GMAT (Verbal Critical Reasoning) Sample Questions Set-2
Categories: GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test)
Question: In Asia, where palm trees are non-native, the trees' flowers have traditionally been pollinated by hand, which has kept palm fruit productivity unnaturally low. When weevils known to be efficient pollinators of palm flowers were introduced into Asia in 1980, palm fruit productivity increased-by up to 50 percent in some areas-but then decreased sharply in 1984.
Which of the following statements, if true, would best explain the 1984 decrease in productivity?
A. Prices for palm fruit fell between 1980 and 1984 following the rise in production and a concurrent fall in demand.
B. Imported trees are often more productive than native trees because the imported ones have left behind their pests and diseases in their native lands.
C. Rapid increases in productivity tend to deplete trees of nutrients needed for the development of the fruit-producing female flowers.
D. Weevil population in Asia remained at approximately the same level between 1980 and 1984.
E. Prior to 1980 another species of insect pollinated the Asian palm trees, but not as efficiently as the species of weevil that was introduced in 1980.
Answer: (c)
Question: The technological conservatism of bicycle manufacturers is a reflection of the kinds of demand they are trying to meet. The only cyclists seriously interested in innovation and willing to pay for it are bicycle racers. Therefore, innovation in bicycle technology is limited by what authorities will accept as standard for purposes of competition in bicycle races.
Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above?
A. The market for cheap, traditional bicycles cannot expand unless the market for high-performance competition bicycles expands.
B. High-performance bicycles are likely to be improved more as a result of technological innovations developed in small workshops than as a result of technological innovations developed in major manufacturing concerns.
C. Bicycle racers do not generate a strong demand for innovations that fall outside what is officially recognized as standard for purposes of competition.
D. The technological conservatism of bicycle manufacturers results primarily from their desire to manufacture a product that can be sold without being altered to suit different national markets.
E. The authorities who set standards for high-performance bicycle racing do not keep informed about innovative bicycle design.
Answer: (c)
Question: Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of these cereals provide 100 percent of the recommended daily requirement of vitamins. Nevertheless, a well-balanced breakfast, including a variety of foods, is a better source of those vitamins than are such fortified breakfast cereals alone.
Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the position above?
A. In many foods, the natural combination of vitamins with other nutrients makes those vitamins more usable by the body than are vitamins added in vitamin supplements.
B. People who regularly eat cereals fortified with vitamin supplements sometimes neglect to eat the foods in which the vitamins occur naturally.
C. Foods often must be fortified with vitamin supplements because naturally occurring vitamins are removed during processing.
D. Unprocessed cereals are naturally high in several of the vitamins that are usually added to fortified breakfast cereals.
E. Cereals containing vitamin supplements are no harder to digest than similar cereals without added vitamins.
Answer: (a)
Question: Increases in the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the human bloodstream lower bloodstream cholesterol levels by increasing the body's capacity to rid itself of excess cholesterol. Levels of HDL in the bloodstream of some individuals are significantly increased by a program of regular exercise and weight reduction.
Which of the following can be correctly inferred from the statements above?
A. Individuals who are underweight do not run any risk of developing high levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream.
B. Individuals who do not exercise regularly have a high risk of developing high levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream late in life.
C. Exercise and weight reduction are the most effective methods of lowering bloodstream cholesterol levels in humans.
D. A program of regular exercise and weight reduction lowers cholesterol levels in the bloodstream of some individuals.
E. Only regular exercise is necessary to decrease cholesterol levels in the bloodstream of individuals of average weight.
Answer: (d)
Question: Products sold under a brand name used to command premium prices because, in general, they were superior to non brand rival products. Technical expertise in product development has become so widespread, however, that special quality advantages are very hard to obtain these days and even harder to maintain. As a consequence, brand-name products generally neither offer higher quality nor sell at higher prices. Paradoxically, brand names are a bigger marketing advantage than ever.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the paradox outlined above?
A. Brand names are taken by consumers as a guarantee of getting a product as good as the best rival products.
B. Consumers recognize that the quality of products sold under invariant brand names can drift over time.
C. In many acquisitions of one corporation by another, the acquiring corporation is interested more in acquiring the right to use certain brand names than in acquiring existing production facilities.
D. In the days when special quality advantages were easier to obtain than they are now, it was also easier to get new brand names established.
E. The advertising of a company's brand-name products is at times transferred to a new advertising agency, especially when sales are declining.
Answer: (a)