GMAT (Verbal Critical Reasoning) Sample Questions Set-3
Categories: GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test)
Question: Roland: The alarming fact is that 90 percent of the people in this country now report that they know someone who is unemployed.
Sharon: But a normal, moderate level of unemployment is 5 percent, with 1 out of 20 workers unemployed. So at any given time if a person knows approximately 50 workers, 1 or more will very likely be unemployed.
Sharon's argument is structured to lead to which of the following as a conclusion?
A. The fact that 90% of the people know someone who is unemployed is not an indication that unemployment is abnormally high.
B. The current level of unemployment is not moderate.
C. If at least 5% of workers are unemployed, the result of questioning a representative group of people cannot be the percentage Roland cites.
D. It is unlikely that the people whose statements Roland cites are giving accurate reports.
E. If an unemployment figure is given as a certain percent, the actual percentage of those without jobs is even higher.
Answer: (a)
Question: A museum has been offered an undocumented statue, supposedly Greek and from the sixth century B.C. Possibly the statue is genuine but undocumented because it was recently unearthed or because it has been privately owned. However, an ancient surface usually has uneven weathering, whereas the surface of this statue has the uniform quality characteristically produced by a chemical bath used by forgers to imitate a weathered surface. Therefore, the statue is probably a forgery.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A. Museums can accept a recently unearthed statue only with valid export documentation from its country of origin.
B. The subject's pose and other aspects of the subject's treatment exhibit all the most common features of Greek statues of the sixth century B.C.
C. The chemical bath that forgers use was at one time used by dealers and collectors to remove the splotchy surface appearance of genuinely ancient sculptures.
D. Museum officials believe that forgers have no technique that can convincingly simulate the patchy weathering characteristic of the surfaces of ancient sculptures.
E. An allegedly Roman sculpture with a uniform surface similar to that of the statue being offered to the museum was recently shown to be a forgery.
Answer: (c)
Question: Guitar strings often go "dead"-become less responsive and bright in tone-after a few weeks of intense use. A researcher whose son is a classical guitarist hypothesized that dirt and oil, rather than changes in the material properties of the string, were responsible.
Which of the following investigations is most likely to yield significant information that would help to evaluate the researcher's hypothesis?
A. Determining if a metal alloy is used to make the strings used by classical guitarists
B. Determining whether classical guitarists make their strings go dead faster than do folk guitarists
C. Determining whether identical lengths of string, of the same gauge, go dead at different rates when strung on various brands of guitars
D. Determining whether a dead string and a new string produce different qualities of sound
E. Determining whether smearing various substances on new guitar strings causes them to go dead
Answer: (e)
Question: Which of the following best completes the passage below?
People buy prestige when they buy a premium product. They want to be associated with something special. Mass-marketing techniques and price reduction strategies should not be used because_____.
A. affluent purchasers currently represent a shrinking portion of the population of all purchasers
B. continued sales depend directly on the maintenance of an aura of exclusivity
C. purchasers of premium products are concerned with the quality as well as with the price of the products
D. expansion of the market niche to include a broader spectrum of consumers will increase profits
E. manufacturing a premium brand is not necessarily more costly than manufacturing a standard brand of the same product
Answer: (b)
Question: Consumer advocate: It is generally true, at least in this state, that lawyers who advertise a specific service charge less for that service than lawyers who do not advertise. It is also true that each time restrictions on the advertising of legal services have been eliminated, the number of lawyers advertising their services has increased and legal costs to consumers have declined in consequence. However, eliminating the state requirement that legal advertisements must specify fees for specific services would almost certainly increase rather than further reduce consumers' legal costs. Lawyers would no longer have an incentive to lower their fees when they begin advertising and if no longer required to specify fee arrangements, many lawyers who now advertise would increase their fees.
In the consumer advocate's argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
A. The first is a generalization that the consumer advocate accepts as true; the second is presented as a consequence that follows from the truth of that generalization.
B. The first is a pattern of cause and effect that the consumer advocate argues will be repeated in the case tissue; the second acknowledges a circumstance in which that pattern would not hold.
C. The first is a pattern of cause and effect that the consumer advocate predicts will not hold in the case at issue; the second offers a consideration in support of that prediction.
D. The first is evidence that the consumer advocate offers in support of a certain prediction; the second is that prediction.
E. The first acknowledges a consideration that weighs against the main position that the consumer advocate defends; the second is that position.
Answer: (c)