LOGICAL REASONING

DIRECTIONS. In this section you will be given brief statements or passages and be required to
evaluate the reasoning involved. In some instances, more than one choice will appear
to be a possible answer. You are to choose the best answer. Use common sense and
reasonableness in making your selection.

For Questions 1 – 2
By passing more and more regulations allegedly to protect the environment, the state is driving
the manufacturing industry away. And when the employers leave, the workers will follow. The
number of new no-growth of environmental rules passed each year is increasing by leaps and
bounds. Rich environmentalists who think they are sympathetic to workers have no real
sympathy for the blue-collar employees who are injured by their activities. One major
manufacturer has been fined for failing to establish a car-pool plan. Another is accused of
polluting the air with industrial emissions, although everyone knows that two thirds of the
pollutants come from cars and trucks. No wonder the large manufacturers are moving to states
with fewer restrictive laws. And as the manufacturers go, unemployment and the number of
workers leaving the state will rise more rapidly than ever before.

1. The author’s argument that strict environmental laws will eventually lead to loss of workers in the
state will be most weakened if it can be shown that
A. so far, the number of manufacturers who have left the state is small
B. the unemployment rate has climbed steadily in the last three years
C. most workers who leave the state give as their reason for leaving the poor environmental
quality
D. several other manufacturing states have strict environmental laws
E. rich environmentalists are more powerful in many other states

2. Which one of the following is NOT an argument of this passage?

A. Environmentalists are responsible for depriving workers of their jobs.
B. When workers leave a state, it is a sign that manufacturers will follow.
C. A car-pool law should not be enforced, as cars and trucks are responsible for most air
pollution.
D. Large manufacturers prefer states with fewer restrictions.
E. A rise in unemployment will lead to an increase in workers leaving the state.

3. This supermarket has the highest prices in town. I had to pay $3.00 per pound for hamburger
today.
Which one of the following statements best expresses the main premise that underlies the
author’s conclusion?
A. Hamburger should cost less than $3.00 per pound.
B. No other supermarket charges as much as $3.00 per pound for hamburger.
C. All hamburger is of the same quality.
D. Prices for other items at this store are equally high.
E. Other supermarkets may charge less for hamburger, but more for other items.
4. Unlike most graduates of American high schools, all graduates of high schools in Bermuda have
completed four years of advanced mathematics.
Which one of the following, if true, would best explain the situation described above?
A. Math anxiety is higher in the United States than in Bermuda.
B. There are far more high schools and high school students in the United States than in
Bermuda.
C. More students in America take full-time jobs without completing high school.
D. Math programs in American high schools are frequently understaffed.
E. High Schools is Bermuda require four years of advanced mathematics for graduation.

5. Psychological novels are superior to novels of adventure. Immature readers prefer novels of
adventure to novels with less action and greater psychological depth. The immature reader, who
prefers James Bond’s exploits to the subtleties of Henry James, can be identified easily by his
choice of inferior reading matter.
A criticism of the logic of this argument would be likely to find fault with the author’s
A. presupposing the conclusion he wishes to prove
B. failure to define “adventure” clearly
C. failure to cite possible exceptions to this rule
D. hasty generalization on the basis of a limited specific case
E. inaccurate definitions of key terms

6. All mathematicians are physicists. Some chemists are mathematicians. Some physicists are
biologists. No biologists are chemists.
If all of these statements are true, which one of the following statements must also be true?
A. Some chemists are biologists.
B. Some chemists are physicists.
C. No mathematicians are biologists.
D. All biologists are physicists.
E. All physicists are mathematicians or biologists.

7. In professional athletics, the small number of record-setting performers in each 30-year span is
remarkably consistent. In hockey, for example, 5% of all the professional players were
responsible for more than half of the new records, and 95% of the new records were set by only
8% of the players. Similar percentages were found in baseball, football, and basketball records,
where the numbers of participants are much higher.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following conclusions may be most reasonably
inferred?
A. An increase in the number of athletic teams playing hockey, football, or baseball would
significantly increase the number of record-setting performances.
B. Reducing the number of athletic teams playing hockey, football, or baseball would not
necessarily cause a decrease in the number of record-setting performances.
C. Record-setting performances would increase if the number of amateur teams were
increased.
D. Many record-setting performances are not recorded by statisticians.
E. As records become higher with the passage of time, fewer and fewer records will be broken.
 8. By refusing to ban smoking in restaurants, the city council has put the financial well-being of
restaurant owners above the health of the citizens of this city. No doubt the council would
support the restaurateurs if they decided to use asbestos tablecloths and to barbecue using
radioactivity. These devices would be no more risky.
The author of this paragraph makes her case by arguing from
A. experience C. authority E. analogy
B. example D. observation

