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arghya05
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Economist: Some policymakers believe that our country's continued economic growth requires a higher level of personal savings than we currently have. A recent legislative proposal would allow individuals to set up savings accounts in which interest earned would be exempt from taxes until money is withdrawn from the account. Backers of this proposal claim that its implementation would increase the amount of money available for banks to loan at a relatively small cost to the government in lost tax revenues. Yet, when similar tax-incentive programs were tried in the past, virtually all of the money invested through them was diverted from other personal savings, and the overall level of personal savings was unchanged
The author criticizes the proposed tax-incentive program by
(A) challenging a premise on which the proposal is based
(B) pointing out a disagreement among policymakers
(C) demonstrating that the proposal's implementation is not feasible
(D) questioning the judgment of the proposal's backers by citing past cases in which they had advocated programs that have proved ineffective
(E) disputing the assumption that a program to encourage personal savings is needed
Although all birds have feathers and all birds have wings, some birds do not fly. For example, penguins and ostriches use their wings to move in a different way from other birds. Penguins use their wings only to swim under water at high speeds. Ostriches use their wings only to run with the wind by lifting them as if they were sails
Which one of the following is most parallel in its reasoning to the argument above?
(A) Ancient philosophers tried to explain not how the world functions but why it functions. In contrast, most contemporary biologists seek comprehensive theories of how organisms function, but many refuse to speculate about purpose.
(B) Some chairs are used only as decorations, and other chairs are used only to tame lions. Therefore, not all chairs are used for sitting in despite the fact that all chairs have a seat and some support such as legs.
(C) Some musicians in a symphony orchestra play the violin, and others play the viola, but these are both in the same category of musical instruments, namely string instruments.
(D) All cars have similar drive mechanisms, but some cars derive their power from solar energy, whereas others burn gasoline. Thus, solar-powered cars are less efficient than gasoline-powered ones.
(E) Sailing ships move in a different way from steamships. Both sailing ships and steamships navigate over water, but only sailing ships use sails to move over the surface
Jones: Prehistoric wooden tools found in South America have been dated to 13,000 years ago. Although scientists attribute these tools to peoples whose ancestors first crossed into the Americas from Siberia to Alaska, this cannot be correct. In order to have reached a site so far south, these peoples must have been migrating southward well before 13,000 years ago. However, no such tools dating to before 13,000 years ago have been found anywhere between Alaska and South America.
Smith: Your evidence is inconclusive. Those tools were found in peat bogs, which are rare in the Americas. Wooden tools in soils other than peat bogs usually decompose within only a few years.
The point at issue between Jones and Smith is
(A) whether all prehistoric tools that are 13,000 years or older were made of wood
(B) whether the scientists' attribution of tools could be correct in light of Jones's evidence
(C) whether the dating of the wooden tools by the scientists could be correct
(D) how long ago the peoples who crossed into the American from Siberia to Alaska first did so
(E) whether Smith's evidence entails that the wooden tools have been dated correctly
Smith responds to Jones by
(A) citing several studies that invalidate Jones's conclusion
(B) accusing Jones of distorting the scientists' position
(C) disputing the accuracy of the supporting evidence cited by Jones
(D) showing that Jones's evidence actually supports the denial of Jones's conclusion
Saunders: Everyone at last week's neighborhood association meeting agreed that the row of abandoned and vandalized houses on Carlton Street posed a threat to the safety of our neighborhood. Moreover, no one now disputes that getting the houses torn down eliminated that threat. Some people tried to argue that it was unnecessary to demolish what they claimed were basically sound buildings, since the city had established a fund to help people in need of housing buy and rehabilitate such buildings. The overwhelming success of the demolition strategy, however, proves that the majority, who favored demolition, were right and that those who claimed that the problem could and should be solved by rehabilitating the houses were wrong.
20. Which one of the following principles, if established, would determine that demolishing the houses was the right decision or instead would determine that the proposal advocated by the opponents of demolition should have been adopted?
(A) When what to do about an abandoned neighborhood building is in dispute, the course of action that would result in the most housing for people who need it should be the one adopted unless the building is believed to pose a threat to neighborhood safety.
