10. Country Y uses its scarce foreign-exchange reserves to buy scrap iron for recycling into steel. Although the steel thus produced earns more foreign exchange than it costs, that policy is foolish. Country Y’s own territory has vast deposits of iron ore, which can be mined with minimal expenditure of foreign exchange.Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for Country Y’s policy of buying scrap iron abroad?
(A) The price of scrap iron on international markets rose significantly in 1987.
(B) Country Y’s foreign-exchange reserves dropped significantly in 1987.
(C) There is virtually no difference in quality between steel produced from scrap iron and that produced from iron ore.
(D) Scrap iron is now used in the production of roughly half the steel used in the world today, and experts predict that scrap iron will be used even more extensively in the future.（E）
(E) Furnaces that process scrap iron can be built and operated in Country Y with substantially less foreign exchange than can furnaces that process iron ore.
11. Last year the rate of inflation was 1.2 percent, but for the current year it has been 4 percent. We can conclude that inflation is on an upward trend and the rate will be still higher next year.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?
(A) The inflation figures were computed on the basis of a representative sample of economic data rather than all of the available data.
(B) Last year a dip in oil prices brought inflation temporarily below its recent stable annual level of 4 percent.
(C) Increases in the pay of some workers are tied to the level of inflation, and at an inflation rate of 4 percent or above, these pay raises constitute a force causing further inflation.
(D) The 1.2 percent rate of inflation last year represented a ten-year low.（B）
(E) Government intervention cannot affect the rate of inflation to any significant degree.
12. Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy. The chief executive is, therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.The conclusion drawn above is based on the assumption that
(A) problems should be solved at the level in the management hierarchy at which they occur
(B) employees should be rewarded for accurately reporting problems to their superiors
(C) problem-solving ability is more important at higher levels than it is at lower levels of the management hierarchy
(D) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from no source other than their subordinates（D）
(E) some employees are more concerned about truth than about the way they are perceived by their superiors
13. In the United States in 1986, the average rate of violent crime in states with strict gun-control laws was 645 crimes per 100,000 persons—about 50 percent higher than the average rate in the eleven states where strict gun-control laws have never been passed. Thus one way to reduce violent crime is to repeal strict gun control laws.Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?
(A) The annual rate of violent crime in states with strict gun-control laws has decreased since the passage of those laws.
(B) In states with strict gun-control laws, few individuals are prosecuted for violating such laws.
(C) In states without strict gun-control laws, many individuals have had no formal training in the use of firearms.
(D) The annual rate of nonviolent crime is lower in states with strict gun-control laws than in states without such laws.（A）
(E) Less than half of the individuals who reside in states without strict gun-control laws own a gun.
14. Corporate officers and directors commonly buy and sell, for their own portfolios, stock in their own corporations. Generally, when the ratio of such inside sales to inside purchases falls below 2 to 1 for a given stock, a rise in stock prices is imminent. In recent days, while the price of MEGA Corporation stock has been falling, the corporation’s officers and directors have bought up to nine times as much of it as they have sold.The facts above best support which of the following predictions?
(A) The imbalance between inside purchases and inside sales of MEGA stock will grow even further.
(B) Inside purchases of MEGA stock are about to cease abruptly.
(C) The price of MEGA stock will soon begin to go up.
(D) The price of MEGA stock will continue to drop, but less rapidly.（C）
(E) The majority of MEGA stock will soon be owned by MEGA’s own officers and directors.
15. The proposal to hire ten new police officers in Middletown is quite foolish. There is sufficient funding to pay the salaries of the new officers, but not the salaries of additional court and prison employees to process the increased caseload of arrests and convictions that new officers usually generate.Which of the following, if true, will most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?
(A) Studies have shown that an increase in a city’s police force does not necessarily reduce crime.
(B) When one major city increased its police force by 19 percent last year, there were 40 percent more arrests and 13 percent more convictions.
(C) If funding for the new police officers’ salaries is approved, support for other city services will have to be reduced during the next fiscal year.
(D) In most United States cities, not all arrests result in convictions, and not all convictions result in prison terms.（E）
(E) Middletown’s ratio of police officers to citizens has reached a level at which an increase in the number of officers will have a deterrent effect on crime.
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