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6. (Z4-21)An overwhelming proportion of the most productive employees at SaleCo’s regional offices work not eight hours a day, five days a week, as do other SaleCo employees, but rather ten hours a day, four days a week, with Friday off.  Noting this phenomenon, SaleCo’s president plans to increase overall productivity by keeping the offices closed on Fridays and having all employees work the same schedule—ten hours a day, four days a week.

Which of the following, if true, provides the most reason to doubt that the president’s plan, if implemented, will achieve its stated purpose?

A.        Typically, a SaleCo employee’s least productive hours in the workplace are the early afternoon hours.
B.        None of the employees who work four days a week had volunteered to work that schedule, but all were assigned to it by their supervisors.
C.        Working ten hours a day has allowed the most productive employees to work two hours alone each day in their respective offices relatively undisturbed by fellow employees.
D.        Employees at SaleCo are compensated not on the basis of how many hours a week they work but on the basis of how productive they are during the hours they are at work.
E.        Those SaleCo employees who have a four-day workweek do not take any of their office work to do at home on Fridays.

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7.(Z3-15) Lightbox, Inc., owns almost all of the movie theaters in Washington County and has announced plans to double the number of movie screens it has in the county within five years.  Yet attendance at Lightbox’s theaters is only just large enough for profitability now and the county’s population is not expected to increase over the next ten years.  Clearly, therefore, if there is indeed no increase in population, Lightbox’s new screens are unlikely to prove profitable.

Which of the following, if true about Washington County, most seriously weakens the argument?

A.        Though little change in the size of the population is expected, a pronounced shift toward a younger, more affluent, and more entertainment-oriented population is expected to occur.
B.        The sales of snacks and drinks in its movie theaters account for more of Lightbox’s profits than ticket sales do.
C.        In selecting the mix of movies shown at its theaters, Lightbox’s policy is to avoid those that appeal to only a small segment of the moviegoing population.
D.        Spending on video purchases, as well as spending on video rentals, is currently no longer increasing.
E.        There are no population centers in the county that are not already served by at least one of the movie theaters that Lightbox owns and operates.

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8.(Z3-28)Wind farms, which generate electricity using arrays of thousands of wind-powered turbines, require vast expanses of open land.  County X and County Y have similar terrain, but the population density of County X is significantly higher than that of County Y.  Therefore, a wind farm proposed for one of the two counties should be built in County Y rather than in County X.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the planner’s argument?

A.        County X and County Y are adjacent to each other, and both are located in the windiest area of the state.
B.        The total population of County Y is substantially greater than that of County X.
C.        Some of the electricity generated by wind farms in County Y would be purchased by users outside the county.
D.        Wind farms require more land per unit of electricity generated than does any other type of electrical-generation facility.
E.        Nearly all of County X’s population is concentrated in a small part of the county, while County Y’s population is spread evenly throughout the country.

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9. (Z5)Of patients over 65 years old who survived coronary bypass surgery—a procedure widely prescribed for people with heart disease—only 75 percent benefited from the surgery.  Thus it appears that for one in four such patients, the doctors who advised them to undergo this surgery, with its attendant risks and expense, were more interested in an opportunity to practice their skills and in their fee than in helping the patient.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument?

A.        Many of the patients who receive coronary bypass surgery are less than 55 years old.
B.        Possible benefits of coronary bypass surgery include both relief from troubling symptoms and prolongation of life.
C.        Most of the patients in the survey decided to undergo coronary bypass surgery because they were advised that the surgery would reduce their risk of future heart attacks.
D.        The patients over 65 years old who did not benefit from the coronary bypass surgery were as fully informed as those who did benefit from the surgery as to the risks of the surgery prior to undergoing it.
E.        The patients who underwent coronary bypass surgery but who did not benefit from it were medically indistinguishable, prior to their surgery, from the patients who did benefit.

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10.(Z5-30)Printwell’s Ink Jet Division manufactures ink-jet printers and the ink cartridges they use.  Sales of its ink-jet printers have increased.  Monthly revenues from those sales, however, have not increased, because competition has forced Printwell to cut the prices of its printers.  Unfortunately, Printwell has been unable to bring down the cost of manufacturing a printer.  Thus, despite the increase in printer sales, the Ink Jet Division must be providing the company with much smaller than it used to.

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

A. Ink-jet printers in regular use frequently need new ink cartridges, and Printwell’s printers only accept Printwell’s ink cartridges.
B. Unlike some competing companies, Printwell sells all of its printers through retailers, and these retailers’ costs account for a sizable proportion of the printers’ ultimate retail price.
C. Some printer manufacturers have been forced to reduce the sale price of their ink-jet printers even more than Printwell has.
D. In the past year, no competing manufacturer of ink-jet printers has had as great an increase in unit sales of printers as Printwell has.
E. In the past year, sales of Printwell’s ink-jet printers have increased more than sales of any other type of printer made by Printwell.

