Critical Reasoning

The amount of time it takes for most of a worker’s occupational knowledge and skills to become obsolete has been declining because of the introduction of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). Given the rate at which AMT is currently being introduced in manufacturing, the average worker’s old skills become obsolete and new skills are required within as little as five years.

Which of the following plans, if feasible, would allow a company to prepare most effectively for the rapid obsolescence of skills described above?

• The company will develop a program to offer

  selected employees the opportunity to receive

  training six years after they were originally hired.

• The company will increase its investment in AMT

  every year for a period of at least five years.

• The company will periodically survey its employees to determine how the introduction of

  AMT has affected them.

• Before the introduction of AMT, the company will

  institute an educational program to inform its

  employees of the probable consequences of the introduction of AMT.

• The company will ensure that it can offer its employees any training necessary for meeting their job requirements.

In virtually any industry, technological improvements increase labor productivity, which is the output of goods and services per person-hour worked. In Parland’s industries, labor productivity is significantly higher than it is in Vergia’s industries. Clearly, therefore, Parland’s industries must, on the whole, be further advanced technologically than Vergia’s are.

The argument is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms?

• It offers a conclusion that is no more than a

  paraphrase of one of the pieces of information

  provided in its support.

• It presents as evidence in support of a claim information that is inconsistent with other evidence presented in support of the same claim.

• It takes one possible cause of a condition to be the actual cause of that condition without considering any other possible causes.

• It takes a condition to be the effect of

  something that happened only after the condition already existed.

• It makes a distinction that presupposes the

  truth of the conclusion that is to be established.

Traverton’s city council wants to minimize the city’s average yearly expenditures on its traffic signal lights and so

is considering replacing the incandescent bulbs currently in use with arrays of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as the

incandescent bulbs burn out. Compared to incandescent bulbs, LED arrays consume significantly less energy

and cost no more to purchase. Moreover, the costs associated with the conversion of existing fixtures so as to

accept LED arrays would be minimal.

Which of the following would it be most useful to know in determining whether switching to LED arrays would be likely to help minimize Traverton’s yearly maintenance costs?

• Whether the expected service life of LED arrays is at least as long as that of the currently used

  incandescent bulbs

• Whether any cities have switched from incandescent lights in their traffic signals to lighting elements other than LED arrays

• Whether the company from which Traverton currently buys incandescent bulbs for traffic signals also sells

  LED arrays

• Whether Traverton’s city council plans to increase the number of traffic signal lights in Traverton

• Whether the crews that currently replace incandescent bulbs in Traverton’s traffic signals know how to

  convert the existing fixtures so as to accept LED arrays

In order to reduce the number of items damaged while in transit to customers, packaging consultants

recommended that the TrueSave mail-order company increase the amount of packing material so as to fill any empty spaces in its cartons. Accordingly, TrueSave officials instructed the company’s packers to use more

packing material than before, and the packers zealously acted on these instructions and used as much as they

could. Nevertheless, customer reports of damaged items rose somewhat.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain why acting on the consultants’ recommendation failed to

achieve its goal?

• The change in packing policy led to an increase in expenditure on packing material and labor.

• When packing material is compressed too densely, it loses some of its capacity to absorb shock.

• The amount of packing material used in a carton does not significantly influence the ease with which a customer can unpack the package.

• Most of the goods that TrueSave ships are electronic products that are highly vulnerable to being damaged in transit.

• TrueSave has lost some of its regular customers as a result of the high number of damaged items they received.

In Washington County, attendance at the movies is just large enough for the cinema operators to make modest profits. The size of the county’s population is stable and is not expected to increase much. Yet there are investors ready to double the number of movie screens in the county within five years, and they are predicting solid profits both for themselves and for the established cinema operators.

Which of the following, if true about Washington County, most helps to provide a justification for the investors’ prediction?

• Over the next ten years, people in their teenage years, the prime moviegoing age, will be a rapidly growing proportion of the county’s population.

• As distinct from the existing cinemas, most of the cinemas being planned would be located in downtown

  areas, in hopes of stimulating an conomic revitalization of those areas.

• Spending on video purchases, as well as spending on video rentals, has been increasing modestly each

  year for the past ten years.