9. The GOP’s attempt to win the South has, however indirectly, played on the racial anxiety of white
voters. It has produced a vocabulary of civility to conceal their opposition to school integration
(“forced busing”) and affirmative action (“quotas”). And, to the horror of regular Republicans, the
party’s candidate for senator in Louisiana is a neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan alumnus. The ease
with which this candidate has merged his bigotry with a respectable conservative social agenda is
frightening. There is, however, a rat of hope. The candidate is supported by about 30% of the
voters.
The passage above is structured to lead to which one of the following conclusions?
A. If the candidate disavows his views, he will lose his support; but if he does not disavow them,
he cannot gain any new supporters.
B. And that 30% has grown from only 15% three weeks ago.
C. We cannot predict now whether that percentage will increase or decrease before the
election.
D. Two opponents also have about 30% of voters with another 10% undecided.
E. There is still a possibility that Louisiana, with its unmatched history of corrupt, demagogic,
and ineffectual state politics, will support his candidacy.

For Questions 10 – 11
The gill-net is used to catch halibut and sea bass, but up to 72% of what it ensnares is not
marketable and is thrown back dead. Gill-nets are often called “walls of death” because they
entangle and painfully kill mammals such as dolphins, whales, and sea otters. To use the gill-net
at sea is like strip mining or clear-cutting on land.
Powerful lobbyists representing the commercial fishing industry have prevented the
legislature from passing a ban on the use of gill-nets within the three-mile limit. They claim that
the banning of gill-nets will raise the price of fish. They also charge that the law would benefit rich
sport fishermen who want the ocean for their yachts.

10. In the first paragraph, the case against gill-nets is made by using
A. statistical analysis D. simile and metaphor
B. ambiguity and indirection E. understatement
C. biased definitions

11. Which one of the following, if true, would support the argument in favor of a ban on gill-nets within
the three-mile limit?
A. Less than 1% of the fish sold in this country is imported from abroad.
B. Gill-net users catch all but 2% of their fish within the 3-mile limit.
C. The halibut population has fallen to a near extinction level.
D. There is a serious overpopulation of the coastal sea otter.
E. Coastal sea otters have nearly destroyed the abalone beds along the coast.
12. According to the Supreme Court, the First Amendment does not protect “obscene” speech. To
the “obscene,” the Court explained, speech must appeal to a “prurient” interest, describe conduct
in a way “patently offensive to contemporary standards,” and lack serious literary, artistic or
scientific value.
All of the following arguments can be used to question the validity of the Court’s definition of
“obscene” EXCEPT
A. there is no certain way of knowing just what an “appeal” to “prurient interest” is
B. the phrase “patently offensive” is impossible to define precisely
C. no two communities are likely to have the same standards of decency
D. most juries are incapable of determining what is “serious” artistic or literary value
E. there is no writing that is without some “scientific value”

13. There are no edible fish in the streams of this county because there are no pesticide controls.
Which one of the following assumptions must be made before the conclusion above can be
reached?
A. Edible fish cannot be found in areas where there are no pesticide controls.
B. If there are pesticide controls, there will be many edible fish.
C. Without adequate pesticide controls, the fish population will rapidly decline.
D. If there are pesticide controls, there will be some edible fish.
E. With pesticide controls, the fish population will rapidly increase.

14. For 18 years, a state has had 3 conservative congressmen, all representing the agricultural
counties in the northern parts of the state. It also has 3 liberal congressmen from the large
capital city in the south. One of the two senators is a liberal from the south, and the other is a
conservative from the north.
Which one of the following can be inferred from this passage?
A. Voters in the southern parts of the state will always vote liberal.
B. Voters in the northern part of the state are likely to vote liberal in the next election.
C. Voters in the state are influenced more by a candidate’s political leanings than by where the
candidate lives.
D. The population of the three northern counties is about equal to the population of the capital
city.
E. The governor of the state is probably a liberal.

