Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages For some questions more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. However, you are to choose the best answer that is the response that most accurately and completely answers the question. You should not make assumptions that are bycommonsense standards implausible superfluous or incompatible with the passage. After you have chosen the best
1.The city s center for disease control reports that the rabies eoidemic is more serious now than it was two years ago: two years ago less than 25 percent of the local raccoon population was infected, whereas today the infection has spread to more than 50 percent of the raccoon population. However, the newspaper reports that whereas two years ago 32 cases of rabid raccoons were confirmed during a 12-month period in the past 12 months only 18 cases of rabid raccoons were confirmed.
Which one of the following if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy between the two reports?
(A) The number of cases of rabies in wild animals other than raccoons has increased in the past 12 months. (B) A significant proportion of the raccoon population succumbed to rabies in the year before last. (C) The symptoms of distemper another disease to which raccoons are susceptible are usually identical to those of rabies. (D) Since the outbreak of the epidemic, raccoons, which are mormally nocturnal have increasingly been seen during daylight hours (E) The number of confirmed cases of rabid raccoons in neighboring cities has also decreased over the past year
2.Recently, reviewers of patent applications decided against granting a patent to a university for a genetically engineered mouse developed for laboratory use in studying cancer. The reviewers argued that the mouse was a new variety of animal and that rules governing the granting of patents specifically disallow patents for new animal varieties.
Which one of the following if true most weakens the patent feviewers argument?
(A) The restrictions the patent reviewers cited pertain only to domesticated farm animals. (B) The university s application for a patent for the genetically engineered mouse was the first such patent application made by the university (C) The patent reviewers had reached the same decision on all previous patent requess for new animal varieties. (D) The patent reviewers had in the past approved patents for genetically engineered plant varieties. (E) The patent reviewers had previously decided against granting patents for new animal varieties that were developed through conventional breeding programs rather than through genetic engineering.
Questions 3-4
Although water in deep aquifers does not contain disease-causing bacteria, when public water supplies are arawn from deep aquifers chlorine is often added to the water as a disinfectant because contamination can occur as a result of flaws in pipes or storage tanks. Of 50 municipalities that all pumped water from the same deep aquifer 30 chlorinated their water and 20 did not. The water in all of the municipalities met the regional government s standards for cleanliness yet the water supplied by the 20 municipalities that did not chlorinated had less bacterial contamination than the water supplied by the municipalities that added chlorine.
3.Which one of the following can properly be concluded from the information given above?
(A) A municipality s initial decision whether or not to use chlorine is based on the amount of bacterial contamination in the water source (B) Water in deep aquifers does not contain any bacteria of any kind (C) Where accessible deep aquifers are the best choice as a source for a municipal water supply (D) The regional government s standards allow some bacteria in municipal water supplies (E) Chlorine is the least effective disinfecting agent
4.Which one of the following, if true, most helps explain the difference in bacterial contamination in the two groups of municipalities?
(A) Chlorine is considered by some experts to be dangerous to human health, even in the small concentrations used in municipal water supplies. (B) When municipalities decide not to chlorinate their water supplies, it is usually because their citxens have voiced objections to the taste and smell of chlorine. (C) The municipalities that did not add chlorine to their water supplies also did not add any of the other available water disinfectants which are more expensive than chlorine. (D) Other agents commonly added to public water supplies such as fluoride and sodium hydroxide were not used by any of the 50 municipalities (E) Municipalities that do not chlorinate their water supplies are subject to stricter regulation by the regional government in regard to pipes and water tanks than are municipalities that use chlorine.
5.The population of songbirds throughout England has decreased in recent years. Many people explain this decrease as the result of an increase during the same period in the population of magpies, which eat the eggs and chicks of songbirds.
Which one of the following, if true, argues most strongly against the explanation reported in the passage?
(A) Official records of the population of birds in England have been kept for only the past 30 years. (B) The number of eggs laid yearly by a female songbird varies widely according to the songbird s species. (C) Although the overall population of magpies has increased, in most areas of England in which the songbird population has decreased the number of magpies has remained stable. (D) The population of magpies has increased because farmers no longer shoot or trap magpies to any greal extent, though farmers. (E) Although magpies eat the eggs and chicks of songbirds, magpies diets consist of a wide variety of other foods as well.