(B) When there are two proposals for solving a neighborhood problem, and only one of them would preclude the possibility of trying the other approach if the first proves unsatisfactory, then the approach that does not foreclose the other possibility should be the one adopted.
(C) If one of two proposals for renovating vacant neighborhood buildings requires government funding whereas the second does not, the second proposal should be the one adopted unless the necessary government funds have already been secured.
(D) No plan for eliminating a neighborhood problem that requires demolishing basically sound houses should be carried out until all other possible alternatives have been thoroughly investigated.
(E) No proposal for dealing with a threat to a neighborhood's safety should be adopted merely because a majority of the residents of that neighborhood prefer that proposal to a particular counterproposal
Saunders' reasoning is flawed because it
(A) relies on fear rather than on argument to persuade the neighborhood association to reject the policy advocated by Saunders' opponents
(B) fails to establish that there is anyone who could qualify for city funds who would be interested in buying and rehabilitating the houses
(C) mistakenly equates an absence of vocal public dissent with the presence of universal public support
(D) offers no evidence that the policy advocated by Saunders' opponents would not have succeeded if it had been given the chance
For the writers who first gave feudalism its name, the existence of feudalism presupposed the existence of a noble class. Yet there cannot be a noble class, properly speaking, unless both the titles that indicate superior, noble status and the inheritance of such titles are sanctioned by law. Although feudalism existed in Europe as early as the eighth century, it was not until the twelfth century, when many feudal institutions were in decline, that the hereditary transfer of legally recognized titles of nobility first appeared.
The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following claims?
(A) To say that feudalism by definition requires the existence of a nobility is to employ a definition that distorts history.
(B) Prior to the twelfth century, the institution of European feudalism functioned without the presence of a dominant class.
(C) The fact that a societal group has a distinct legal status is not in itself sufficient to allow that group to be properly considered a social class.
(D) The decline of feudalism in Europe was the only cause of the rise of a European nobility.
(E) The prior existence of feudal institutions is a prerequisite for the emergence of a nobility, as defined in the strictest sense of the term.
Mayor Smith, one of our few government officials with a record of outspoken, informed, and consistent opposition to nuclear power plant construction projects, has now declared herself in favor of building the nuclear power plant at Littletown. If someone with her past antinuclear record now favors building this power plant, then there is good reason to believe that it will be safe and therefore should be built.
The argument is vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds?
(A) It overlooks the possibility that not all those who fail to speak out on issues of nuclear power are necessarily opposed to it.
(B) It assumes without warrant that the qualities enabling a person to be elected to public office confer on that person a grasp of the scientific principles on which technical decisions are based.
(C) It fails to establish that a consistent and outspoken opposition is necessarily an informed opposition.
(D) It leads to the further but unacceptable conclusion that any project favored by Mayor Smith should be sanctioned simply on the basis of her having spoken out in favor of it.
(E) It gives no indication of either the basis of Mayor Smith's former opposition to nuclear power plant construction or the reasons for her support for the Littletown project.
(E) does not specify the precise nature of the threat to neighborhood safety supposedly posed by the vandalized houses
(E) challenging an implicit assumption in Jones's argument
The great medieval universities had no administrators, yet they endured for centuries. Our university has a huge administrative staff, and we are in serious financial difficulties. Therefore, we should abolish the positions and salaries of the administrators to ensure the longevity of the university.
Which one of the following arguments contains flawed reasoning that most closely parallels the flawed reasoning in the argument above?
(A) No airplane had jet engines before 1940, yet airplanes had been flying since 1903. Therefore, jet engines are not necessary for the operation of airplanes.
(B) The novelist's stories began to be accepted for publication soon after she started using a computer to write them. You have been having trouble getting your stories accepted for publication, and you do not use a computer. To make sure your stories are accepted for publication, then, you should write them with the aid of a computer.
(C) After doctors began using antibiotics, the number of infections among patients dropped drastically. Now, however, resistant strains of bacteria cannot be controlled by standard antibiotics. Therefore, new methods of control are needed.
(D) A bicycle should not be ridden without a helmet. Since a good helmet can save the rider's life, a helmet should be considered the most important piece of bicycling equipment.
