Many residents say the new bike lanes on Grant Street have made traffic worse. But traffic counts show that car trips along Grant Street take about the same time as they did before the lanes were added. And the number of people cycling on the street has doubled. So the city should keep the bike lanes rather than remove them.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?
The city should keep the bike lanes on Grant Street. Everything in the argument is there to back up one claim: the city should keep the lanes. The traffic counts and the rise in cycling are the reasons given for it, and the residents’ complaint is the view being argued against.
Critic: Some readers say the novel’s ending is weak because it leaves the central mystery unsolved. That complaint misses the point. The whole book is about how people live with questions that have no answers. An ending that solved the mystery would undercut that theme. So the unsolved mystery is a strength of the novel, not a flaw.
The claim that the whole book is about how people live with questions that have no answers plays which one of the following roles in the critic’s argument?
It is offered as support for the argument’s main conclusion. The critic uses the book’s theme as a reason: because the book is about living with unanswered questions, solving the mystery would undercut it, so the open ending is a strength. That makes it support for the conclusion, not the conclusion itself.
Ana: Our town should build a new library downtown. The old library is far too small for the number of people who use it.
Raj: I agree that the old library is too small. But a downtown site would be hard for families in the north end to reach. The new library should go somewhere that everyone can get to easily.
Ana and Raj disagree over whether
the new library should be built downtown Raj accepts that the old library is too small and that a new one should be built. What he objects to is the downtown site, which Ana wants and he thinks is hard for north-end families to reach. So the location is the point they disagree on.
Since the museum began opening late on weekday evenings, the number of weekday visitors has risen sharply. So the evening hours are earning the museum more money than they cost.
The argument depends on assuming which one of the following?
The money that evening visitors bring in is greater than the cost of keeping the museum open in the evening. The evidence is about visitor numbers, but the conclusion is about money. More visitors only means a profit if what they bring in is more than the extra cost of staff, lights and security. If that weren’t true, the conclusion would fall apart, so the argument needs it.
Last summer, the plants in Garden A were given a new fertilizer and the plants in Garden B were not. By the end of the summer, the plants in Garden A were noticeably taller. So the new fertilizer made the plants grow taller.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
The plants in Garden A did not get more sunlight or water than the plants in Garden B. To say the fertilizer caused the extra growth, the argument has to rule out other differences between the gardens. If Garden A got more sun or water, that could explain the height instead. So the argument depends on the gardens being alike in those ways.
Anyone elected to the club’s board must have lived in the district for at least five years. Priya has lived in the district for only three years. So Priya cannot serve as the board’s treasurer.
The conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?
The board’s treasurer must be someone who was elected to the board. The rule is about elected board members, but the conclusion is about the treasurer. If the treasurer must be an elected member, then Priya, who can’t be elected yet, can’t be treasurer. That closes the gap completely.
Researchers found that people who often walk in parks report lower stress than people who rarely do. The researchers concluded that walking in parks reduces stress.
Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the researchers’ argument?
When people were randomly assigned to walk either in a park or on a busy street every day for a month, the stress of the park group fell more. The original study only shows a link, so something else could explain it. Randomly assigning people takes those other differences out of the picture. If the park walkers still ended up less stressed, that points to the park walks themselves.
Council member: After we put brighter streetlights on Elm Avenue last year, reported car break-ins there fell by 30 percent. So putting brighter streetlights on our other streets will reduce car break-ins there too.
Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the council member’s argument?
During the same year, police began regular night patrols on Elm Avenue, and break-ins fell by a similar amount on nearby streets that got patrols but no new lights. The argument credits the lights for the drop. If patrols started at the same time, and streets with patrols but no new lights saw the same drop, the patrols are the better explanation. Then there’s little reason to expect lights alone to help elsewhere.
A survey found that people who own more books tend to have larger vocabularies. A columnist concluded that owning more books causes people to develop larger vocabularies.
Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the columnist’s conclusion?
People with large vocabularies tend to enjoy reading, and so they tend to buy more books. The columnist assumes the books came first and the vocabulary followed. This choice shows the cause could run the other way: a big vocabulary leads people to buy books. If that’s true, the survey doesn’t show that owning books builds vocabulary.
Every student who joined the debate team this year improved their public speaking grade. Lena improved her public speaking grade this year. So Lena must have joined the debate team.
The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
takes for granted that the only way to improve a public speaking grade is to join the debate team The first sentence says joining the team leads to a better grade. It doesn’t say that’s the only route. Lena could have improved by practicing on her own or getting a tutor. The argument treats one way of getting a result as the only way.
A poll of 500 people at the finish line of the city marathon found that 80 percent of them exercise at least four times a week. So about 80 percent of the city’s adults exercise at least four times a week.
Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the reasoning?
It draws a conclusion about a whole group from a sample that is unlikely to be typical of that group. People at a marathon finish line are far more likely to exercise than adults in general. A sample drawn there will overstate how much the whole city exercises. The problem isn’t the size of the poll but who was asked.
All of the paintings in the museum’s east gallery were made before 1900. Some of the paintings in the east gallery are by Spanish artists. None of the museum’s paintings by Spanish artists are watercolors.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true?
Some of the museum’s paintings that were made before 1900 are not watercolors. Take one of the Spanish paintings in the east gallery. It was made before 1900, because every painting there was. And it isn’t a watercolor, because no Spanish painting in the museum is. So at least one pre-1900 painting is not a watercolor.
