Critical Reasoning

1. One state adds a 7 percent sales tax to the price of most products purchased within its jurisdiction. This tax, therefore, if viewed as tax on income, has the reverse effect of the federal income tax: the lower the income, the higher the annual percentage rate at which the income is taxed.

The conclusion above would be properly drawn if which of the following were assumed as a premise?
1. The amount of money citizens spend on products subject to the state tax tends to be equal across income levels.
2. The federal income tax favors citizens with high incomes, whereas the state sales tax favors citizens with low incomes.
3. Citizens with low annual incomes can afford to pay a relatively higher percentage of their incomes in state sales tax, since their federal income tax is relatively low.
4. The lower a state's sales tax, the more it will tend to redistribute income from the more affluent citizens to the rest of society.
5. Citizens who fail to earn federally taxable income are also exempt from the state sales tax.


2. The average age of chief executive officers (CEO's) in a large sample of companies is 57. The average age of CEO's in those same companies 20 years ago was approximately eight years younger. On the basis of those data, it can be concluded that CEO's in general tend to be older now.

Which of the following casts the most doubt on the conclusion drawn above?
1. The dates when the CEO's assumed their current positions have not been specified.
2. No information is given concerning the average number of years that CEO's remain in office.
3. The information is based only on companies that have been operating for at least 20 years.
4. Only approximate information is given concerning the average age of the CEO's 20 years ago.
5. Information concerning the exact number of companies in the sample has not been given.


3. Surveys show that every year only 10 percent of cigarette smokers switch brands. Yet the manufacturers have been spending an amount equal to 10 percent of their gross receipts on cigarette promotion in magazines. It follows from these figures that inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay, and that cigarette companies would have been no worse off economically if they had dropped their advertising.

Of the following, the best criticism of the conclusion that inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay is that the conclusion is based on
1. computing advertising costs as a percentage of gross receipts, not of overall costs
2. past patterns of smoking and may not carry over to the future
3. the assumption that each smoker is loyal to a single brand of cigarettes at any one time
4. the assumption that each manufacturer produces only one brand of cigarettes
5. figures for the cigarette industry as a whole and may not hold for a particular company


4. Toughened hiring standards have not been the primary cause of the present staffing shortage in public schools. The shortage of teachers is primarily caused by the fact that in recent years teachers have not experienced any improvements in working conditions and their salaries have not kept pace with salaries in other professions.

Which of the following, if true, would most support the claims above?
1. Many teachers already in the profession would not have been hired under the new hiring standards.
2. Today more teachers are entering the profession with a higher educational level than in the past.
3. Some teachers have cited higher standards for hiring as a reason for the current staffing shortage.
4. Many teachers have cited low pay and lack of professional freedom as reasons for their leaving the profession.
5. Many prospective teachers have cited the new hiring standards as a reason for not entering the profession.


5. A proposed ordinance requires the installation in new homes of sprinklers automatically triggered by the presence of a fire. However, a home builder argued that because more than ninety percent of residential fires are extinguished by a household member, residential sprinklers would only marginally decrease property damage caused by residential fires.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the home builder's argument?
1. Most individuals have no formal training in how to extinguish fires.
2. Since new homes are only a tiny percentage of available housing in the city, the new ordinance would be extremely narrow in scope.
3. The installation of smoke detectors in new residences costs significantly less than the installation of sprinklers.
4. In the city where the ordinance was proposed, the average time required by the fire department to respond to a fire was less than the national average.
5. The largest proportion of property damage that results from residential fires is caused by fires that start when no household member is present.

My answers:

1A
2C
3A
4D
5E

okletsdothis wrote:My answers:

1A
2C
3A
4D
5E

For me the answer of question 3 should be C.
Rest are same.

I was actually very confused about third question. I did not understand the question. So I guessed. Can you explain ?

Why you post multiple questions to one thread? Please post one question in one thread.