GRE Preparation Kit 7 - Section 1

[Samuel]

SECTION 1

1. The Environmental Protection Agency must  respond to the hazard to children's health posed by exposure to asbestos
    fibers released in the air in school classrooms. Since it is impossible to close school buildings, the best plan would be to 
    initiate programs that mandate the immediate removal of asbestos from all the school buildings that are found to contain
    asbestos, regardless of whether or not the buildings are in use. Which of the following, if true, is the strongest reason for
    the Environmental Protection Agency not to follow the plan outlined above?
    (A) The techniques available for removing asbestos often increase the level of airborne asbestos.
    (B) Schools are places where asbestos is especially likely to be released into the air by the action of the occupants.
    (C) Children exposed to airborne asbestos run a greater risk of developing cancer than do adults exposed to airborne
          asbestos.
    (D) The cost of removing asbestos varies from school to school, depending on accessibility and the quantity of asbestos to
          be removed.
    (E) It is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty if and when construction materials that contain asbestos will
          break down and release asbestos fibers into the air.

2. Aedes albopictus, a variety of mosquito that has recently established itself in the southeastern United States, is less
    widespread than the indigenous swamp mosquito. Both the swamp mosquito and A. albopictus can carry viruses that
    are sometimes fatal to humans, but A. albopictus is a greater danger to public health. Each of the following, if true,
    provides additional information that strengthens the judgment given about the danger to public health EXCEPT:
    (A) Unlike the swamp mosquito, A. albopictus originated in Asia, and larvae of it were not observed in the United States
          before the mid- 1980's.
    (B) Unlike the swamp mosquito, A. albopictus tends to spend most of its adult life near human habitation.
    (C) Unlike swamp mosquito larvae, A. albopictus larvae survive in flower pots, tin cans, and many small household
          objects that hold a little water.
    (D) In comparison with the swamp mosquito, A. albopictus hosts a much wider variety of viruses known to cause serious
          diseases in humans.
    (E) A. albopictus seeks out a much wider range of animal hosts than does the swamp mosquito, and it is more likely to
          bite humans.

Questions 3-8

The manager of a horse show is placing seven obstacles-one chicken coop, one gate, two stone walls, and three fences-on a jumping course that consists of seven positions, numbered and arranged consecutively from 1 to 7. The placement of the obstacles in the seven positions must conform to the following conditions:
No two fences can be placed in consecutive positions.
The stone walls must be placed in consecutive positions.

3. Which of the following is an acceptable placement of obstacles in the seven positions, in order from the first position to the
    last position on the course?
    (A) Chicken coop, fence, gate, stone wall, fence, stone wall, fence
    (B) Fence, gate, fence, fence, chicken coop, stone wall, stone wall
    (C) Fence, stone wall, stone wall, gate, chicken coop, fence, fence
    (D) Gate, stone wall, stone wall, fence, fence, chicken coop, fence
    (E) Stone wall, stone wall, fence, chicken coop, fence, gate, fence

4. If one of the fences is in the third position and another is in the sixth position, which of the following must be true?
    (A) The chicken coop is in the seventh position.
    (B) The gate is in the second position.
    (C) The gate is in the seventh position.
    (D) One of the stone walls is in the first position.
    (E) One of the stone walls is in the fourth position.

5. If one of the stone walls is in the seventh position, which of the following must be FALSE?
    (A) The chicken coop is in the second position.
    (B) The chicken coop is in the fourth position.
    (C) One of the fences is in the first position.
    (D) One of the fences is in the second position.
    (E) The gate is in the fourth position.

6. Which of the following CANNOT be the positions occupied by the three fences?
    (A) First, third, and fifth
    (B) First, third, and sixth
    (C) Second, fourth, and sixth
    (D) Second, fourth, and seventh
    (E) Third, fifth, and seventh

7. If a stone wall is placed immediately after the gate, which of the following is a complete and accurate list of the positions
    in which the gate can be placed?
    (A) Second, third
    (B) Second, fourth
    (C) Third, fourth
    (D) Second, third, fourth
    (E) Third, fourth, fifth

8. If the chicken coop is not placed immediately after any fence, which of the following is a complete and accurate list of the
    positions in which the chicken coop can be placed?
    (A) First, second, third
    (B) First, third, fourth
    (C) First, fourth, sixth
    (D) First, second, third, fourth
    (E) First, third, fourth, sixth