15. African-Americans have periodically raised the issue of reparations for injury and damage to
Africans in America from slavery. The granting of reparations to Japanese-Americans have
renewed the hope that the government will meet its moral obligation to address the claim of
African-Americans. Free black labor helped to develop America, but slavery only injured African-
Americans. The “freed” slaves were released into a hostile, racist, capitalistic society without
land, capital, or any meaningful form of compensation. The opposition continued through terror,
lynching, segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement.
Which sentence is the most logical conclusion of this passage?
A. Historically, leaders from Frederick Douglass to Malcolm X have kept the issue of
reparations alive.
B. After World War II, West Germany paid reparations to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
C. There can be no final reconciliation between African-Americans and the U.S. government
until the just claim of reparations is recognized.
D. Reparations in the form of cash, land, or government securities could be placed in a national
development fund and used for the collective benefit of African-Americans.
E. A small compensation bill was passed by Congress after the Civil War, but vetoed by
President Andrew Johnson.
16. Over the last 3 decades, the President’s party has lost an average of 22 House of
Representatives seats and 2 Senate seats in the midterm elections. This year, with a popular
Republican President in the White House, GOP strategists had hoped to pick up seats in the
House and the Senate. But the polls show these expectations are unrealistic. This should be an
election with results much like those of the recent past.
According to information in this passage, the election should
A. produce large Republican gains in the House and the Senate
B. produce about 25 new House and Senate seats for the Democrats
C. result in virtually no change in the balance of Republican and Democratic members of the
House
D. produce small Republican gains in the House and even smaller gains in the Senate
E. produce two new Republican seats in the Senate

17. Ten percent of the state lottery winners interviewed by researchers of the paranormal have
reported that they had visions or other signs instructing them to select the winning numbers. On
the basis of these results, the researchers claim to have proved the existence of paranormal gifts.
Which one of the following pieces of additional information would be most relevant in assessing
the logical validity of the researcher’s claim?
A. the total sum of money these men and women win on the lottery
B. the percentage of lottery players who win money
C. the percentage of contestants interviewed who were not lottery winners
D. the percentage of lottery players who had visions or signs but did not win money
E. the amount of money the lottery winners spend each year on lottery tickets

18. By spraying with pesticides like malathion, we can eradicate dangerous pests like the fruit-fly.
But malathion spraying also destroys the ladybug, the best natural predator of aphids. Areas that
have been sprayed with malathion are now free of the fruit-fly, but infested with aphids. This is
the price we must pay to protect our citrus crop.
The argument above assumes all of the following EXCEPT
A. pesticide spraying is the only way to eradicate the fruit-fly
B. the aphid infestation is caused by the lack of ladybugs
C. a pesticide that would kill fruit-flies and spare ladybugs cannot be made
D. the use of pesticides has disadvantages
E. the aphid infestation could be prevented by introducing a natural predator other than the
ladybug

19. The Superintendent of Education complains that the share of the total state budget for education
has decreased in each of the last four years; he blames the fall-off on the steady rise in the cost
of law enforcement. Organizations opposing increased spending on education point out that the
amount of money the state has spent on education has increased by at least three million dollars
in each of the last four years.
Which one of the following, if true, best resolves the apparent contradiction in the passage
above?
A. The total state budget has increased more rapidly than the expenditure for education.
B. Both the pro- and con-educational-spending spokesmen have failed to take inflation into
account.
C. Law-enforcement costs have not risen as rapidly as the superintendent claims.
D. Some educational expenses are not included in the state budget, but are paid by local taxes.
E. School construction is paid for by funds from bonds, not by funds from the state budget.
20. How can I write any of the essays when there are so many essays to be written?
In terms of its logical structure, the remark above most closely resembles which one of the
following?
A. How can he buy a new car when he is already deeply in debt?
B. How can she increase her collection of books when it is already so large?
C. How can he iron any of his shirts when he has so many shirts that need ironing?
D. How can she visit London and Paris when she has not yet visited New York and
Washington?
E. How can they raise horses when they already raise so many cows?

