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50. Which one of the following most accurately describes a reasoning error in Laura’s argument?

A. It purports to establish its conclusion by making a claim that, if true, would actually contradict that conclusion.
B. It mistakenly assumes that the quality of a person’s character can legitimately be taken to guarantee the accuracy of the claims that person has made.
C. It mistakes something that is necessary for its conclusion to follow for something that ensures that the conclusion follows.
D. It uses the term “provable” without defining it.
E. It fails to distinguish between a true claim that has mistakenly between believed to be false and a false claim that has mistakenly been believed to be true.

答案：C
思路：
Laura的论证过程：该理论已证明—>P没有说谎，他的CLAIM对。理论对并不能表明是P证明的，这只是必要条件，不是充分条件。

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51. People who have political power tend to see new technologies as a means of extending or protecting their power, whereas they generally see new ethical arguments and ideas as a threat to it. Therefore, technical ingenuity usually brings benefits to those who have this ingenuity, whereas ethical inventiveness brings only pain to those who have this inventiveness.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the argument?

A. Those who offer new ways of justifying current political power often reap the benefits of their own innovations.
B. Politically powerful people tend to reward those who they believe are useful to them and to punish those who they believe are a threat.
C. Ethical inventiveness and technical ingenuity are never possessed by the same individuals
D. New technologies are often used by people who strive to defeat those who currently have political power.
E. Many people who possess ethical inventiveness conceal their novel ethical arguments for fear of retribution by the politically powerful.

B is correct. The passage reaches the conclusion that technical ingenuity usually brings benefits to those who have this ingenuity, whereas ethical inventiveness brings only pain to those who have this inventiveness. However the only reason is that People who have political power tend to see new technologies as a means of extending or protecting their power, whereas they generally see new ethical arguments and ideas as a threat to it. From the reason to the conclusion, there is a jump of concept. We need a link for the 2 concepts: people who have political power and the ingenuity. Choice B, by establishing the link, provides the strongest support. Choice B is actually an assumption for the argument.
A, C does not bear on the reasoning of the passage. D weakens the argument. E does not concern, because what many people do has nothing to do with the conclusion.

52. Birds need so much food energy to maintain their body temperatures that some of them spend most of their time eating. But a comparison of a bird of a seed-eating species to a bird of a nectar-eating species that has the same overall energy requirement would surely show that the seed-eating bird spends more time eating than does the nectar-eating bird, since a given amount of nectar provides more energy than does the same amount of seeds

The argument relies on which one of the following questionable assumptions

A. Birds of different species do not generally have the same overall energy requirements as each other
B. The nectar-eating bird does not sometimes also eat seeds
C. The time it takes for the nectar-eating bird to eat a given amount of nectar is not longer than the time it takes the seed-eating bird to eat the same amount of seeds
D. The seed-eating bird does not have a lower body temperature than that of the nectar-eating bird
E. The overall energy requirements of a given bird do not depend on factors such as the size of the bird, its nest-building habits; and the climate of the region in which it lives

这就是一个排除它因型假设呀！为什么一定要去反呢在去看呢，好像这里好多网友都在这么做。 即使取反，那肯定削弱了原来命题：它因存在，不是吃得多，而是吃得慢造成的时间花费差异。--- dorbear

Nectar鸟和seed鸟需要能量一样多，但nectar食物单个能量大，所以nectar鸟吃的数量少。结论：nectar鸟吃东西花的时间少。 使以上必然成立的条件（assumption)是nectar鸟一定吃的更快，不然还是有可能花的时间比seed鸟多。和C相反，所以c questionable。---- seanql

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53. When investigators discovered that the director of a local charity had repeatedly overstated the number of people his charity had helped, the director accepted responsibility for the deception. However, the investigators claims that journalists were as much to blame as the director was for inflating the charity’s reputation, since they had naively accepted what the director told them, and simply reported as fact the numbers he gave them.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the investigators’ claim

A. Anyone who works for a charitable organization is obliged to be completely honest about the activities of that organization.
B. Anyone who knowingly aids a liar by trying to conceal the truth from others is also a liar.
C. Anyone who presents as factual a story that turns out to be untrue without first attempting to verify that story is no less responsible for the consequences of that story than anyone else is.
D. Anyone who lies in order to advance his or her own career is more deserving of blame than someone who lies in order to promote a good cause.
E. Anyone who accepts responsibility for a wrongful act that he or she committed is less deserving of blame than someone who tries to conceal his or her own wrongdoing.

同51题：

参考思路：加强型题型。

对作者的论述，进行简单归纳形成加强。Anyone who presents as factual a story that turns out to be untrue without first attempting to verify that story is no less responsible for the consequences of that story than anyone else is.

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54. Telephone companies are promoting “voice mail” as an alternative to the answering machine. By recording messages from callers when a subscriber does not have access to his or her telephone, voice mail provides a service similar to that of an answering machine. The companies promoting this service argue that it will soon make answering machines obsolete, since it is much more convenient, more flexible, and less expensive than an answering machine.

Which one of the following, if true, most calls into question the argument made by the companies promoting voice mail?

