GMAT Verbal CR-4

1. A program instituted in a particular state allows parents to prepay their children's future college tuition at current rates．The program then pays the tuition annually for the child at any of the state's public colleges in which the child enrolls．Parents should participate in the program as a means of decreasing the cost for their children's college education．

Which of the following，if true，is the most appropriate reason for parents not to participate in the program?

(A)  The parents are unsure about which public college in the state the child will attend．

(B)  The amount of money accumulated by putting the prepayment funds in an interest-bearing account today will be greater than the total cost of tuition for any of the public colleges when the child enrolls．

(C)  The annual cost of tuition at the state's public colleges is expected to increase at a faster rate than the annual increase in the cost of living．

(D)  Some of the state's public colleges are contemplating large increases in tuition next yean

(E)  The prepayment plan would not cover the cost of room and board at any of the state's public colleges．

2. Company Alpha buys free-travel coupons from people who are awarded the coupons by Bravo Airlines for flying frequently on Bravo airplanes．The coupons are sold to people who pay less for the coupons than they would pay by purchasing tickets from Bravo．This marketing of coupons results in lost revenue for Bravo．

To discourage the buying and selling of free travel coupons，it would be best for Bravo Airlines to restrict the

(A)  number of coupons that a person can be awarded in a particular year

(B)  use of the coupons to those who were awarded the coupons and members of their immediate families

(C)  days that the coupons can be used to Monday through Friday

(D)  amount of time that the coupons can be used after they are issued

(E)  number of routes on which travelers can use the coupons

3. If there is an oil supply disruption resulting in higher international oil prices，domestic oil prices in open-market countries such as the United States will rise as well，whether such countries import all or none of their oil.

If the statement above concerning oil-supply disruptions is true，which of the following policies in an open-market nation is most likely to reduce the long-term economic impact on that nation of sharp and unexpected increases in international oil prices?

(A)  Maintaining the quantity of oil imported at constant yearly levels

(B)  Increasing the number of oil tankers in its fleet

(C)  Suspending diplomatic relations with major oil-producing nations

(D)  Decreasing oil consumption through conservation

(E)  Decreasing domestic production of oil

4. Reviewer：The book Art's Decline argues that European painters today lack skills that were common among European painters of preceding centuries．In this the book must be right，since its analysis of 100 paintings，50 old and 50 contemporary, demonstrates convincingly that none of the contemporary paintings are executed as skillfully as the older paintings．

Which of the following points to the most serious logical flaw in the reviewer's argument?

(A)  The paintings chosen by the book's author for analysis could be those that most support the book's thesis．

(B)  There could be criteria other than the technical skill of the artist by which to evaluate a painting．

(C)  The title of the book could cause readers to accept the book's thesis even before they read the analysis of the paintings that supports it．

(D)  The particular methods currently used by European painters could require less artistic skill than do methods used by painters in other parts of the world．

(E)  A reader who was not familiar with the language of art criticism might not be convinced by the book's analysis of the 100 paintings．

5. Certain messenger molecules fight damage to the lungs from noxious air by telling the muscle cells encircling the lungs’ airways to contract．This partially seals off the lungs．An asthma attack occurs when the messenger molecules are activated unnecessarily, in response to harmless things like pollen or household dust．

Which of the following，if true，points to the most serious flaw of a plan to develop a medication that would prevent asthma attacks by blocking receipt of any messages sent by the messenger molecules referred to above?

(A)  Researchers do not yet know how the body produces the messenger molecules that trigger asthma attacks．

(B)  Researchers do not yet know what makes one person's messenger molecules more easily activated than another's．

(C)  Such a medication would not become available for several years，because of long lead times in both development and manufacture．

(D)  Such a medication would be unable to distinguish between messages triggered by pollen and household dust and messages triggered by noxious air．

(E)  Such a medication would be a preventative only and would be unable to alleviate an asthma attack once it had started．

6. A certain mayor has proposed a fee of five dollars per day on private vehicles entering the city, claiming that the fee will alleviate the city's traffic congestion．The mayor reasons that，since the fee will exceed the cost of round-trip bus fare from many nearby points，many people will switch from using their cars to using the bus．

Which of the following statements, if true I provides the best evidence that the mayor's reasoning is flawed?

