ASP’s - 5

1) The average life expectancy for the United States population as a whole is 73.9 years, but
children born in Hawaii will live an average of 77 years, and those born in Louisiana. 71.1 years.
If a newlywed couple from Louisiana were to begin their family in Hawaii, therefore, their
children would be expected to live longer than would be the case if the family remained in
Louisiana.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn in the passage?

A) Insurance company statisticians do not believe that moving to Hawaii will significantly
lengthen the average Louisianan’s life.
B) The governor of Louisiana has falsely alleged that statistics for his state are inaccurate.
C) The longevity ascribed to Hawaii’s current population is attributable mostly to genetically
determined factors.
D) Thirty percent of all Louisianans can expect to live longer than 77 years.
E) Most of the Hawaiian Islands have levels of air pollution well below the national average for
the United States.

2) Passengers must exit airplanes swiftly after accidents, since gases released following accidents
are toxic to humans and often explode soon after being released. In order to prevent passenger
deaths from gas inhalation, safety officials recommend that passengers be provided with smoke
hoods that prevent inhalation of the gases.

Which of the following, if true, constitutes the strongest reason not to require implementation of
the safety officials’ recommendation?

A) Test evacuations showed that putting on the smoke hoods added considerably to the overall
time it took passengers to leave the cabin.
B) Some airlines are unwilling to buy the smoke hoods because they consider them to be
prohibitively expensive.
C) Although the smoke hoods protect passengers from the toxic gases, they can do nothing to
prevent the gases from igniting.
D) Some experienced flyers fail to pay attention to the safety instructions given on every
commercial flight before takeoff.
E) In many airplane accidents, passengers who were able to reach emergency exits were
overcome by toxic gases before they could exit the airplane.
3) Unlike the wholesale price of raw wool, the wholesale price of raw cotton has fallen considerably
in the last year. Thus, although the retail price of cotton clothing at retail clothing stores has not yet
fallen, it will inevitably fall.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A) The cost of processing raw cotton for cloth has increased during last year.

B) The wholesale price of raw wool is typically higher than that of the same volume of raw cotton.

C) The operating costs of the average retail clothing store have remained constant during the last year.

D) Changes in retail prices always lag behind changes in wholesale prices.

E) The cost of harvesting raw cotton has increased in the last year.

4) Now is an excellent time to invest in the catering business. A survey conducted by Weddings
magazine found that 70 percent of the magazine’s readers want a catered wedding reception. An
analysis of the catering industry, however, shows that the current number of caterers can serve only 55
percent of the weddings likely to occur each year.

Which of the following, if true, reveals a weakness in the evidence cited above?

A) Catering is a highly labour-intensive business.

B) Caterers are not evenly distributed across the country.

C) The number of weddings with catered receptions has been growing each year for the past five years.

D) Readers of Weddings magazine are more likely than most people to want a catered reception.

E) Weddings magazine includes both articles about catered receptions and articles about preparing food
oneself for one’s wedding reception.

5) A study of marital relationships in which one partner’s sleeping and waking cycles differ from those
of the other partner reveals that such couples share fewer activities with each other and have more
violent arguments than do couples in a relationship in which both partners follow the same sleeping
and waking patterns. Thus, mismatched sleeping and waking cycles can seriously jeopardize a marriage.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A) Married couples in which both spouses follow the same sleeping and waking patterns also occasionally
have arguments than can jeopardize the couple’s marriage.

B) The sleeping and waking cycles of individuals tend to vary from season to season.

C) The individuals who have sleeping and waking cycles that differ significantly from those of their spouses
tend to argue little with colleagues at work.
D) People in unhappy marriages have been found to express hostility by adopting a different sleeping and
waking cycle from that of their spouses.

E) According to a recent study, most people’s sleeping and waking cycles can be controlled and modified
easily.

6) Economies in which a high percentage of resources are invested in research and development show
greater growth in the long run than do those in which resources are channelled into consumption.
Japanese workers spend a higher percentage of their income investing in research and development
than do American workers. TO grow as fast as Japan has in the past three decades, the United States
must change the tax code in order to encourage savings and investment and discourage debt.

Which of the following, if true, tends to weaken the argument?

A) Japanese research is more focused on consumers than is research by American firms.