A. Unlike calls made to owners of answering machines, all telephone calls made to voice-mail subscribers are completed, even if the line called is in use at the time of the call.
B. The surge in sales of answering machines occurred shortly after they were first introduced to the electronics market.
C. Once a telephone customer decides to subscribe to voice mail, that customer can cancel the service at any time.
D. Answering machines enable the customer to hear who is calling before the customer decides whether to answer the telephone, a service voice mail does not provide.
E. The number of messages a telephone answering machine can record is limited by the length of the magnetic tape on which calls are recorded

答案: D
思路: 段落论述X方式(voice mail)在某些方面的优点大于Y方式(answering machine), 将会导致Y的过时, 此时weaken的方向在于找出X劣于Y的缺点,或Y优于X的优点.
A. 提到voice mail的优点,对段落支持.
B. 无关选项,answering machine的销售情况与段落无关
C. 无关选项, 客户可在任何时间取消voice mail, 无X,Y的优劣比较
D. 正确, 提出了answering machine优于voice mail的优点.
E. 提出answering machine的缺点,支持了段落.

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Questions 55-56
The simple facts are these: the number of people killed each year by bears is about the same as the number of people killed by lightning of golf courses. And the number of people killed by lightning on golf courses each year is about the same as the number of people electrocuted by electric blenders. All the horrible myths and gruesome stories aside, therefore a grizzly bear is in fact about as dangerous as an electric blender or a game of golf.

55. Which one of the following is an assumption that the author relies upon in the passage?

A. Most incidents involving grizzly bears are fatal.
B. Grizzly bears are no longer the danger they once were.
C. The number of fatalities per year is an adequate indication of something’s dangerousness.
D. A golf course is a particularly dangerous place to be in a thunderstorm.
E. Something is dangerous only if it results in death in the majority of cases.

答案: C
思路: 搭桥法, 建立A与B的联系. 文章由三种情况导致people的死亡数量相同的事实推理到此三种情况的危险度相同,此时要找出死亡数量与危险度的关系.
A, B, D分别讲述了grizzly bear的伤害是致命的, grizzly bear 不再危险, golf course是雷击的特殊情况, 没有提及死亡数量与危险度的关系, 属无关选项.
E强调只有在大多数cases中出现死亡才为危险, 与A, B比较无关,
只有C是正确的,建立了A,B的关系, 死亡数量可准确地说明危险度.

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56. Which one of the following, if true, would most effectively undermine the author’s argument?

A. Although the number of people killed by lightning on golf courses each year is very small, the total number of lightning fatalities is many times greater.
B. Electric blenders are among the safest housed hold appliances; were the author to compare fatalities from electrical appliances in general, she would get a much higher figure.
C. Most people would rather take their chances with benders and golf games than with grizzly bears.
D. Bears in general---including black, brown, and cinnamon bears, as well as grizzly bears---kill many more people than do electric blenders.
E. Statistics show that the number of times people use electric blenders each year exceeds the number of times people play golf each year, which in turn far exceeds the number of contacts people have with grizzly bears each year.

答案: E
思路: 否定死亡数量与危险度的关系,找出影响危险度的另一个因素.
A: 无关选项, 被电击致死的总数量与因lightning on golf courses致死的数量比较, 属无关比较.
B: 无关选项, 其他electrical appliance的死亡数量更高, 与比较无关.
C: 大多数人的态度, 无关选项
D: 熊比electric blender杀的人多, 无关比较.
E: 正确, 人们接触某种情况的时间 (机会) 越多 (大), 其危险度越高.

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57. Free public education is the best form of education there is. Therefore, we must fight to ensure its continued existence; that is, we must be ready to defend the principle of equality of educational opportunity. Because this principle is well worth defending, it is clear that free public education is better than any other form of education.

Which one of the following illustrates the same weak reasoning as found in the passage?

A. I love music, and that’s why I listen to it constantly. I have my stereo or radio on every waking minute. Since I lay music all the time, I must really love it.
B. Books are my most valuable possessions. My books are like my friends---each pleases me in different ways. Just as I would give up everything to save my friends, so too with my books.
C. I would much rather be poor and respected than be rich and despises. To have the respect of others is far more valuable than to have millions of dollars.
D. I have never been betrayed by any of my friends. They have been true to me through good times and bad. Therefore I will never betray any of my friends.
E. Because every plant I have ever seen has green leaves, I have concluded that all plants must have green leaves. This looks like a plant but it does not have green leaves, so it cannot be a plant.

A. 选项中，因为爱音乐总开着音响；又以开音响为事实，证明自己爱音乐；这和原题中的逻辑错误相似。原题中，因为公共教育好所以要维护该项制度；又以努力维护制度为事实，证明公共教育好。The fallacy in the passage is circle——自说自话。The best answer is A.
B. 选项逻辑上没有什么错误吧。
C. 观点虽然有些偏激，但逻辑错误与原文并不相同。
D. 以事实为基础，感恩图报，没什么错的。
E. 因为见到过的星球都有绿色叶子，得出因为没有绿叶，虽然看起来象星球也不是星球，推出荒谬的结论。其中的逻辑错误应该是以偏概全吧，这个选项迷惑性满大的。

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58. Some people say that the scarcity of food is a function of the finite limits of the earth’s resources, coupled with a relentless rate of population growth. This analysis fails to recognize, however, that much of the world’s agricultural resources are used to feed livestock instead of people. In the United States, for example, almost one-half of the agricultural acreage is devoted to crops fed to livestock. A steer reduces twenty-one pounds of inexpensive grain to one pound of expensive meat. Thus, the scarcity of food is not merely a function of limited resources and population growth.