9. A person's cholesterol level will decline significantly if that person increases the number of meals eaten per day, but only if
    there is no significant increase in the amount of food eaten. However, most people who increase the number of meals
    they eat each day will eat a lot more food as well. If the statements above are true, which of the following is most 
    strongly supported by them?
    (A) For most people, cholesterol level is not significantly affected by the amount of food eaten per day.
    (B) For most people, the amount of food eaten per meal is most strongly affected by the time of day at which the meal is
          eaten.
   (C) For most people, increasing the number of meals eaten per day will not result in a significantly lower cholesterol level.
   (D) For most people, the total amount of food eaten per day is unaffected by the number of meals eaten per day.
   (E) For most people, increasing the number of meals eaten per day will result in a significant change in the types of food
        eaten.

10. A certain type of dinnerware made in Ganandia contains lead. Lead can leach into acidic foods, and Ganandians tend to
      eat highly acidic foods. However, the extreme rarity of lead poisoning in Ganandia indicates that the dinnerware does not
      contain dangerous amounts of lead. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
      (A) The dinnerware is produced exclusively for sale outside Ganandia.
      (B) Ganandian foods typically are much more acidic than foods anywhere else in the world.
      (C) The only source of lead poisoning in Ganandia is lead that has leached into food.
      (D) Most people who use the dinnerware are not aware that it contains lead.
      (E) Acidic foods can leach lead from dinnerware even if that dinnerware has a protective coating.

Question 11 is based on the following graph.

EFFECTIVENESS OF DRUG X IN ERADICATING A BACTERIAL LUNG INFECTION IN ADULT PATIENTS

Point During the Course of the Infection at Which Drug X Was First Administered to Patients (in weeks following the onset of symptoms)

11. Drug X, which kills on contact the bacteria that cause the infection, is administered to patients by means of an aerosol
      inhaler. Which of the following, if true, contributes most to explaining the change in drug X's effectiveness during the 
      course of the infection?
     (A) Symptoms of the infection usually become evident during the first 48 hours following infection.
     (B) Most patients with lung infections say they prefer aerosol inhalers to other means of administering antibacterial drugs.
     (C) In most patients taking drug X, the dosage administered is increased slightly each week until symptoms disappear.
     (D) In patients who have the infection, the ability to inhale becomes increasingly impaired beginning in the second week
           after the onset of symptoms.
     (E) Drug X is not administered to any patient  who shows signs of suffering from secondary infections.

12. Sergeant  Our police academy no longer requires its applicants to pass a physical examination before being admitted to
      the academy. As a result, several candidates with weak hearts and high blood pressure have been admitted. Hence, we
      can expect our future police force to have more health problems than our current police force. Knowledge of each of the
      following would be relevant to determining the reliability of the sergeant's prediction EXCEPT whether
      (A) police officer candidates are screened for high blood pressure before joining the police force
      (B) the police officer candidates who are not healthy now are likely to be unhealthy as police officers
      (C) graduates of the police academy are required to pass a physical examination
      (D) the health of the current police officer candidates is worse than was the health of police officer candidates in the past
      (E) a police officer's health is a reliable indicator of the officer's performance

Questions 13-16

A transcontinental railroad train has exactly eight cars— J, K, L, M, N, O, P, and R— bound for several different destinations. The positions of the cars in any ordering of the train are numbered first through eighth from the front of the train. Because  he cars will be detached at different points, certain ordering requirements must be met, as follows:
J must be somewhere behind M in the train.
K must be immediately in front of or immediately behind P.
O must be in front of N, and exactly one car must be betw een them.
R must be among the frontmost four cars and somewhere behind O.

13. Which of the following represents a possible order for the cars, from the front to the rear of the train?
     (A) L, M, O, R, N, J, K,P
     (B) M, K, P, O, R, N, L, J
     (C) M, L, O, R, N, K, J, P
     (D) O, R, M, N, P, K, J, L
     (E) P, K, R, L, O, M, N, J

14. If K is the first car, then the last car must be either
      (A) J or L
      (B) J or M
      (C) L or M
      (D) L or N
      (E) M or N

15. Which of the following can be neither the first nor the last car?
      (A) J (B) K (C) L (D) M (E) N

16. If R is somewhere behind N, which of the following must be true?
      (A) O is the first car.
      (B) M is the second car.
      (C) Either K or P is the last car.
      (D) L is one of the last four cars.
      (E) J is somewhere in front of K.