B) Class mobility, highly valued in American culture, is encouraged by a growing rather than a stagnant
economy.

C) Studies have shown that countries with high consumption rates prosper in the short run.

D) Proposed changes to the tax code could involve strict limits on the deductibility of interest, and
increased allowance for research.

E) Because a decreasing percentage of the United States is under 40, an age when savings are traditionally
low, the savings rate will increase without changes to the tax code.

7) Many companies now have employee assistance programs that enable employees, free of charge, to
improve their physical fitness, reduce stress, and learn ways to stop smoking. These programs increase
worker productivity, reduce absenteeism, and lessen insurance costs for employee health care.
Therefore, these programs benefit the company as well as the employee.

Which of the following, if true, most significantly strengthens the conclusion above?

A) Physical fitness programs are often the most popular services offered to employees.

B) Studies have shown that training in stress management is not effective for many people.

C) Regular exercise reduces people’s risk of heart disease and provides them with increased energy.

D) Physical injuries sometimes result from entering a strenuous physical fitness program too quickly.

E) Employee assistance programs require companies to hire people to supervise the various programs
offered.
8) Thousand who suffer heart attacks each year die before reaching a hospital or clinic where they can
benefit from the drugs that dissolve clots found in coronary arteries. The Food and Drug Administration
recently approved a new blood clot-dissolving agent, which a spokesperson claimed could save the lives
of many people who would otherwise join this group of heart victims.

Which of the following statements, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

A) The new agent must be administered by a team of doctors in a hospital or clinic setting.
B) Many heart attack victims die unnecessarily even though they reach a hospital or clinic in time.
C) The new agent can be effectively administered prior to the victim’s arrival at a hospital or clinic.
D) The Food and Drug administration has already approved agents that are at least as effective as
the new drug in dissolving blood clots.
E) The new blood clot-dissolving agent causes kidney damage and irregular heart rates in some
patients.

9) To avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, the board of a major U.S. stock exchange is
considering a new policy that would ban former top executives of the exchange from taking positions
at publicly traded companies for a period of two years after leaving the stock exchange. Critics of the
plan say the policy is unfair because it would likely prevent former top executive of the exchange from
earning a decent living.

Which of the following statements, if true, would must strengthen the prediction made by the critics of the
proposed company policy?

A) The labor union that represents most of the stock exchange’s employees has made public
statements that threaten a strike if the policy is adopted.
B) Former employees of the exchange most often work for publicly traded companies after leaving
the exchange.
C) Low-level managers at the exchange most often leave their jobs for positions with the state or
federal government.
D) Low Level managers at the exchange have an average tenure of 13 years, one of the longest in
the industry.
E) Former top executives of the exchange have a particular set of skills such that they are usually
only able to find work with publicly traded companies.
10) Burger land, a nationwide fast-food chain, recently announced a special promotion dramatically
reducing the price of its most popular burger, the Big and Beefy. This development has provoked a
strong response by the nation’s nutritionists. Citing the extremely high levels of cholesterol in the Big
and Beefy, they predict that the price reduction will have a negative impact on the health of our citizens.

The nutritionists’ argument assumes which of the following?

A) Some consumers induced by the price reduction to purchase the Big and beefy would otherwise
have consumed food lower in cholesterol than the Big and Beefy.
B) Reducing fat consumption is the most important factor in improving one’s diet.
C) Burger Land could not have increased sales of the Big and beefy by reducing its cholesterol
content and appealing to health-conscious consumers.
D) Other fast-food companies will not respond to Burger Land’s announcement by reducing the price
of their own high-cholesterol burgers.
E) Lost revenue due to the price reduction in the Big and Beefy will be offset by an increase in the
number of burgers sold.

11) An efficiency expert made the following suggestion to the manager of a shirt factory- “purchase
larger spools of sewing thread. With more thread to a spool, your operators will not need to stop
production as often to change spools. This will reduce your labor costs.”

The efficiency expert apparently assumes that

A) Thread wound on large spools is not a strong as thread would on smaller spools
B) Sewing machines do not break down and do not require routine maintenance
C) Workers in the factory are paid by the hour rather than on a piecework basis.
D) Machine operators are not allowed to leave their machines during the work period.
E) Speeding up production will improve the quality of the shirts made at the factory.