(E) The great cities of the ancient world were mostly built along waterways. Archaeologists searching for the remains of such cities should therefore try to determine where major rivers used to run.
[[spoiler]b]PLEASE EXPLAIN EACH ANSWER CHOICE AND ELIMINATE IT WITH REASONS[/b][/spoiler]
The author criticizes the proposed tax-incentive program by
(A) challenging a premise on which the proposal is based
(B) pointing out a disagreement among policymakers
(C) demonstrating that the proposal's implementation is not feasible
(D) questioning the judgment of the proposal's backers by citing past cases in which they had advocated programs that have proved ineffective
(E) disputing the assumption that a program to encourage personal savings is needed
Although all birds have feathers and all birds have wings, some birds do not fly. For example, penguins and ostriches use their wings to move in a different way from other birds. Penguins use their wings only to swim under water at high speeds. Ostriches use their wings only to run with the wind by lifting them as if they were sails
Which one of the following is most parallel in its reasoning to the argument above?
(A) Ancient philosophers tried to explain not how the world functions but why it functions. In contrast, most contemporary biologists seek comprehensive theories of how organisms function, but many refuse to speculate about purpose.
(B) Some chairs are used only as decorations, and other chairs are used only to tame lions. Therefore, not all chairs are used for sitting in despite the fact that all chairs have a seat and some support such as legs.
(C) Some musicians in a symphony orchestra play the violin, and others play the viola, but these are both in the same category of musical instruments, namely string instruments.
(D) All cars have similar drive mechanisms, but some cars derive their power from solar energy, whereas others burn gasoline. Thus, solar-powered cars are less efficient than gasoline-powered ones.
(E) Sailing ships move in a different way from steamships. Both sailing ships and steamships navigate over water, but only sailing ships use sails to move over the surface
Jones: Prehistoric wooden tools found in South America have been dated to 13,000 years ago. Although scientists attribute these tools to peoples whose ancestors first crossed into the Americas from Siberia to Alaska, this cannot be correct. In order to have reached a site so far south, these peoples must have been migrating southward well before 13,000 years ago. However, no such tools dating to before 13,000 years ago have been found anywhere between Alaska and South America.
Smith: Your evidence is inconclusive. Those tools were found in peat bogs, which are rare in the Americas. Wooden tools in soils other than peat bogs usually decompose within only a few years.
The point at issue between Jones and Smith is
(A) whether all prehistoric tools that are 13,000 years or older were made of wood
(B) whether the scientists' attribution of tools could be correct in light of Jones's evidence
(C) whether the dating of the wooden tools by the scientists could be correct
(D) how long ago the peoples who crossed into the American from Siberia to Alaska first did so
(E) whether Smith's evidence entails that the wooden tools have been dated correctly
Smith responds to Jones by
(A) citing several studies that invalidate Jones's conclusion
(B) accusing Jones of distorting the scientists' position
(C) disputing the accuracy of the supporting evidence cited by Jones
(D) showing that Jones's evidence actually supports the denial of Jones's conclusion
Saunders: Everyone at last week's neighborhood association meeting agreed that the row of abandoned and vandalized houses on Carlton Street posed a threat to the safety of our neighborhood. Moreover, no one now disputes that getting the houses torn down eliminated that threat. Some people tried to argue that it was unnecessary to demolish what they claimed were basically sound buildings, since the city had established a fund to help people in need of housing buy and rehabilitate such buildings. The overwhelming success of the demolition strategy, however, proves that the majority, who favored demolition, were right and that those who claimed that the problem could and should be solved by rehabilitating the houses were wrong.
20. Which one of the following principles, if established, would determine that demolishing the houses was the right decision or instead would determine that the proposal advocated by the opponents of demolition should have been adopted?
(A) When what to do about an abandoned neighborhood building is in dispute, the course of action that would result in the most housing for people who need it should be the one adopted unless the building is believed to pose a threat to neighborhood safety.
(B) When there are two proposals for solving a neighborhood problem, and only one of them would preclude the possibility of trying the other approach if the first proves unsatisfactory, then the approach that does not foreclose the other possibility should be the one adopted.
(C) If one of two proposals for renovating vacant neighborhood buildings requires government funding whereas the second does not, the second proposal should be the one adopted unless the necessary government funds have already been secured.
