ANALYSIS OF AN ISSUE
Time—30 minutes
Directions: In this sections you will need to analyze the issue presented below and explain your views on it. The question has no "correct" answer. Instead, you should consider various perspectives as you develop you develop your own position on the issue.
Read the statement and the directions that follow it, and then make any notes in your test booklet that will help you plan your response. Begin writing yoiur response on the separate answer document. Make sure that you use the answer document that goes with this writing task.
"Business relations are infected through and through with the disease of short-sighted motives. We are so concerned with immediate results and short-term goals that we fail to look beyond them."
Assuming that the term "business relations" can refer to the decisions and actions of any organization—for instance, a small family business, a community association, or a large international corporation—for instance, a small family business, a community association, or a large international corporation—explain the extent to which you think that this criticism is valid. In your discussion of the issue, use reasons and/or examples from your own experience, your observation of others or your reading.
ANALYSIS OF AN ARGUMENT
Time—30 minutes
Directions: In section, you will be asked to write a critique of the argument presented below. Note that you are not being asked to present your own views on the subject. Instead, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking, what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion, or what sort of evidence could help strengthen or refute the argument
Read the argument and the instructions that follow it, and then make any notes in your test booklet that will help you plan your response. Begin writing your response on the separate answer document. Make sure that you use the answer documeant that goes with this writing task.
The following appeared in the deitorial section of a newpaper.
"As public concern over drug abuse has increased authorities have become more vigilant in their to prevent illegal drugs from entering the country. Many drug traffickers have consequently switched from marijuana which is bulky, or heroin, which has a market too small to justify the risk of severe punishment, to cocaie Thus cnforcement efforts have ironieally resulted in an observed increase in the illegal use of cocaie."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. You can also discuss what if anything, would make the argument more sound and persuasive or would help you to better evaluate its conclusion.
SECTION 2
Time-25 minutes
16 Questions
Directrons : FOR each question in this section . select the best of the answer choices given .
1. A report on acid rain concluded . "Most forests in Critics are not being damaged by acid rain "Canada of the report insist the conclusion be changed to . "Most forests in Canada do not show visible symptoms of growth or higher morality."
Which of the following if true . provides the best logical justification for the critics insistence that the report s justification for critics insistence that the report s conclusion be changed?
(A) Some forests in Canada are being damaged by acid rain .
(B) Acid rain could be causing damage for which symptoms have not yet become visible .
(C) The report does not compare acid rain damage to Canadian forests with acid rain damage to forests in other countries .
(D) All forests in Canada have received acid ram during the past fifteen years .
(E) The severity of damage by acid rain differs from forest to forest .
2. In the past most airline companies minimized aircraft weight to minimize fuel costs . The safest airline seats were heavy . and airlines equipped their planes with few of these seats year the seat that has sold best to airlines has been the safest one----a clear indication that airlines are assigning a higher priority to safe seating than to minimizing fuel costs .
Which of the following if true. most seriously weakens the argument above ?
(A) I not year s beat selling airline seat was not the safest airline seat on the market
(B) No airline company has announced that it would be making safe seating a higher priority this year (C) The price of fuel was higher this year than it had been in most of the ars when the safest airline seats sold poorly .
(D) Because of increases in the cost of materials all airline seats were more expensive to manufacture this year than in any previous year.
(E) Because of technological innovations, the safest airline seat on the market this year weighet less than most other airline seats on the market.
3. A computer equipped with signature-recognition software, which restricts access to a computer to those people whose signatures are on file, identifies a person s signature by annlyzing not only the form of the signature but also such characteristies as pen pressure and signing speed. Even the most adept forgers cannot duplicate all of the characteristies the program analyzes.
Which of the following can be logically concluded from the passage above?
(A) The time it takes to record and analyze a signature makes the software impractical for everyday use.
(B) Computers equipped with the softwate will same be installed in most banks.
(C) Nobody can gain access to a computer equipped with the software solely by virtue of skill at forging signatures.
(D) Signature-recognition software has taken many years to develop and pericet.
(E) In many cases even authorized users are denied legitimate access to computers equipped with the software.
4. Diavision manager: I want to replace the Microton computers in my division with Vitech computers.
General manager: Why?
Division manager: It costs 28 percent less to train new staff on the Vitech.
General manager: But that is not a good enough reason. We can simply hire only people who already know how to use the Microton computer.
Which of the following if true most sctiously undermines the general manager s lobjection to the replacement of Microton computers with Vitechs?
(A) Currently all employees in the company are required to attend workshops on how to use Microton computers in new applications.
(B) Once employees learn how to use a computer, they tend to change employers more readily than before.
(C) Experienced users of Microton computers command much higher salaries than do prospective employees who have no experience in the use of computers.
(D) The average productivity of employees in the general manager s company is below the average productivity of the employees of its competitors
(E) The high costs of replacement parts make Vitech computers more expensive to mainatin than Microton computers.