21. Great playwrights do not develop in countries where there is no freedom of opinion. Repressive
countries are likely to produce great satiric writers.
If both of these statements are true, which of the following is the most logical continuation?
A. Therefore, countries with mo restrictions on expression will produce great satiric playwrights.
B. Therefore, great satirists in repressive countries will use forms other than the play.
C. Therefore, playwrights in repressive countries will not write satire.
D. Therefore, great satiric writers will not develop in countries where there is freedom of
speech.
E. Therefore, no great satire is likely to be written in dramatic forms.

22. Contrary to the expectations of the Canadian government, a majority of the Mohawk population in
Quebec is calling for native sovereignty. The Mohawk separatists cite a written agreement from
Colonial times in which Great Britain recognized the Mohawk’s separateness from Canada.
Unfortunately, the various Mohawk factions, each with its own agenda, have made it difficult to
reach lasting agreements. What satisfies one group displeases another. The bleak outlook is for
_____.
Which one of the following most logically concludes this paragraph?
A. continued struggle within the tribe and between the tribe and the Canadian government
B. some kind of compromise which recognizes the rights of both the Indians and the
government of Canada
C. some sort of agreement among the divided groups within the Mohawk tribe
D. the establishment of a separate Mohawk state with its sovereignty recognized by the
Canadian government
E. a decline in Mohawk militarism and a series of fence-mending conferences

23. A new law will require labels giving consumers more nutritional information on all prepackaged
foods manufactured in the United States. Food sold by restaurants or grocers with annual sales
of less than $500,000 will be exempt. The required labels will reveal the number of servings, the
serving size, the number of calories per serving, and the amount of fat, cholesterol, sodium, and
dietary fiber.
The effectiveness of the new labels in improving overall U.S. nutrition could be seriously
questioned if which one of the following were shown to be true?
A. More than 80% of the food sold in this country is not prepackaged.
B. More than 80% of the prepackaged fold sold in this country is marketed by the 8 major food
corporations.
C. The amount of money Americans spend on prepackaged foods for microwaving has more
than tripled every year for the last 5 years, and the trend is expected to continue.
D. An increasingly large number of consumers now read the nutritional information on food
packages.
E. Small retailers who manufacture packaged foods sell to only a tiny percentage of American
food buyers.
24. A year ago the presidential science advisor announced prematurely that the United State would
reveal its plan for combating global warming at the World Climate Conference in Geneva,
Switzerland. Five European countries have already announced plans to make reductions in
carbon dioxide emissions, and 5 others have committed themselves to goals of stabilizing their
emissions. But the United States is still unprepared to announce targets or a schedule for
reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Which one of the following sentences would provide the most logical continuation of this
paragraph?
A. The Geneva Conference will be the last international meeting before negotiations on a
global- warming convention begin next year.
B. The United States accounts for about 22% of the carbon dioxide pumped into the
atmosphere, while the former Soviet Union accounts for 18%.
C. By adopting renewable energy strategies that would permit stabilization of carbon dioxide
emissions, the United States could save millions of dollars.
D. The British Prime Minister and top environmental officials of many nations will attend the
conference in Geneva.
E. Anticipating a debate in which the Europeans will criticize the United States for failing to act,
the administration is downplaying the importance of the conference.

25. There is increasing reason to believe that Americans are talking themselves into a recession.
Consumers are becoming more and more pessimistic and the index of consumer confidence has
plunged to its lowest level in years. What bothers analysis is fear that consumer pessimism
about the economy will lead to spending cuts and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Widespread predictions in the media of a coming recession may be one reason for the
pessimistic attitudes of consumers. They may be bracing for a recession by cutting back on
spending plans for new cars, vacations, and restaurant meals –– the very behavior pattern that
analysis says will intensify the slump. Real estate values have been in decline for a year and a
half, and the stock market has declined for 4 months in a row. When the economy is on the
ropes, waning consumer confidence can deliver the knock-out punch.
The argument in the passage above would be weakened if it were shown that
A. in the 1955 recession, the widespread concern over the President’s health precipitated an
economic downturn
B. although consumer spending in the last fiscal quarter was the same as last year’s, most of
that strength stemmed from unusual government military spending
C. the steady rise in car sales has continued, despite the phasing out of discount prices and
low-interest car loans
D. the predicted recession after the steep fall in stock prices 2 years ago did not lead to
recession
E. some consumers are more eager than ever to maintain the living standards they have
enjoyed for the last two years