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11.(Z7-8)Many large department stores in Montalia now provide shopping carts for their customers. Since customers using shopping carts tend to buy more than those without shopping carts, most of these stores are experiencing strong sales growth, while most other department stores are not. Therefore, in order to boost sales, managers of Jerrod’s, Montalia’s premier department store, are planning to purchase shopping carts and make them available to the store’s customers next month.

Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt whether the managers’ plan, if implemented, will achieve its goal?

A.        Since most customers associate shopping carts with low-quality discount stores, Jerrod’s high-quality image would likely suffer if shopping carts were introduced.
B.        Because the unemployment rate has declined to very low levels, Jerrod’s now has to pay significantly higher wages in order to retain its staff.
C.        A number of department stores that did not make shopping carts available to their customers have had to close recently due to falling profits.
D.        Shopping carts are not very expensive, but they generally need to be replaced every few years.
E.        Stores that make shopping carts available to their customers usually have to hire people to retrieve the carts from parking areas.

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12. (Z7-28)Editorial in Krenlandian Newspaper:
Krenland’s steelmakers are losing domestic sales because of lower-priced imports, in many cases because foreign governments subsidize their steel industries in ways that are banned by international treaties. But whatever the cause, the cost is ultimately going to be jobs in Krenland’s steel industry. Therefore, it would protect not only steel companies but also industrial employment in Krenland if our government took measures to reduce cheap steel imports.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the editorial’s argument?

A.        Because steel from Krenland is rarely competitive in international markets, only a very small portion of Krenlandian steelmakers’ revenue comes from exports.
B.        The international treaties that some governments are violating by giving subsidies to steelmakers do not specify any penalties for such violations.
C.        For many Krenlandian manufacturers who face severe international competition in both domestic and export markets, steel constitutes a significant part of their raw material costs.
D.        Because of advances in order-taking, shipping, and inventory systems, the cost of shipping steel from foreign producers to Krenland has fallen considerably in recent years.
E.        Wages paid to workers in the steel industry in Krenland differ significantly from wages paid to workers in many of the countries that export steel to Krenland.

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13.(T3-21)Driving the steep road to the mountaintop Inca ruins of Machu Picchu is potentially dangerous and hiking there is difficult. Now the Peruvian government is installing a cable car that will make access much easier, and hence results in a large increase in tourisms. However, since the presence of large numbers of tourists tends to accelerate the deterioration of a site, installation of a cable car is certain to result in harm to the ruins.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the argument?

A.        The daily number of tourists that are expected to take the cable car to Machu Picchu is smaller than the original resident
B.        The construction of the cable car terminal at Machu Picchu will require the use of potentially damaging heavy machinery at the site.
C.        Machu Picchu is already one of the most popular tourist sites in Peru
D.        Natural weathering will continue to be a more significant cause of the deterioration of Machu Picchu than tourist traffic
E.        The cable car will replace the tour buses whose large wheels and corrosive exhaust at present do significant damage to the site.

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14.(T4-21)The OLEX Petroleum Company has recently determined that it could cut its refining costs by closing its Grenville refinery and consolidating all refining at its Tasberg refinery. Closing the Grenville refinery, however, would mean the immediate loss of about 1,2000 jobs in the Grenville area. Eventually the lives of more than 10,000 people would be seriously disrupted. Therefore, OLEX’s decision, announced yesterday, to keep Grenville open shows that at OLEX social concerns sometimes outweigh the desire for higher profits.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument given?

A.        The Grenville refinery, although it operates at a higher cost than the Tasberg refinery, has nevertheless been moderately profitable for many years.
B.        Even though OLEX could consolidate all its refining at the Tasberg plant, doing so at the Grenville plant would not be feasible.
C.        The Tasberg refinery is more favorably situated than the Grenville refinery with respect to the major supply routes for raw petroleum.
D.        If the Grenville refinery were ever closed and operations at the Tasberg refinery expanded, job openings at Tasberg would to the extent possible be filled with people formerly employed at Grenville.
E.        Closure of the Grenville refinery would mean compliance, at enormous cost, with demanding local codes regulating the cleanup of abandoned industrial sites.

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15. Dental researchers recently discovered that tooth-brushes can become contaminated with bacterial that cause pneumonia and strep throat. They found that contamination usually occurs after toothbrushes have been used for four weeks. For that reason, people should replace their toothbrushes at least once a month.

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

(A) The dental researchers could not discover why toothbrush contamination usually occurred only after toothbrushes had been used for four weeks.
(B) The dental researchers failed to investigate contamination of toothbrushes by viruses, yeasts, and other pathogenic microorganisms.
(C) The dental researchers found that among people who used toothbrushes contaminated with bacterial that cause pneumonia and strep throat, the incidence of these diseases was no higher than among people who used uncontaminated toothbrushes.
(D) The dental researchers found that people who rinsed their toothbrushes thoroughly in hot water after each use were as likely to have contaminated toothbrushes as were people who only rinsed their toothbrushes hurriedly in cold water after each use.
(E) The dental researchers found that, after six weeks of use, greater length of use of a toothbrush did not correlate with a higher number of bacterial being present.