(D) No plan for eliminating a neighborhood problem that requires demolishing basically sound houses should be carried out until all other possible alternatives have been thoroughly investigated.
(E) No proposal for dealing with a threat to a neighborhood's safety should be adopted merely because a majority of the residents of that neighborhood prefer that proposal to a particular counterproposal
Saunders' reasoning is flawed because it
(A) relies on fear rather than on argument to persuade the neighborhood association to reject the policy advocated by Saunders' opponents
(B) fails to establish that there is anyone who could qualify for city funds who would be interested in buying and rehabilitating the houses
(C) mistakenly equates an absence of vocal public dissent with the presence of universal public support
(D) offers no evidence that the policy advocated by Saunders' opponents would not have succeeded if it had been given the chance
For the writers who first gave feudalism its name, the existence of feudalism presupposed the existence of a noble class. Yet there cannot be a noble class, properly speaking, unless both the titles that indicate superior, noble status and the inheritance of such titles are sanctioned by law. Although feudalism existed in Europe as early as the eighth century, it was not until the twelfth century, when many feudal institutions were in decline, that the hereditary transfer of legally recognized titles of nobility first appeared.
The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following claims?
(A) To say that feudalism by definition requires the existence of a nobility is to employ a definition that distorts history.
(B) Prior to the twelfth century, the institution of European feudalism functioned without the presence of a dominant class.
(C) The fact that a societal group has a distinct legal status is not in itself sufficient to allow that group to be properly considered a social class.
(D) The decline of feudalism in Europe was the only cause of the rise of a European nobility.
(E) The prior existence of feudal institutions is a prerequisite for the emergence of a nobility, as defined in the strictest sense of the term.
Mayor Smith, one of our few government officials with a record of outspoken, informed, and consistent opposition to nuclear power plant construction projects, has now declared herself in favor of building the nuclear power plant at Littletown. If someone with her past antinuclear record now favors building this power plant, then there is good reason to believe that it will be safe and therefore should be built.
The argument is vulnerable to criticism on which one of the following grounds?
(A) It overlooks the possibility that not all those who fail to speak out on issues of nuclear power are necessarily opposed to it.
(B) It assumes without warrant that the qualities enabling a person to be elected to public office confer on that person a grasp of the scientific principles on which technical decisions are based.
(C) It fails to establish that a consistent and outspoken opposition is necessarily an informed opposition.
(D) It leads to the further but unacceptable conclusion that any project favored by Mayor Smith should be sanctioned simply on the basis of her having spoken out in favor of it.
(E) It gives no indication of either the basis of Mayor Smith's former opposition to nuclear power plant construction or the reasons for her support for the Littletown project.
(E) does not specify the precise nature of the threat to neighborhood safety supposedly posed by the vandalized houses
(E) challenging an implicit assumption in Jones's argument
The great medieval universities had no administrators, yet they endured for centuries. Our university has a huge administrative staff, and we are in serious financial difficulties. Therefore, we should abolish the positions and salaries of the administrators to ensure the longevity of the university.
Which one of the following arguments contains flawed reasoning that most closely parallels the flawed reasoning in the argument above?
(A) No airplane had jet engines before 1940, yet airplanes had been flying since 1903. Therefore, jet engines are not necessary for the operation of airplanes.
(B) The novelist's stories began to be accepted for publication soon after she started using a computer to write them. You have been having trouble getting your stories accepted for publication, and you do not use a computer. To make sure your stories are accepted for publication, then, you should write them with the aid of a computer.
(C) After doctors began using antibiotics, the number of infections among patients dropped drastically. Now, however, resistant strains of bacteria cannot be controlled by standard antibiotics. Therefore, new methods of control are needed.
(D) A bicycle should not be ridden without a helmet. Since a good helmet can save the rider's life, a helmet should be considered the most important piece of bicycling equipment.
(E) The great cities of the ancient world were mostly built along waterways. Archaeologists searching for the remains of such cities should therefore try to determine where major rivers used to run.
[[spoiler]b]PLEASE EXPLAIN EACH ANSWER CHOICE AND ELIMINATE IT WITH REASONS[/b][/spoiler]
