GMAT Sample Questions

GMAT Verbal Section : GMAT Sample Critical Reasoning Questions

36. There are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt. Two million couples are currently waiting to adopt, but in 1982, the last year for which figures exist, there were only some 50,000 adoptions.

    Which of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the author's claim that there are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt?

    1. The number of couples waiting to adopt has increased significantly in the last decade.
    2. The number of adoptions in the current year is greater than the number of adoptions in any preceding year.
    3. The number of adoptions in a year is approximately equal to the number of children available for adoption in that period.
    4. People who seek to adopt children often go through a long process of interviews and investigation by adoption agencies.
    5. People who seek to adopt children generally make very good parents.

    Answer : C

    Questions 37-38 are based on the following

    Archaeologists seeking the location of a legendary siege and destruction of a city are excavating in several possible places, including a middle and a lower layer of a large mound. The bottom of the middle layer contains some pieces of pottery of type 3, known to be from a later period than the time of the destruction of the city, but the lower layer does not.

37. Which of the following hypotheses is best supported by the evidence above?
    1. The lower layer contains the remains of the city where the siege took place.
    2. The legend confuses stories from two different historical periods.
    3. The middle layer does not represent the period of the siege.
    4. The siege lasted for a long time before the city was destroyed.
    5. The pottery of type 3 was imported to the city by traders.

    Answer : C

38. The force of the evidence cited above is most seriously weakened if which of the following is true?
    1. Gerbils, small animals long native to the area, dig large burrows into which objects can fall when the burrows collapse.
    2. Pottery of types 1 and 2, found in the lower level, was used in the cities from which, according to the legend, the besieging forces came.
    3. Several pieces of stone from a lower-layer wall have been found incorporated into the remains of a building in the middle layer.
    4. Both the middle and the lower layer show evidence of large-scale destruction of habitations by fire.
    5. Bronze axheads of a type used at the time of the siege were found in the lower level of excavation.

    Answer : A

39. After the national speed limit of 55 miles per hour was imposed in 1974, the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway fell abruptly as a result. Since then, however, the average speed of vehicles on highways has risen, but the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway has continued to fall.

    Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?

    1. The speed limit alone is probably not responsible for the continued reduction in highway deaths in the years after 1974.
    2. People have been driving less since 1974.
    3. Driver-education courses have been more effective since 1974 in teaching drivers to drive safely.
    4. In recent years highway patrols have been less effective in catching drivers who speed.
    5. The change in the speed limit cannot be responsible for the abrupt decline in highway deaths in 1974.

    Answer : A

40. Neighboring landholders: Air pollution from the giant aluminum refinery that has been built next to our land is killing our plants.
    Company spokesperson: The refinery is not to blame, since our study shows that the damage is due to insects and fungi.

    Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion drawn by the company spokesperson?

    1. The study did not measure the quantity of pollutants emitted into the surrounding air by the aluminum refinery.
    2. The neighboring landholders have made no change in the way they take care of their plants.
    3. Air pollution from the refinery has changed the chemical balance in the plants' environment, allowing the harmful insects and fungi to thrive.
    4. Pollutants that are invisible and odorless are emitted into the surrounding air by the refinery.
    5. The various species of insects and fungi mentioned in the study have been occasionally found in the locality during the past hundred years.

    Answer : B