Questions 8-9 are based on the following.
Investing in real estate would be a profitable venture at this time. A survey in House magazine revealed that 85% of the magazine’s readers are planning to buy a second home over the next few years. A study of the real estate industry, however, revealed that the current supply of homes could only provide for 65% of that demand each year.
8. Which of the following, if true, reveals a weakness in the evidence cited above?
(A) Real estate is a highly labor-intensive business.
(B) Home builders are not evenly distributed across the country.
(C) The number of people who want second homes has been increasing each year for the past ten years.
(D) Readers of House magazine are more likely than most people to want second homes.
(E) House magazine includes articles about owning a second home as well as articles about building a second home.
9. Which of the following, if true, would undermine the validity of the investment advice in the paragraph above?
(A) Some home owners are satisfied with only one home.
(B) About half of the people who buy homes are investing in their first home.
(C) About half of the people who buy homes have to take out a mortgage to do so.
(D) Only a quarter of the homes that are built are sold within the first two weeks.
(E) Only a quarter of those who claim that they want a second home actually end up purchasing one.
10. Traffic safety experts predict that the installation of newly designed air bags in all cars in the United States would reduce the average number of fatalities per traffic accident by 30 percent. In order to save lives, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is considering requiring automobile manufacturers to install air bags of this design in all cars produced after 1998.
Which of the following, if true, represents the strongest challenge to the DOT’s proposal?
(A) Air bags of the new design are more given to being inadvertently triggered, an occurrence that can sometimes result in fatal traffic accidents.
(B) The DOT is planning to require automobile manufacturers to produce these air bags according to very strict specifications.
(C) After installing air bags in new cars, automobile manufacturers will experience an increase in sales.
(D) The proposed air bag installation program will adversely affect the resale of cars manufactured prior to 1998.
(E) As production costs increase, the profits of many domestic automobile dealers show a marked decrease.
11. A private bus company gained greater profits and provided bus service to the area at lower fares by running buses more frequently and stimulating greater ridership. Hoping to continue these financial trends, the company plans to replace all older buses with new, larger buses, including some double-decker buses,.
The plan of the bus company as described above assumes all of the following EXCEPT
(A) the demand for bus service in the company’s area of service will increase in the future
(B) increased efficiency and revenues will compensate for any new expenses the company incurs
(C) the new buses will be sufficiently reliable to ensure the company a net financial gain once they are in place
(D) driving the new buses will be no more difficult than driving the buses they are to replace
(E) the larger, double-decker buses will not face obstacles such as height and weight restrictions in the bus company’s area of service
12. A newly discovered disease is thought to be caused by a certain bacterium. However, recently released data notes that the bacterium thrives in the presence of a certain virus, implying that it is actually the virus that causes the new disease.
Which of the following pieces of evidence would most support the data’s implication?
(A) In the absence of the virus, the disease has been observed to follow infection by the bacterium.
(B) The virus has been shown to aid the growth of bacterium, a process which often leads to the onset of the disease.
(C) The virus alone has been observed in many cases of the disease.
(D) In cases where the disease does not develop, infection by the bacterium is usually preceded by infection by the virus.
(E) Onset of the disease usually follows infection by both the virus and the bacterium.
13. A sociologist recently studied two sets of teenagers. The members of one set spent 10 or more hours per week watching violent television programs, and the members of the other set spent 2 hours or less per week watching violent television programs. A significantly greater proportion of the teenagers in the former group exhibited aggressive behavior during the period of the study. The sociologists reasoned that the prolonged exposure to television violence caused the aggressive behavior.
Which of the following, if true, of the teenagers in the study, provides the strongest challenge to the sociologist’s conclusion?
(A) Some teenagers who watched more than 10 hours of violent television programming per week behaved less aggressively than others in the same group of teenagers.
(B) Some teenagers who watched 2 hours of violent television programming per week did not behave aggressively.
(C) Some teenagers voluntarily stopped watching violent television programs after being victims of violence.
(D) Some teenagers watched violent television programs alone, while others did so in groups.
(E) Many of the teenagers in the first group exhibited aggressive behavior before the study began.
14. Because of a recent drought in Florida during the orange-growing season, the price of oranges this season will be three times the usual price. This will drive up the cost of producing orange juice and thus push up the price of orange juice for the consumer.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) The recent drought was not as severe as scientists predicted.
(B) States other than Florida also supply oranges to orange juice manufacturers.
(C) Other ingredients are used in the production of orange juice.
(D) Last year the price of oranges was actually lower than the average price over the past ten years.
(E) The price of oranges will eventually be $0.48 per crate.
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