Tough Critical Reasoning questions #1

1. The fewer restrictions there are on the advertising of legal services, the more lawyers there are who
advertise their services, and the lawyers who advertise a specific service usually charge less for that service
than lawyers who do not advertise. Therefore, if the state removes any of its current restrictions, such as the one
against advertisements that do not specify fee arrangements, overall consumer legal costs will be lower than if
the state retains its current restrictions.
If the statements in the passage are true, which of the following must be true?
A. Some lawyers who now advertise will charge more for specific services if they do not have to specify fee
arrangements in the advertisements.
B. More consumers will use legal services if there are fewer restrictions on the advertising of legal service.
C. If the restriction against advertisements that do not specify fee arrangements is removed, more lawyers will
advertise their services.
D. If more lawyers advertise lower prices for specific services, some lawyers who do not advertise will also
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charge less than they currently charge for those services.
E. If the only restrictions on the advertising of legal services were those that apply to every type of advertising,
most lawyers would advertise their services.

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2. A cost-effective solution to the problem of airport congestion is to provide high-speed ground transportation
between major cities lying 200 to 500 miles apart. The successful implementation of this plan would cost far less
than expanding existing airports and would also reduce the number of airplanes clogging both airports and
airways.
Which of the following, if true, could be proponents of the plan above most appropriately cite as a piece of
evidence for the soundness of their plan?
A. An effective high-speed ground-transportation system would require major repairs to many highways and
mass-transit improvements.
B. One-half of all departing flights in the nation’s busiest airport head for a destination in a major city 225 miles
away.
C. The majority of travelers departing from rural airports are flying to destinations in cities over 600 miles away.
D. Many new airports are being built in areas that are presently served by high-speed ground-transportation
systems.
E. A large proportion of air travelers are vacationers who are taking long-distance flights.

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3. Red blood cells in which the malarial-fever parasite resides are eliminated from a person’s body after 120
days. Because the parasite cannot travel to a new generation of red blood cells, any fever that develops in a
person more than 120 days after that person has moved to a malaria-free region is not due to the malarial
parasite.
Which is the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?
A. The fever caused by the malarial parasite may resemble the fever caused by flu viruses.
B. The anopheles mosquito, which is the principal insect carrier of the malarial parasite, has been eradicated in
many parts of the world.
C. Many malarial symptoms other than the fever, which can be suppressed with anti-malarial medication, can
reappear within 120 days after the medication is discontinued.
D. In some cases, the parasite that causes malarial fever travels to cells of the spleen, which are less
frequently eliminated from a person’s body than are red blood cells.
E. In any region infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes, there are individuals who appear to be immune to
malaria.
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4. The number of people diagnosed as having a certain intestinal disease has dropped significantly in a rural
county this year, as compared to last year. Health officials attribute this decrease entirely to improved sanitary
conditions at water-treatment plants, which made for cleaner water this year and thus reduced the incidence of
the disease.
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Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the health officials’ explanation for the lower
incidence of the disease?
A. Many new water-treatment plants have been built in the last five years in the rural county.
B. Bottled spring water has not been consumed in significantly different quantities by people diagnosed as
having the intestinal disease, as compared to people who did not contract the disease.
C. Because of a new diagnostic technique, many people who until this year would have been diagnosed as
having the intestinal disease are now correctly diagnosed as suffering from intestinal ulcers.
D. Because of medical advances this year, far fewer people who contract the intestinal disease will develop
severe cases of the disease.
E. The water in the rural county was brought up to the sanitary standards of the water in neighboring counties
ten years ago.
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5. The price the government pays for standard weapons purchased from military contractors is determined by a
pricing method called “historical costing.” Historical costing allows contractors to protect their profits by adding a
percentage increase, based on the current rate of inflation, to the previous year’s contractual price.
Which of the following statements, if true, is the best basis for a criticism of historical costing as an economically
sound pricing method for military contracts?
A. The government might continue to pay for past inefficient use of funds.
B. The rate of inflation has varied considerably over the past twenty years.
C. The contractual price will be greatly affected by the cost of materials used for the products.
D. Many taxpayers question the amount of money the government spends on military contracts.
E. The pricing method based on historical costing might not encourage the development of innovative weapons