Which one of the following is an assumption that would allow the conclusion in the argument to be properly drawn?

A. People prefer eating meat to eating grain.
B. Meat is twenty-one times more expensive than grain.
C. The limits of the earth’s agricultural resources are not finite.
D. More than one-half of the agricultural acreage in the United States is devoted to drops fed to humans.
E. Growing crops for human consumption on the acreage currently devoted to crops for livestock will yield more food for more people.

E is the best answer. 喂养牲畜消耗的粮食为人们创造更多的食物。（题目内容是：有观点认为食物缺乏是因为土地资源有限而人口数量却不断增多。但作者认为该观点忽视了农产品中有相当大一部分是用来喂家畜的。在美国几乎有一半土地的粮食是为了养家畜。1磅肉要用去21磅廉价的谷物。因此，食物缺乏不仅是因为土地资源有限而人口数量却不断增多。）根据题目要求，我们只须反驳养家畜对粮食紧缺造成的影响。选项A中即使人们爱吃肉只会引起更多的粮食消耗，不能反驳作者; B并不能充分改变人们的取向；C强词夺理；D重复事实。

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59. Top college graduates are having more difficulty demonstrating their superiority to prospective employers than did the top students of twenty years ago when an honors degree was distinction enough. Today’s employers are less impressed with the honors degree. Twenty years ago no more than 10 percent of a given class graduated with honors. Today, however, because of grade inflation, the honors degree goes to more than 50 percent of a graduating class. Therefore, to restore confidence in the degrees they award, colleges must take steps to control grade inflation.

Which one of the following is an assumption that, if true, would support the conclusion in the passage?

A. Today’s students are not higher achievers than the students of twenty years ago.
B. Awarding too many honors degrees causes colleges to inflate grades.
C. Today’s employers rely on honors ranking in making their hiring decisions.
D. It is not easy for students with low grades to obtain jobs.
E. Colleges must make employers aware of the criteria used to determine who receives an honor degree.

The best answer is A. 如果现在的优秀学生数量比20年前多，那么授予更多的honor degree就很正常了，也许除了荣誉学位，学生应该用别的方面来证明自己。所以只有当现在的学生素质不值得被授予象20年前那样的荣誉学位的时候，整个论证才有道理。

polo_xiong

60. One of the more reliable methods of determining regional climatic conditions in prehistoric periods is to examine plant pollen trapped in glacial ice during ancient times. By comparing such pollen samples with spores take from modern vegetation, scientists can figure out approximately what the weather was like at the time of pollen deposition. Furthermore, by submitting the prehistoric samples to radiocarbon dating techniques, we can also determine when certain climatic conditions were prevalent in that portion of the globe.

Which one of the following may be inferred from the information in the passage?

A. The earth has undergone several glacial periods.
B. Radiocarbon dating can be corroborated by glacial evidence.
C. Similarities between prehistoric and contemporary climates do not exist.
D. Pollen deposition is a fairly continuous process.
E. Certain flora are reliably associated with particular climatic conditions.

INFERENCE question is very similar to ASSUMPTION in that both are required conditions in the argument. So inference is not a conclusion itself of the argument. It is one condition that must be true for the conclusion to hold. The line of reasoning can be as follows:
Argument: A à B. Ask for inference C. The links are A à B à C. Or Not C à Not B. A and B are the premise and conclusion in the argument respectively. C is the inference.
No. 60 is a good example. What the passage says is that scientists can figure out the weather condition in ancient times by examine the pollen from those times. So the hidden premise is that there is a connection between groups of plants and climatic conditions. If E is not true, and there is no connection between plants and climatic conditions, the statement that scientists can find out the climatic conditions by studying pollen can not hold.
So, for INFERENCE questions, you should treat it the same way as ASSUMTION question. First, understand the conclusion, or the statement in this question. And find the REQUIRED condition in the choices. To test the answer, use “NOT” and put it back in the argument to see if conclusion still holds.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the choices.
A: Irrelevant. Scientist can use pollen to find out the climatic conditions no matter how many times the earth has undergone glacial periods. When you see a choice with words expressing “degree” or “times” like rarely, most, many, less, several, probably, very, none, etc., pay attention to what the passage says. You need to make sure that these words can be inferred from the passage.
B. Irrelevant. The argument says that using radiocarbon on the samples can get further information. What B says is that glacial evidence supports radiocarbon dating. In another words, glacial evidence proves what radiocarbon dating finds out. It is not hinted by the argument or required for the conclusion.
C. Irrelevant to the statement. Use “not” to test.
D. Looks like an answer. But the statement is not about the continuity of climatic conditions. So D is irrelevant.