Principle: A company should recall a product if the product can cause serious injury when it is used as directed, even if few injuries have been reported.
Which one of the following judgments most closely conforms to the principle above?
A ladder can collapse during normal use and has injured two people, so the company should recall it. The principle has two parts: the product can cause serious injury, and that happens when it’s used as directed. A ladder that collapses during normal use fits both. The principle also says a small number of reports doesn’t matter, so two injuries is enough.
For a long time, historians described medieval European peasants as people who rarely traveled beyond their home villages. Recent studies of court records, tax rolls and church registers have challenged that picture. These records show peasants moving to towns for seasonal work, traveling to distant markets and marrying people from other regions. Some historians argue that the old view came from relying too heavily on writings by nobles and clergy, who had little reason to record the movements of ordinary people. The newer evidence suggests that travel was a normal part of peasant life.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
Evidence from everyday records suggests that medieval peasants traveled much more than historians once believed. The passage sets up an old view (peasants stayed put), brings in new evidence against it (records of work, trade and marriage), and ends by saying travel was normal. That shift in what historians believe is the main point.
Many people assume that bees find flowers mainly by color and smell. Researchers have identified another cue. Flowers carry a small electric charge, and bees, which build up an opposite charge as they fly, can sense it through fine hairs on their bodies. After a bee visits a flower, the flower’s charge changes for a short time. Some scientists think this lets other bees tell that the flower’s nectar has just been taken. If so, electric fields may help bees avoid wasting time on empty flowers.
The primary purpose of the passage is to
describe a cue, other than color and smell, that bees may use when visiting flowers The passage introduces electric charge as an extra cue, explains how bees sense it, and suggests what it might be used for. Its job is to describe that cue.
Engineers have long wondered why some ancient Roman harbor walls have survived for two thousand years in seawater, while many modern concrete structures crack within decades. Studies of samples from the Roman walls point to the volcanic ash that Roman builders mixed into their concrete. When seawater seeps into the walls, it reacts with the ash and slowly forms new minerals in the cracks and pores. Instead of wearing the concrete down, the seawater helps it grow stronger over time. Modern concrete, by contrast, is usually designed to keep water out, because water can corrode the steel bars inside it.
According to the passage, seawater affects the Roman harbor walls by
reacting with the volcanic ash to form new minerals that make the concrete stronger The passage says seawater reacts with the ash and forms new minerals in the cracks and pores, so the concrete “grow[s] stronger over time.” This is a detail question, and the answer is stated directly.
In the 1800s, many doctors believed that diseases such as cholera spread through “bad air” given off by rotting matter. During an outbreak in London in 1854, the physician John Snow mapped where the victims lived. He found that many of the deaths were clustered around one public water pump on Broad Street. He also noticed that workers at a nearby brewery, who drank beer made with water from a different source, rarely fell ill. Snow persuaded local officials to remove the pump’s handle. His work became an early example of using careful observation and data to trace the source of a disease.
Which one of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the passage?
Snow believed that something in the water from the Broad Street pump was linked to the spread of cholera. Snow traced deaths to the pump, noted that people using other water stayed healthy, and then had the pump’s handle taken off. You’d only do that if you thought the pump’s water was connected to the disease.
The city’s plan to turn an old rail line into a walking trail has been praised from almost every side, and much of that praise is deserved. The trail will connect neighborhoods that have long been cut off from one another, and it will give residents a safe place to exercise. Still, the plan’s supporters have said little about who will pay for upkeep once the ribbon is cut. Trails like this need lighting, repairs and regular cleaning. Without a clear budget for that work, the city risks building something it cannot keep up.
The author’s attitude toward the trail plan is best described as
general approval combined with concern about a gap in the planning The author says the praise is “deserved” and lists real benefits, which shows approval. Then “Still” brings in a worry about the upkeep budget. Approval plus a specific concern is the attitude.
Passage A: Homework in the early grades does more harm than good. Young children learn best through play and rest after a full school day, and studies of children under ten find little link between time spent on homework and test results. Schools should drop homework for these grades.
Passage B: It’s true that piles of homework do little for young children. But short, regular tasks, such as reading with a parent for fifteen minutes, build habits that pay off later. The question isn’t whether young children should have homework, but what kind and how much.
Which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between the two passages?
Passage B accepts one of Passage A’s points but rejects its call to drop homework entirely. Passage B opens by agreeing that lots of homework doesn’t help young children, which matches Passage A’s point. But B then argues that some short tasks are worthwhile, so it doesn’t accept A’s conclusion that homework should be dropped.
Passage A: Cities usually measure noise by its average loudness. But an average hides what bothers people most: sudden, sharp sounds such as car alarms or motorbikes revving late at night. A street with a moderate average can still keep its residents awake.
Passage B: Most city noise rules set limits on loudness alone. Yet sleep research suggests that how often loud events happen matters as much as how loud they are. Ten brief spikes in an hour can disturb sleep more than a steady hum.
The authors of both passages would most likely agree that
measuring noise only by its loudness, or its average loudness, can miss the kinds of noise that disturb people Passage A says averages hide sudden sharp sounds. Passage B says rules that look only at loudness miss how often loud events happen. Both are saying the usual way of measuring noise leaves out what actually bothers people.
United States · Admission test