Questions 17-22

A mining company is planning a survey of exactly six regions-F, G, H, I, K, and L-for deposits of platinum and uranium. Each region will contain one of four possible combinations of minerals-both platinum and uranium, neither platinum nor uranium, platinum and no uranium, or uranium and no platinum. Prior to conducting a detailed survey, the mining company has the following information:
Exactly as many of the regions contain platinum deposits as contain uranium deposits.
Region F contains exactly the same deposits as does region H.
Regions G and I both contain uranium deposits.
Regions H and K both contain platinum deposits.
Regions G and L either both contain platinum deposits or neither of them does.

17. If there are exactly four regions that contain platinum deposits, these four could be
      (A) F, G, H, and K
      (B) F, G, H, and L
      (C) F, H, I, and K
      (D) F, H, K, and L
      (E) G, H, K, and L

18. If some region contains neither platinum deposits nor uranium deposits, it must be
      (A) F (B) G (C) H (D) I (E) L

19. If one of the six regions contains deposits of neither platinum deposits nor uranium deposits, which of the following
      CANNOT contain platinum deposits?
      (A) F (B) G (C) H (D) I (E) K

20. If exactly one region contains no platinum deposits, it must be
      (A) F (B) G (C) I (D) K (E) L

21. If K is the only region containing platinum deposits but no uranium deposits, which of the following must be two of the
      regions that contain both platinum deposits and uranium deposits?
      (A) F and G (B) F and H (C) G and L
      (D) H and I (E) I and L

22. If no region contains deposits of both platinum and uranium, which of the following must be true?
      (A) F contains uranium deposits.
      (B) G contains platinum deposits.
      (C) I contains platinum deposits.
      (D) K contains uranium deposits.
      (E) L contains uranium deposits.

23. Because adult iguanas on Plazos Island are much smaller than adult iguanas of the same species on nearby islands,
      researchers assumed that  nvironmental conditions on Plazos favor the survival of relatively smaller baby iguanas
     (hatchlings) in each yearly brood. They discovered instead that for each of the past three years, 10 percent of the 
      smaller and 40 percent of the larger hatchlings survived, because larger hatchlings successfully evade their predators.
      Which of the following, if true about Plazos but not about nearby islands, contributes most to an explanation of the long-
      standing tendency of iguanas on Plazos to be smaller than those of the same age on nearby islands?
      (A) Periodic wind shifts cause extended dry spells on Plazos every year, putting the larger iguanas, whose bodies require
            relatively more water, at a great disadvantage.
      (B) There are exactly three species of iguanas on Plazos but only two species of seagulls that feed on iguanas, and a
            relatively small percentage of each year's hatchlings are consumed by seagulls.
      (C) Wild cats, which were introduced as pets by  arly settlers and which were formerly major predators of Plazos
             iguanas, were recently killed off by a disease specific to cats.
      (D) The iguanas on Plazos are a relatively  ncient part of the island's animal life.
      (E) Both land and marine iguanas live on Plazos, and the land iguanas tend to be larger than marine iguanas of the same
           age.

24. Every human being who has ever lived had two parents. Therefore, more people were alive three thousand years ago
      than are alive now. The reasoning in the argument is flawed because  it
      (A) overlooks the number of people in each generation during the last three thousand years who left no descendants
      (B) disregards possible effects of disasters such as famines and plagues on human history
      (C) overestimates the mathematical effect of repeated doublings on population size
      (D) fails to take into account that people now alive have overlapping sets of ancestors
      (E) fails to consider that accurate estimation of the number of people alive three thousand years ago might be impossible

25. Each of the academic journals Thought and Ergo has a review committee to prevent misattributed quotations from 
      appearing in its published  rticles. Nevertheless, about ten percent of the quotations in Thought's published articles are
      misattributed, whereas Ergo contains no misattributions. Ergo's committee is more effective, therefore, than Thought's at
      finding misattributed quotations. The argument above assumes that
      (A) most of the articles submitted to Thought for publication contain misattributed quotations
      (B) there are at least some misattributed quotations in articles submitted to Ergo for publication
      (C) the members of Ergo's committee are, o n the whole, more knowledgeable than are the members of Thought's
           committee
      (D) the number of misattributed quotations in a  ournal is an accurate measure of how carefully that journal is edited
      (E) the authors who submit articles to Ergo for  ublication are more thorough in attributing quotations than are the 
            authors who submit articles to Thought