VR2018CR1
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University Of Chicago *
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30000
Subject
Philosophy
Date
Apr 3, 2024
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docx
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4
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VR2018 Critical Reasoning Drill 1 – 8 questions, 12.5 minutes – 1 error
Directions
: For this question, select the best of the answer choices given.
1. (112) Editorial: Consumers in North America think that by drinking frozen concentrated orange juice, they are saving energy, because it takes fewer truckloads to transport it than it takes to transport an equivalent amount of not-from-concentrate juice. But they are mistaken, for the amount of energy required
to concentrate the juice is far greater than the energy difference in the juices’ transport.
Which of the following, if true, would provide the greatest additional support for the editorial’s conclusion?
О
Freezer trucks use substantially more energy per mile driven than do any other types of trucks.
О
Frozen juice can be stored for several years, while not-from concentrate juice lasts a much shorter time.
О
Oranges grown in Brazil make up an increasing percentage of the fruit used in not-from-
concentrate juice production.
О
A serving of not-from-concentrate juice takes up to six times more space than a serving of frozen concentrated juice.
О
Though frozen concentrated juice must be kept at a lower temperature, not-from-
concentrate juice is far more sensitive to
2. (141) While the total enrollment of public elementary and secondary schools in Sondland is one percent higher this academic year than last academic year, the number of teachers there increased by three percent. Thus, the Sondland Education Commission’s prediction of a teacher shortage as early as next academic year is unfounded.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the claim that the prediction of a teacher shortage as early as next academic year is unfounded?
О
Funding for public elementary schools in Sondland is expected to increase over the next ten years.
О
Average salaries for Sondland’s teachers increased at the rate of inflation from last academic year to this academic year.
О
A new law has mandated that there be ten percent more teachers per pupil in Sondland’s public schools next academic year than there were this academic year.
О
In the past, increases in enrollments in public elementary and secondary schools in Sondland have generally been smaller than increases in the number of teachers.
О
Because of reductions in funding, the number of students enrolling in teacher-training programs in Sondland is expected to decline beginning in the next academic year.
1
3. (144) Archaeologists working in the Andes Mountains recently excavated a buried 4,000-year-old temple containing structures that align with a stone carving on a distant hill to indicate the direction of the rising sun at the summer solstice. Alignments in the temple were also found to point toward the position, at the summer solstice, of a constellation known in Andean culture as the Fox. Since the local mythology represents the fox as teaching people how to cultivate and irrigate plants, the ancient Andeans may have built the temple as a religious representation of the fox.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument is based?
О
The constellation known as the Fox has the same position at the summer solstice as it did 4,000 years ago.
О
In the region around the temple, the summer solstice marks the time for planting.
О
The temple was protected from looters by dirt and debris built up over thousands of years.
О
Other structural alignments at the temple point to further constellations with agricultural significance.
О
The site containing the temple was occupied for a significant amount of time before abandonment.
4. (154) A certain species of desert lizard digs tunnels in which to lay its eggs. The eggs must incubate inside the tunnel for several weeks before hatching, and they fail to hatch if they are disturbed at any time during this incubation period. Yet these lizards guard their tunnels for only a few days after laying their eggs.
Which of the following, if true, most helps explain why there is no need for lizards to guard their tunnels for more than a few days?
О
The eggs are at risk of being disturbed only during the brief egglaying season when many lizards are digging in a relatively small area.
О
The length of the incubation period varies somewhat from one tunnel to another.
О
Each female lizard lays from 15 to 20 eggs, only about 10 of which hatch even if the eggs are not disturbed at any time during the incubation period.
О
The temperature and humidity within the tunnels will not be suitable for the incubating eggs unless the tunnels are plugged with sand immediately after the eggs are laid.
О
The only way to disturb the eggs of this lizard species is by opening up one of the tunnels in which they are laid.
5. (161) Which of the following most logically completes the argument?
A photograph of the night sky was taken with the camera shutter open for an extended period. The normal motion of stars across the sky caused the images of the stars in the photograph to appear as streaks. However, one bright spot was not streaked. Even if the spot were caused, as astronomers believe, by a celestial object, that object could still have been moving across the sky during the time the
shutter was open, since __________.
О
the spot was not the brightest object in the photograph
О
the photograph contains many streaks that astronomers can identify as caused by noncelestial objects
О
stars in the night sky do not appear to shift position relative to each other
О
the spot could have been caused by an object that emitted a flash that lasted for only a fraction of the time that the camera shutter was open
О
if the camera shutter had not been open for an extended period, it would have recorded substantially fewer celestial objects
2
6. (162) Economist: Paying extra for fair-trade coffee—coffee labeled with the Fairtrade logo—is intended to help poor farmers, because they receive a higher price for the fair-trade coffee they grow. But this practice may hurt more farmers in developing nations than it helps. By raising average prices for coffee, it encourages more coffee to be produced than consumers want to buy. This lowers prices for non-fair-trade
coffee and thus lowers profits for non-fair-trade coffee farmers.
To evaluate the strength of the economist’s argument, it would be most helpful to know which of the following?
О
Whether there is a way of alleviating the impact of the increased average prices for coffee on non-fair-trade coffee farmers’ profits
О
What proportion of coffee farmers in developing nations produce fair-trade coffee
О
Whether many coffee farmers in developing nations also derive income from other kinds of farming
О
Whether consumers should pay extra for fair-trade coffee if doing so lowers profits for non-
fair-trade coffee farmers
О
How fair-trade coffee farmers in developing nations could be helped without lowering profits
for non-fair-trade coffee farmers
7. (166) Jay: Of course there are many good reasons to support the expansion of preventive medical care, but arguments claiming that it will lead to greater societal economic gains are misguided. Some of the greatest societal expenses arise from frequent urgent-care needs for people who have attained a long
life due to preventive care.
Sunil: Your argument fails because you neglect economic gains outside the health care system: society suffers an economic loss when any of its productive members suffer preventable illnesses.
Sunil’s response to Jay makes which of the following assumptions?
О
Those who receive preventive care are not more likely to need urgent care than are those who do not receive preventive care.
О
Jay intends the phrase “economic gains” to refer only to gains accruing to institutions within
the health care system.
О
Productive members of society are more likely than others to suffer preventable illnesses.
О
The economic contributions of those who receive preventive medical care may outweigh the economic losses caused by preventive care.
О
Jay is incorrect in stating that patients who receive preventive medical care are long-lived.
3
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8. (173) Urban planner: When a city loses population due to migration, property taxes in that city tend to rise. This is because there are then fewer residents paying to maintain an infrastructure that was designed to support more people. Rising property taxes, in turn, drive more residents away, compounding
the problem. Since the city of Stonebridge is starting to lose population, the city government should therefore refrain from raising property taxes.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the urban planner’s argument?
О
If Stonebridge does not raise taxes on its residents to maintain its infrastructure, the city will
become much less attractive to live in as that infrastructure decays.
О
Stonebridge at present benefits from grants provided by the national government to help maintain certain parts of its infrastructure.
О
If there is a small increase in property taxes in Stonebridge and a slightly larger proportion of total revenue than at present is allocated to infrastructure maintenance, the funding will be adequate for that purpose.
О
Demographers project that the population of a region that includes Stonebridge will start to increase substantially within the next several years.
О
The property taxes in Stonebridge are significantly lower than those in many larger cities.
4