predispose a person to adult-onset diabetes.

5. The argument above is most parallel, in its logical structure, to which of the following?

(A) It is inaccurate to say that being in cold air can cause a person to catch a cold, since colds are caused by viruses, and viruses flourish in warm, crowded places.

(B) It is accurate to say that no airline flies from Halifax to Washington. No single airline offers a direct flight, although some airlines have flights from Halifax to Boston and others have flights from Boston to Washington.

(C) It is correct to say that over-fertilization is the primary cause of lawn disease, since fertilizer causes lawn grass to grow rapidly and rapidly growing grass has little resistance to disease.

(D) It is incorrect to say that inferior motor oil cannot cause a car to get poorer gasoline mileage, since inferior motor oil can cause engine valve deterioration, and engine valve deterioration can lead to poorer gasoline mileage.

(E) It is inaccurate to say that Alexander the Great was a student of Plato; Alexander was a student of Aristotle, and Aristotle was a student of Plato.

Nick: The best way to write a good detective story is to work backward from the crime. The writer should first decide what the crime is and who the perpetrator is and then come up with the circumstances and clues based on those decisions.

6. Which one of the following illustrates a principle most similar to that illustrated by the passage?

(A) When planning a trip, some people first decide where they want to go and then plan accordingly, but for most of us, much financial planning must be done before we can choose where we are going.

(B) In planting a vegetable garden, you should prepare the soil first and then decide what kinds of vegetables to plant.

(C) Good architects do not extemporaneously construct their plans in the course of an afternoon; an architectural design cannot be divorced from the method of constructing the building.

(D) In solving mathematical problems, the best method is to try out as many strategies as possible in the time allotted. This is particularly effective if the number of possible strategies is fairly small.

(E) To make a great tennis shot you should visualize where you want the shot to go and then determine the position you need to be in to execute the shot properly.

A newspaper article in the Smithville Herald argued that the strength of unions was declining. The article’s evidence was the decreasing number and size of strikes as though the reason for the unions’ existence was to organize strikes. Surely, in a modern industrial society, the calling of a strike is evidence that the negotiating position of the union was too weak. Strong unions do not need to call strikes. They can concentrate their efforts on working with others in the labor market to achieve common goals, such as profitable and humane working conditions.

7. The argument criticizing the newspaper article employs which one of the following strategies?

(A) Questioning the accuracy of the statistical evidence that the newspaper article uses
(B) Detailing historical changes that make the newspaper articles’ analysis outdated
(C) Reinterpreting evidence that the newspaper article uses as indicating the opposite of what the newspaper concludes
(D) Arguing that the newspaper article’s conclusion is motivated by a desire to change the role of unions
(E) Pointing to common interests among unions and management

Sam: During recessions, unemployment typically rises. Thus, air pollution due to automobile exhaust decreases during a recession, since fewer people commute in cars to jobs and so cars emitting pollutants into the air are used less.

Felipe: Why would you think that air pollution would decrease? During a recession, fewer people can afford to buy new cars, and cars tend to emit more pollutants as they get older.

8. Which of the following most accurately describes how Felipe’s response is related to Sam’s argument?

(A) It calls into question the truth of the premises that Sam uses to support his conclusion.
(B) It makes an additional claim that can only be true if Sam’s conclusion is false.
(C) It presents an additional consideration that weakens the support given to Sam’s conclusion by his evidence.
(D) It argues that Sam’s conclusion is true, although not for the reasons Sam gives to support that conclusion.
(E) It presents an argument showing that the premises in Sam’s argument support an absurd conclusion that Sam has overlooked.

McBride: The proposed new fuel efficiency standards, if implemented, will discourage the manufacture of full-size cars. This prospect is troubling because when a subcompact and a full-size car collide, the people in the subcompact are more likely to be seriously injured than if theirs had also been a full-size car. The new fuel efficiency standards should therefore be opposed.

Leggett: But whenever any two cars collide, it is more likely that someone will be seriously injured if one of the cars is a full-size car than if neither of the cars is full-size. Thus, the new fuel efficiency standards should be supported precisely because they discourage the manufacture of full-size cars.

9. McBride’s and Leggett’s statements commit them to disagreeing about the truth of which one of the following?

(A) The manufacture of full-size cars should be discouraged.

(B) Fuel conservation is less important than safety in the event of a collision.

(C) When a full-size car and a subcompact car collide, the occupants of the full-size car are less likely than the occupants of the subcompact car to the seriously injured.

(D) Reducing the number of full-size cars on the highway will reduce the frequency of collisions between automobiles.

(E) The new fuel-efficiency standards will encourage automobile manufacturers to build more subcompact cars.

A scholar discovered an unlabeled nineteenth-century recording of someone reciting a poem written by Walt Whitman. During the nineteenth century, recordings of poetry were not made for wide commercial sale. Rather, they were made either as rare private souvenirs of the voices of famous poets or as publicity stunts in which actors recorded poems that were familiar to the public. Since the Whitman poem in the recording was never even published, it is likely that the voice in the recording is actually Whitman’s.

10. The argument proceeds by doing which of the following?

(A) offering several pieces of evidence, each of which independently points to the same conclusion.

(B) distinguishing a phenomenon into two subtypes and then for a particular case eliminating one of those subtypes.

(D) showing that two apparently mutually exclusive alternatives are actually compatible with each other.

(E) explaining the historical context of an incident in order to demonstrate that each of the two possible scenarios involving the incident is as likely as the other.

Gerrit: While browsing in a record store I noticed that one copy of a recording I wanted had mistakenly been priced at a quarter of the list price. When I finally reached the cashier, I was told that the price had been mismarked and I would have to pay the full list price. Since I had wasted an hour standing in line, the retailer was morally obligated to sell me the recording at the lower price.

Saskia: I disagree. You knew that a mistake had been made, and you were simply trying to take advantage of that mistake.

11. Which one of the following principles, if established, would most help to justify Saskia’s position?

(A) The price displayed on an item in a retail store morally constitutes an irrevocable offer to sell the item at that price.

(B) Customers of retail stores are morally entitled to profit from any mistakes that the retailers make in marking prices.

(C) Retailers are morally entitled to update marked prices periodically in order to reflect changes in manufacturers’ suggested prices.

(D) Retailers are morally obligated to meet expectations about prices that they have intentionally encouraged their customers to hold.

(E) Retailers are morally obligated to sell an item to a customer at a mismarked price only if that customer was genuinely misled about the intended price by the mismarking.

Answer Sheet:

01. C
02. E
03. B
04. E
05. D
06. E
07. C
08. C
09. A
10. B
11. E