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1.

 Insurance Company X is considering issuing a new policy to cover services required by elderly people who suffer from diseases that afflict the elderly. Premiums for the policy must be low enough to attract customers; therefore, Company X is concerned that the income from the policies would not be sufficient to pay for the claims that would be made.

Which of the following strategies would be most likely to minimize Company X's losses on the policies?


A) Attracting middle-aged customers unlikely to submit claims for benefits for many years.

B) Insuring only those individuals who did not suffer any serious diseases as children.

C) Including a greater number of services in the policy than are included in other policies of lower cost.

D) Insuring only those individuals who were rejected by other companies for similar policies.



2.

 Rye sown in the fall and plowed into the soil in early spring leaves a residue that is highly effective at controlling broad-leaved weeds, but unfortunately for only about forty-five days. No major agricultural crop matures from seed in as little as forty-five days. Synthetic herbicides, on the other hand, although not any longer-lasting, can be reapplied as the crop grows. Clearly, therefore, for major agricultural crops, plowing rye into the soil can play no part in effective weed control. The argument is most vulnerable to the objection that it fails to


A) consider that there might be minor, quick-growing crops that do mature in forty-five days or less

B) identify any alternative method of weed control that could be used instead of the method it rejects

C) distinguish among the various kinds of synthetic herbicides

D) allow for the possibility of combining the two weed-control methods it mentions



3.

 Certain genetically modified strains of maize produce a powerful natural insecticide. The insecticide occurs throughout the plant, including its pollen. Maize pollen is dispersed by the wind and frequently blows onto milkweed plants that grow near maize fields. Caterpillars of monarch butterflies feed exclusively on milkweed leaves. When these caterpillars are fed milkweed leaves dusted with pollen from modified maize plants, they die. Therefore, by using genetically modified maize, farmers put monarch butterflies at risk.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument?


A) Whether the natural insecticide is as effective against maize-eating insects as commercial insecticides typically used on maize are

B) Whether the pollen of genetically modified maize contains as much insecticide as other parts of these plants

C) Whether monarch butterfly caterpillars are actively feeding during the part of the growing season when maize is releasing pollen

D) Whether insects that feed on genetically modified maize plants are likely to be killed by insecticide from the plant's pollen



4.

 If the county continues to collect residential trash at current levels, landfills will soon be overflowing and parkland will need to be used in order to create more space. Charging each household a fee for each pound of trash it puts out for collection will induce residents to reduce the amount of trash they create; this charge will therefore protect the remaining county parkland.

Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above?


A) The collection fee will not significantly affect the purchasing power of most residents, even if their households do not reduce the amount of trash t

B) The collection fee will not induce residents to dump their trash in the parklands illegally.

C) The beauty of county parkland is an important issue for most of the county's residents.

D) Landfills outside the county's borders could be used as dumping sites for the county's trash.



5.

 Last year the rate of inflation was 1.2 percent, but for the current year it has been 4 percent. We can conclude that inflation is on an upward trend and the rate will be still higher next year.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?


A) The inflation figures were computed on the basis of a representative sample of economic data rather than all of the available data.

B) Last year a dip in oil prices brought inflation temporarily below its recent stable annual level of 4 percent.

C) lncreases in the pay of some workers are tied to the level of inflation, and at an inflation rate of 4 percent or above, these pay raises constitute a

D) Government intervention cannot affect the rate of inflation to any significant degree.



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