Stanford Review

GRE Trial Class Hand Out

www.stanfordreview.net
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Joseph Priestly, Sr. Verbal Instructor

Reading comprehension reasoning questions

1. Gortland has long been narrowly self-sufficient in both grain and meat. However,
as per capita income in Gortland has risen toward the world average, per capita
consumption of meat has also risen toward the world average, and it takes several
pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. Therefore, since per capita income
continues to rise, whereas domestic grain production will not increase, Gortland will
soon have to import either grain or meat or both.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
(A) The total acreage devoted to grain production in Gortland will not decrease
substantially.
(B) The population of Gortland has remained relatively constant during the countrys
years of growing prosperity.
(C) The per capita consumption of meat in Gortland is roughly the same across all
income levels.
(D) In Gortland, neither meat nor grain is subject to government price controls.
(E) People in Gortland who increase their consumption of meat will not radically
decrease their consumption of grain.

2. In a certain wildlife park, park rangers are able to track the movements of many
rhinoceroses because those animals wear radio collars. When, as often happens, a
collar slips off, it is put back on. Putting a collar on a rhinoceros involves
immobilizing the animal by shooting it with a tranquilizer dart. Female rhinoceroses
that have been frequently recollared have significant lower fetility rate than
uncollared females. Probably, therefore, some subtances in the tranquilizer inhibit
fertility.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. The dose of tranquilizer delivered by a tranquilizer dart is large enough to give

the rangers putting collars on rhinoceroses a generous margin of safety.
B. The fertility rate of uncollared female rhinoceroses in the park has been
increasing in the past few decades.
C. Any stress that female rhinoceroses may suffer as a result of being immobilized
and handled has little or no negative effect on their fertility.
D. The male rhinoceroses in the wildlife park do not lose their collars as often as the
park's female rhinoceroses do.
E. The tranquilizer used in immobilizing rhinoceroses is the same as the tranquilizer
used in working with other large mammals.
3. Traditionally, decision-making by managers that is reasoned step-by-step has
been considered preferable to intuitive decision-making. However, a recent study
found that top managers used intuition significantly more than did most middle- or
lower-level managers. This confirms the alternative view that intuition is actually
more effective than careful, methodical reasoning.
The conclusion above is based on which of the following assumptions?
(A) Methodical, step-by-step reasoning is inappropriate for making many real-life
management decisions.
(B) Top managers have the ability to use either intuitive reasoning or methodical,
step-by-step reasoning in making decisions.
(C) The decisions made by middle- and lower-level managers can be made as easily
by using methodical reasoning as by using intuitive reasoning.
(D) Top managers use intuitive reasoning in making the majority of their decisions.
(E) Top managers are more effective at decision-making than middle- or lower-level
managers.

Reading Comprehension general questions

Tocqueville, apparently, was wrong. Jacksonian America was not a fluid, egalitarian
society where individual wealth and poverty were ephemeral conditions. At least so
argues E. Pessen in his iconoclastic study of the very rich in the United States
between 1825 and 1850.

Pessen does present a quantity of examples, together with some refreshingly

intelligible statistics, to establish the existence of an inordinately wealthy class.
Though active in commerce or the professions, most of the wealthy were not selfmade, but had inherited family fortunes. In no sense mercurial, these great fortunes
survived the financial panics that destroyed lesser ones. Indeed, in several cities the
wealthiest one percent constantly increased its share until by 1850 it owned half of
the communitys wealth. Although these observations are true, Pessen
overestimates their importance by concluding from them that the undoubted
progress toward inequality in the late eighteenth century continued in the
Jacksonian period and that the United States was a class-ridden, plutocratic society
even before industrialization.

1. According to the passage, Pessen indicates that all of the following were true of
the very wealthy in the United States between 1825 and 1850 EXCEPT:
(A) They formed a distinct upper class.
(B) Many of them were able to increase their holdings.
(C) Some of them worked as professionals or in business.
(D) Most of them accumulated their own fortunes.
(E) Many of them retained their wealth in spite of financial upheavals.
2. The authors attitude toward Pessens presentation of statistics can be best
described as
(A) disapproving
(B) shocked
(C) suspicious
(D) amused
(E) laudatory
3. Which of the following best states the authors main point?
(A) Pessens study has overturned the previously established view of the social and
economic structure of early nineteenth-century America.
(B) Tocquevilles analysis of the United States in the Jacksonian era remains the
definitive account of this period.

(C) Pessens study is valuable primarily because it shows the continuity of the social
system in the United States throughout the nineteenth century.
(D) The social patterns and political power of the extremely wealthy in the United
States between 1825 and 1850 are well documented.
(E) Pessen challenges a view of the social and economic system in the United States
from 1825 to 1850, but he draws conclusions that are incorrect.

SENTENCE EQUIVALENCE
1. The prize competition was ____ as a showcase for new technology, but instead
the competition was marred by disqualifications and disputes.
A. disappointing
B. conceived
C. touted
D. heralded
E. promising
F. required
2. The new institute provides intensive postgraduate teaching to a wide range of
students, in the hope that these students will use their knowledge to boost the
country's ____ economy.
A. languishing
B. emerging
C. booming
D. domestic
E. bankrupt
F. flagging

3. Those with a reputation for ____ behavior seldom inspire respect: unwavering
adherence to a viewpoint is more admired than flexibility.

A. capricious
B. bombastic
C. dogmatic
D. fickle
E. honorable
F. stalwart
TEXT COMPLETION

1. Stress-induced amnesia is a rare and (i)____ phenomenon; it strikes the patient

apparently without warning and the memory loss can be as (i)____ as that induced
by (iii)____ trauma.
Blank (i)
A. devastating
Unexpected

D. generic

B. venial
Mental

E. limited

C. pervasive
Physical

F. complete

2. When staying in a hotel, Bernard would arrange for his valet to bring him his
newspaper in the dining room so that everyone would realize that he had a
manservant; this (i)____ embarrassed his nephew who, though equally rich,
preferred a more (ii)____ life-style.
Blank (i)
A. ostentation
B. arrogance
C. dissimulation

D. opulent
E. Libertine
F. understated

3. Although he was finally (i)____, the years of (ii)____ tore apart his social circle,
ruined his health and (iii)____ his mind.

G.
H.
I.

Blank (i)
A. incriminated

D. dedication

G. sharpened

B. vindicated

E. self-doubt

H. deranged

C. acclaimed
mellowed

F. suspicion

I.