GMAT Sample Questions

GMAT Verbal Section : GMAT Sample Critical Reasoning Questions

Questions 21-22 are based on the following.

Contrary to the charges made by some of its opponents, the provisions of the new deficit-reduction law for indiscriminate cuts in the federal budget are justified. Opponents should remember that the New Deal pulled this country out of great economic troubles even though some of its programs were later found to be unconstitutional.

21. The author's method of attacking the charges of certain opponents of the new deficit-reduction law is to
    1. attack the character of the opponents rather than their claim
    2. imply an analogy between the law and some New Deal programs
    3. point out that the opponents' claims imply a dilemma
    4. show that the opponents' reasoning leads to an absurd conclusion
    5. show that the New Deal also called for indiscriminate cuts in the federal budget

    Answer : B

22. The opponents could effectively defend their position against the author's strategy by pointing out that
    1. the expertise of those opposing the law is outstanding
    2. the lack of justification for the new law does not imply that those who drew it up were either inept or immoral
    3. the practical application of the new law will not entail indiscriminate budget cuts
    4. economic troubles present at the time of the New Deal were equal in severity to those that have led to the present law
    5. the fact that certain flawed programs or laws have improved the economy does not prove that every such program can do so

    Answer : E

23. In Millington, a city of 50,000 people, Mercedes Pedrosa, a realtor, calculated that a family with Millington's median family income, $28,000 a year, could afford to buy Millington's median-priced $77,000 house. This calculation was based on an 11.2 percent mortgage interest rate and on the realtor's assumption that a family could only afford to pay up to 25 percent of its income for housing.

    Which of the following corrections of a figure appearing in the passage above, if it were the only correction that needed to be made, would yield a new calculation showing that even incomes below the median family income would enable families in Millington to afford Millington's median-priced house?

    1. Millington's total population was 45,000 people.
    2. Millington's median annual family income was $27,000
    3. Millington's median-priced house cost $80,000
    4. The rate at which people in Millington had to pay mortgage interest was only 10 percent.
    5. Families in Millington could only afford to pay up to 22 percent of their annual income for housing

    Answer : D

24. Psychological research indicates that college hockey and football players are more quickly moved to hostility and aggression than are college athletes in noncontact sports such as swimming. But the researchers' conclusion-that contact sports encourage and teach participants to be hostile and aggressive-is untenable. The football and hockey players were probably more hostile and aggressive to start with than the swimmers.

    Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion drawn by the psychological researchers?

    1. The football and hockey players became more hostile and aggressive during the season and remained so during the off-season, whereas there was no increase in aggressiveness among the swimmers.
    2. The football and hockey players, but not the swimmers, were aware at the start of the experiment that they were being tested for aggressiveness.
    3. The same psychological research indicated that the football and hockey players had a great respect for cooperation and team play, whereas the swimmers were most concerned with excelling as individual competitors.
    4. The research studies were designed to include no college athletes who participated in both contact and noncontact sports.
    5. Throughout the United States, more incidents of fan violence occur at baseball games than occur at hockey or football games.

    Answer : A

25. Ross: The profitability of Company X, restored to private ownership five years ago, is clear evidence that businesses will always fare better under private than under public ownership.
    Julia: Wrong. A close look at the records shows that X has been profitable since the appointment of a first-class manager, which happened while X was still in the pubic sector.

    Which of the following best describes the weak point in Ross's claim on which Julia's response focuses?

    1. The evidence Ross cites comes from only a single observed case, that of Company X.
    2. The profitability of Company X might be only temporary.
    3. Ross's statement leaves open the possibility that the cause he cites came after the effect he attributes to it.
    4. No mention is made of companies that are partly government owned and partly privately owned.
    5. No exact figures are given for the current profits of Company X.

    Answer : C