(A)  Projected increases in the price of gasoline will increase the cost of taking a private vehicle into the city．

(B)  The cost of parking fees already makes it considerably more expensive for most people to take a private vehicle into the city than to take a bus．

(C)  Most of the people currently riding the bus do not own private vehicles．

(D)  Many commuters opposing the mayor's plan have indicated that they would rather endure traffic congestion than pay a five-dollar-per-day fee．

(E)  During the average workday, private vehicles owned and operated by people living within the city account  for 20 percent of the city's traffic congestion．

7. Consumer health advocate：

Your candy company adds caffeine to your chocolate candy bars so that each one delivers a specified amount of caffeine．Since caffeine is highly addictive，this indicates that you intend to keep your customers addicted．

Candy manufacturer：Our manufacturing process results in there being less caffeine in each chocolate candy bar than in the unprocessed cacao beans from which the chocolate is made．

The candy manufacturer's response is flawed as a refutation of the consumer health advocate's argument because it    ．

(A)  fails to address the issue of whether the level of caffeine in the candy bars sold by the manufacturer is enough to keep people addicted

(B)  assumes without warrant that all unprocessed cacao beans contain a uniform amount of caffeine

(C)  does not specify exactly how caffeine is lost in the manufacturing process

(D)  treats the consumer health advocate's argument as though it were about each candy bar rather than about the manufacturer's candy in general

(E)  merely contradicts the consumer health advocate's conclusion without giving any reason to believe that the advocate’s reasoning is unsound

8. An eyeglass manufacturer tried to boost sales for the summer quarter by offering its distributors a special discount if their orders for that quarter exceeded those for last year's summer quarter by at least 20 percent．Many distributors qualified for this discount．Even with much merchandise discounted，sales increased enough to produce a healthy gain in net profits。The manufacturer plans to repeat this success by offering the same

Which of the following，if true，most clearly points to a flaw in the manufacturer's plan to repeat the successful performance of the summer quarter?

(A)  In general，a distributor's orders for the summer quarter are no higher than those for the spring quarter.

(B)  Along with offering special discounts to qualifying distributors，the manufacturer increased newspaper and radio advertising in those distributors’ sales areas．

(C)  The distributors most likely to qualify for the manufacturer's special discount are those whose orders were unusually low a year earlier.

(D)  The distributors who qualified for the manufacturer's special discount were free to decide how much or that discount to pass on to their own customers.

(E)  The distributors’ ordering more goods in the summer quarter left them overstocked for the fall quarter.

9. Treatment for hypertension forestalls certain medical expenses by preventing strokes and heart disease. Yet any money so saved amounts to only one-fourth of the expenditures required to treat the hypertensive population．Therefore，there is no economic justification for preventive treatment for hypertension.

Which of the following，if true，is most damaging to the conclusion above?

(A)  The many fatal strokes and heart attacks resulting from untreated hypertension cause insignificant medical expenditures but large economic losses of other sorts．

(B)  The cost，per patient，of preventive treatment for hypertension would remain constant even if such treatment were instituted on a large scale．

(C)  In matters of health care，economic considerations should ideally not be dominant．

(D)  Effective prevention presupposes early diagnosis，and programs to ensure early diagnosis are costly．

(E)  The net savings in medical resources achieved by some preventive health measures are smaller than the net losses attributable to certain other measures of this kind．

10. Most archaeologists have held that people first reached the Americas less than 20,000 years ago by crossing a land bridge into North America．But recent discoveries of human shelters in South America dating from 32,000 years ago have led researchers to speculate that people arrived in South America first，after voyaging across the Pacific，and then spread northward．

Which of the following，if it were discovered，would be pertinent evidence against the speculation above?

(A)  A rock shelter near Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , contains evidence of use by human beings 19,000 years ago．

(B)  Some North American sites of human habitation predate any sites found in South America．

(C)  The climate is warmer at the 32,000-year-old South American site than at the oldest known North American site．

(D)  The site in South America that was occupied 32,000 years ago was continuously occupied until 6,000 years ago．

(E)  The last Ice Age，between 11,500 and 20,000 years ago，considerably lowered worldwide sea levels．