• The average number of screens per cinema is lower among existing cinemas than it is among cinemas still in the planning stages.

• The sale of snacks and drinks in cinemas accounts for a steadily growing share of most cinema operators’

  profits.

For similar cars and comparable drivers, automobile insurance for collision damage has always cost more in Greatport than in Fairmont. Police studies, however, show that cars owned by Greatport residents are, on average, slightly less likely to be involved in a collision than cars in Fairmont. Clearly, therefore, insurance companies are making a greater profit on collision-damage insurance in Greatport than in Fairmont.

In evaluating the argument, it would be most useful to compare

• the level of traffic congestion in Greatport with the level of traffic congestion in Fairmont

• the cost of repairing collision damage in Greatport with the cost of repairing collision damage in Fairmont

• the rates Greatport residents pay for other forms of insurance with the rates paid for similar insurance by

  residents of Fairmont

• the condition of Greatport’s roads and streets with the condition of Fairmont’s roads and streets

• the cost of collision-damage insurance in Greatport and Fairmont with that in other cities

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

Ferber’s syndrome, a viral disease that frequently affects cattle, is transmitted to these animals through infected feed. Even though chickens commercially raised for meat are often fed the type of feed identified as the source of infection in cattle, Ferber’s syndrome is only rarely observed in chickens. This fact, however, does not indicate that most chickens are immune to the virus that causes Ferber’s syndrome, since .

• chickens and cattle are not the only kinds of farm animal that are typically fed the type of feed liable to be

  contaminated with the virus that causes Ferber’s syndrome

• Ferber’s syndrome has been found in animals that have not been fed the type of feed liable to be contaminated with the virus that can cause the disease

• resistance to some infectious organisms such as the virus that causes Ferber’s syndrome can be acquired by exposure to a closely related infectious organism

• chickens and cattle take more than a year to show symptoms of Ferber’s syndrome, and chickens commercially raised for meat, unlike cattle, are generally brought to market during the first year of life

• the type of feed liable to be infected with the virus that causes Ferber’s syndrome generally constitutes a

  larger proportion of the diet of commercially raised chickens than of commercially raised cattle

Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?

Although the number of large artificial satellites orbiting the Earth is small compared to the number of small

pieces of debris in orbit, the large satellites interfere more seriously with telescope observations because of the

strong reflections they produce. Because many of those large satellites have ceased to function, the proposal

has recently been made to eliminate interference from nonfunctioning satellites by exploding them in space.

This proposal, however, is ill conceived, since -------------.

• many nonfunctioning satellites remain in orbit for years

• for satellites that have ceased to function, repairing them while they are in orbit would be prohibitively

  expensive

• there are no known previous instances of satellites’ having been exploded on purpose

• the only way to make telescope observations without any interference from debris in orbit is to use

  telescopes launched into extremely high orbits around the Earth

• a greatly increased number of small particles in Earth’s orbit would result in a blanket of reflections that

  would make certain valuable telescope observations impossible

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?

• The inflation figures were computed on the basis of a representative sample of economic data rather than all of the available data.

• Last year a dip in oil prices brought inflation temporarily below its recent stable annual level of 4 percent.

• 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.

• The 1.2 percent rate of inflation last year represented a 10-year low.

• Government intervention cannot affect the rate of inflation to any significant degree.

Crowding on Mooreville’s subway frequently leads to delays, because it is difficult for passengers to exit from

the trains. Subway ridership is projected to increase by 20 percent over the next 10 years. The Mooreville

Transit Authority plans to increase the number of daily train trips by only 5 percent over the same period.

Officials predict that this increase is sufficient to ensure that the incidence of delays due to crowding does not

increase.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest grounds for the officials’ prediction?

• By changing maintenance schedules, the Transit Authority can achieve the 5 percent increase in train trips

  without purchasing any new subway cars.

• The Transit Authority also plans a 5 percent increase in the number of bus trips on routes that connect to

  subways.

• For most commuters who use the subway system, there is no practical alternative public transportation

  available.

• Most of the projected increase in ridership is expected to occur in off-peak hours when trains are now sparsely used.

• The 5 percent increase in the number of train trips can be achieved without an equal increase in Transit

  Authority operational costs.