GWD-TN-14-23.
Because visual inspection cannot reliably distinguish certain skin discolorations from skin cancers, dermatologists at clinics have needed to perform tests of skin tissue taken from patients. At Westville Hospital, dermatological diagnostic costs were reduced by the purchase of a new imaging machine that diagnoses skin cancer in such cases as reliably as the tissue tests do. Consequently, even though the machine is expensive, a dermatological clinic in Westville is considering buying one to reduce diagnostic costs.
Which of the following would it be most useful for the clinic to establish in order to make its decision?
A. Whether the visits of patients who require diagnosis of skin discolorations tend to be shorter in duration at the clinic than at the hospital
B. Whether the principles on which the machine operates have been known to science for a long time
C. Whether the machine at the clinic would get significantly less heavy use than the machine at the hospital does
D. Whether in certain cases of skin discoloration, visual inspection is sufficient to make a diagnosis of skin cancer
E. Whether hospitals in other parts of the country have purchased such imaging machines
GWD-TN-15-11.
Escalating worldwide demand for corn has led to a sharp increase in the market price of corn, and corn prices are likely to remain high. Corn is extensive used as feed for livestock, and because profit margins are tight in the livestock business, many farmers are expected to leave the business. With fewer suppliers, meat prices will surely rise. Nonetheless, observers expect an immediate short-term decrease in meat prices.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to justify the observers’ expectation?
A. The increase in corn prices is due more to a decline in the supply of corn than to a growth in demand for it.
B. Generally, farmers who are squeezed out of the livestock business send their livestock to market much earlier than they otherwise would.
C. Some people who ate meat regularly in the past are converting to diets that include little or no meat.
D. As meat prices rise, the number of livestock producers is likely to rise again.
E. Livestock producers who stay in the business will start using feed other than corn more extensively than they did in the past.
GWD-TN-16-40.
Plantings of cotton bioengineered to produce its own insecticide against bollworms, a major cause of crop failure, sustained little bollworm damage until this year. This year the plantings are being seriously damaged by bollworms. Bollworms, however, are not necessarily developing resistance to the cotton’s insecticide. Bollworms breed on corn, and last year more corn than usual was planted throughout cotton-growing regions. So it is likely that the cotton is simply being overwhelmed by corn-bred bollworms.
In evaluating the argument, which of the following would be most useful to establish?
A. Whether corn could be bioengineered to produce the insecticide
B. Whether plantings of cotton that does not produce the insecticide are suffering unusually extensive damage from bollworms this year
C. Whether other crops that have been bioengineered to produce their own insecticide successfully resist the pests against which the insecticide was to protect them
D. Whether plantings of bioengineered cotton are frequently damaged by insect pests other than bollworms
E. Whether there are insecticides that can be used against bollworms that have developed resistance to the insecticide produced by the bioengineered cotton