5. An airplane engine manufacturer developed a new engine model with safely features lacking in the earlier model, which was still being manufactured During the first year that both were sold, the earlier model far outsold the new model: the manufacturer thus concluded that safety was not the customers primary consideration.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the manufacturer s conclusion?
(A) Both private plane owners and commercial airlines buy engines from this airplane engine manufacturer.
(B) Many customers consider earlier engine models better safety rlaks than new englne makels, since more is usually known about the safety of the earlier models.
(C) Many customers of this airplane engine manufacturet also bought airplane engines from manufactuarers who did not provide additional safety features in their newer models.
(D) The newer engine model can be used in all planes in which the earlier engine model can be used.
(E) There was no significant difference in price between the newer engine model and the earlier engine model.
6. Between 1975 and 1985, nttrsing-home occupancy rates averaged 87 percent of capacity, while admission rates remained constant, at an average of 95 admissions per 1,000 beds per year. Between 1985 and 1988, however, occupancy rates rose to an average of 92 percent of capacity, while admission rates declined to 81 per 1,000 beds per year.
If the statements above are true which of the following conclusions can be most properly drawn?
(A) The average leagth of time nursing-home residents stayed in nursing homes increased between 1985 and 1988.
(B) The proportion of older people living in nursing hostnes was greater In 1988 than in 1975
(C) Nursing home admission rates tend to decline whenever occupancy rates rise.
(D) Nursing homes built prior to 1985 generally had fewer beds than did aursing homes bulit between 1985 and 1988.
(E) The more beds a sursing home has, the higher its occupancy rate is likely to be.
7. Firms adopting "profit-related-
pay" (PRP) contracts pay wages at levels that vary with the flrm s prooths In the metalworking industry last year, firms with PRP contracts in place showed productivity per worker on average 13 percent higher than that of their competitors who used more traditional contracts.
If on the basis of the evidence above, it is argued that PRP contracts increase worker productivity. which of the following if true, would most seriously weaken that graument?
(A) Results similar to those cited for the metalworking industry have been found in other industries where PRP contracts are used
(B) Under PRP contracts costs other than labor costs, such asplant machinery and energy makea up an incrensed proportion of the total cost of-each unit of output.
(C) Because introducing PRP contracts greatly changes individual workers relationships to the firm negotiating the introduction of PRP contracts is complex and time consuming.
(D) Many firms in the metalworking industry have modernized production equipment in the last five years, and most of these introduced PRP contracts at the same time.
(E) In firms in the metalworking industry where PRP contracts are in place the average take-home pay is 15 percent higher than it is in those thrms where workers have more traditional contracts.
8. Crops can be traded on the futures market before they are harvested if a poor corn harvest is predicted prices of corn futures rise; if a bountiful corn harvest is predicted prices of corn futures fall This morning meteorologists are predicting muchneeded rain for the corn-growing region starting tomorrow. Therefore, since adequate moisture is essential for the current crop s survival prices of corn futures will fall sharply today.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?
(A) Corn that does not receive adequate moisture druing its critical pollination stage will not produce a bountiful harvest.
(B) Futures prices for corn have been fluctuating more dramatically this season than last season
(C) The rain that meteorologists predicted for tomorrow is expected to extend well beyond the corn-growing region.
(D) Agriculture experts announced today that a disease that has devastated some of the corn crop will spread widely before the end of the growing season.
(E) Most people who trade in corn futures rarely take physical possession of the corn they trade.
9. A discount reatiler of basic household necessities employs thousands of people and pays most of them at the minimum wagte rate, Yet following a federally mandated increase of the minimum wage rate that increased the retai
Which of the following if true, most helps resoive the apparent paradox?
(A) Over half of the retailer s operating costs consist of payroll expendintres: yet only a small percentage of those expenditures go to pay management salaries
(B) The retailer s customer base is made up primarily of people who earn or who depend on the earnings of others who earn the minimum wage.
(C) The retailer s operating costs other than wages increased substantially after the increase in the minimum wage rate went into effect
(D) When the increase in the minimum wage rate went into effect the retailer also raised the wage rate for employees who had been carning just above minimum wage.
(E) The majority of the retailer s employees work as cashiers and most cashiers are paid the minimum wage.
10. The cotton farms of Country Q became so productive that the market could not abort all that they produced Consequently cotton prices fell. The government tried to boost cotton prices by offering farmers who took 25 percent of their cotton acreage out of production direct support payments up to a specified maximum per farm.
The government s program if successful will not be a net burden on the budget. Which of the following if true is the best basis for an explanation of how this could be so?
(A) Depressed cotton prices meant operating losses for cotton farms, and the government lost revenue from taxes on farm profits
(B) Cotton production in seyeral countries other than Q declined slightly the year that the support-payment program went into effect in Q.
(C) The first year that the support-payment program was in effect cotton acreage in Q was 5% below its level in the base year for the program.
(D) The specified maximum per farm meant that for very large cotton farms the support payments were less pe
