Time-35 minutes

25 Questions

Directions： The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages. For some questions, More than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. However, You are to choose the best answer； that is the response that most accurately and completely answers the questions. You should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous. or incompatible with the passage. After you have chosen the best answer； blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.

1. A major art theft from a museum was remarkable in that the pieces stolen clearly had been carefully selected. The criterion for selection, however, clearly had not been greatest estimated market value. It follows that the theft was specifically carried out to suit the taste of some individual collector for whose private collection the pieces were destined.

The argument tacitly appeals to which one of the following principles？

（A） Any art theft can, on the evidence of the selection of pieces stolen, be categorized as committed either at the direction of a single known individual or at the direction of a group of known individuals.

（B） Any art theft committed at the direction of a single individual results in a pattern of works taken and works left alone that defies rational analysis.

（C） The pattern of works taken and works left alone can sometimes distinguish one type of art theft from another.

（D） Art thefts committed with no preexisting plan for the disposition of the stolen works do not always involve theft of the most valuable pieces only.

（E） The pattern of works taken and works left alone in an art theft can be particularly damaging to the integrity of the remaining collection.

2. The teeth of some mammals show “growth rings” that result from the constant depositing of layers of cementum as opaque bands in summer and translucent bands in winter. Cross sections of pigs teeth found in an excavated Stone Age trash pit revealed bands of remarkably constant width except tat the band deposited last, which was invariably that the band deposited last, which was invariably translucent, was only about half the normal width.

The statements above most strongly support the conclusion that the animals died

（A） in an unusually early winter

（B） at roughly the same age

（C） roughly in midwinter

（D） in a natural catastrophe

（E） from starvation

3. The United States has never been a great international trader. It found most of its raw materials and customers for finished products within its own borders. The terrible consequences of this situation have become apparent, as this country now owes the largest foreign debt in the world and is a playground for wealthy foreign investors. The moral is clear： a country can no more live without foreign trade than a dog can live by eating its own tail.

In order to advance her point of view, the author does each of the following EXCEPT

（A） draw on an analogy

（B） appeal to historical fact

（C） identify a cause and an effect

（D） suggest a cause of the current economic situation

（E） question the ethical basis of an economic situation

4. Giselle： The government needs to ensure that the public consumes less petroleum. When things cost more, people buy and use less of them. Therefore, the government should raise the sales tax on gasoline, a major petroleum product.

Antoine： The government should not raise the sales tax on gasoline. Such an increase would be unfair to gasoline users. If taxes are to be increased, the increases should be applied in such a way that they spread the burden of providing the government with increased revenues among many people, not just the users of gasoline.

As a rebuttal of Giselle's argument, Antoine's response is ineffective because

（A） he ignores the fact that Giselle does not base her argument for raising the gasoline sales tax on the government's need for increase revenues

（B） he fails to specify how many taxpayers there are who are not gasoline users

（C） his conclusion is based on an assertion regarding unfairness, and unfairness is a very subjective concept

（D） he mistakenly assumes that Giselle wants a sales tax increase only on gasoline

（E） he makes the implausible assumption that the burden of increasing government revenues can be more evenly distributed among the people through other means besides increasing the gasoline sales tax

5. A government agency publishes ratings of airlines, ranking highest the airlines that have the smallest proportion of late flights. The agency's purpose is to establish an objective measure of the relative efficiency of different airlines' personnel in meeting published flight schedules.

Which one of the following, if true, would tend to invalidate use of the ratings for the agency's purpose？

（A） Travelers sometimes have no choice of airlines for a given trip at a given time.

（B） Flights are often made late by bad weather conditions that affect some airlines more that others.

（C） The flight schedules of all airlines allow extra time for flights that go into or out of very busy airports.

（D） Airline personnel are aware that the government agency is monitoring all airline flights for lateness.

（E） Flights are defined as “late” only if they arrive more that fifteen minutes past their scheduled arrival time, and a record is made of how much alter than fifteen minutes they are.

6. Although this bottle is labeled “vinegar.” no fizzing occurred when some of the liquid in it was added to powder from this box labeled “baking soda.” But when an acidic liquid such as vinegar is added to baking soda the resulting mixture fizzes, so this bottle clearly has been mislabeled.

A flaw in the reasoning in the argument above is that this argument

（A） ignores the possibility that the bottle contained an acidic liquid other than vinegar

（B） fails to exclude an alternative explanation for the observed effect.

（C） depends on the use of the imprecise term “fizz”

（D） does not take into account the fact that scientific principles can be definitively tested only under controlled laboratory conditions

（E） assumes that the fact of a labeling error is proof of an intention to deceive

7. Marine biologists have long thought that variation in the shell color of aquatic snails evolved as a protective camouflage against birds and other predators. Brown shells seem to be more frequent when the underlying seafloor is dark-colored and white shells more frequent when the underlying seafloor is light-colored. A new theory has been advanced, however, that claims that shell color is related to physiological stress associated with heat absorption. According to this theory, brown shells will be more prevalent in areas where the wave action of the sea is great and thus heat absorption from the Sun is minimized, whereas white shells will be more numerous in calmer waters where the snails will absorb more heat from the Sun's rays.

Evidence that would strongly favor the new theory over the traditional theory would be the discovery of a large majority of

（A） dark-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a dark, rocky bottom and many predators

（B） dark-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a white, sandy bottom

（C） light-shelled snails in an inlet with much wave action and a dark, rocky bottom

（D） light-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a dark, rocky bottom and many predators

（E） light-shelled snails in a calm inlet with a white, sandy bottom and many predators