Logical Reasoning MCQ Set 6

Question: In a political system with only two major parties, the entrance of a third-party candidate into an election race damages the chances of only one of the two major candidates. The third-party candidate always attracts some of the voters who might otherwise have voted for one of the two major candidates, but not voters who support the other candidate. Since a third-party candidacy affects the two major candidates unequally, for reasons neither of them has any control over, the practice is unfair and should not be allowed.
If the factual information in the passage above is true, which of the following can be most reliably inferred from it?

1. If the political platform of the third party is a compromise position between that of the two major parties, the third party will draw its voters equally from the two major parties.
2. If, before the emergence of a third party, voters were divided equally between the two major parties, neither of the major parties is likely to capture much more than one-half of the vote.
3. A third-party candidate will not capture the votes of new voters who have never voted for candidates of either of the two major parties.
4. The political stance of a third party will be more radical than that of either of the two major parties.
5. The founders of a third party are likely to be a coalition consisting of former leaders of the two major parties.

Question: Companies considering new cost-cutting manufacturing processes often compare the projected results of making the investment against the alternative of not making the investment with costs, selling prices, and share of market remaining constant.
Which of the following, assuming that each is a realistic possibility, constitutes the most serious disadvantage for companies of using the method above for evaluating the financial benefit of new manufacturing processes?

1. The costs of materials required by the new process might not be known with certainty.
2. In several years interest rates might go down, reducing the interest costs of borrowing money to pay for the investment.
3. Some cost-cutting processes might require such expensive investments that there would be no net gain for many years, until the investment was paid for by savings in the manufacturing process.
4. Competitors that do invest in a new process might reduce their selling prices and thus take market share away from companies that do not.
5. The period of year chosen for averaging out the cost of the investment might be somewhat longer or shorter, thus affecting the result.

Question: There are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt. Two million couples are currently waiting to adopt, but in 1982, the last year for which figures exist, there were only some 50,000 adoptions.
Which of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the author's claim that there are far fewer children available for adoption than there are people who want to adopt?

1. The number of couples waiting to adopt has increased significantly in the last decade.
2. The number of adoptions in the current year is greater than the number of adoptions in any preceding year.
3. The number of adoptions in a year is approximately equal to the number of children available for adoption in that period.
4. People who seek to adopt children often go through a long process of interviews and investigation by adoption agencies.
5. People who seek to adopt children generally make very good parents.

Archaeologists seeking the location of a legendary siege and destruction of a city are excavating in several possible places, including a middle and a lower layer of a large mound. The bottom of the middle layer contains some pieces of pottery of type 3, known to be from a later period than the time of the destruction of the city, but the lower layer does not.

Question1: Which of the following hypotheses is best supported by the evidence above?

1. The lower layer contains the remains of the city where the siege took place.
2. The legend confuses stories from two different historical periods.
3. The middle layer does not represent the period of the siege.
4. The siege lasted for a long time before the city was destroyed.
5. The pottery of type 3 was imported to the city by traders.

Question2: The force of the evidence cited above is most seriously weakened if which of the following is true?

1. Gerbils, small animals long native to the area, dig large burrows into which objects can fall when the burrows collapse.
2. Pottery of types 1 and 2, found in the lower level, was used in the cities from which, according to the legend, the besieging forces came.
3. Several pieces of stone from a lower-layer wall have been found incorporated into the remains of a building in the middle layer.
4. Both the middle and the lower layer show evidence of large-scale destruction of habitations by fire.
5. Bronze axheads of a type used at the time of the siege were found in the lower level of excavation.

Question: After the national speed limit of 55 miles per hour was imposed in 1974, the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway fell abruptly as a result. Since then, however, the average speed of vehicles on highways has risen, but the number of deaths per mile driven on a highway has continued to fall.
Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the statements above?

1. The speed limit alone is probably not responsible for the continued reduction in highway deaths in the years after 1974.
2. People have been driving less since 1974.
3. Driver-education courses have been more effective since 1974 in teaching drivers to drive safely.
4. In recent years highway patrols have been less effective in catching drivers who speed.
5. The change in the speed limit cannot be responsible for the abrupt decline in highway deaths in 1974.

Question: Neighboring landholders: Air pollution from the giant aluminum refinery that has been built next to our land is killing our plants. Company spokesperson: The refinery is not to blame, since our study shows that the damage is due to insects and fungi.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion drawn by the company spokesperson?

1. The study did not measure the quantity of pollutants emitted into the surrounding air by the aluminum refinery.
2. The neighboring landholders have made no change in the way they take care of their plants.
3. Air pollution from the refinery has changed the chemical balance in the plants' environment, allowing the harmful insects and fungi to thrive.
4. Pollutants that are invisible and odorless are emitted into the surrounding air by the refinery.