Business Consultant: Some corporations shun the use of executive titles because they fear that the use of titles indicating position in the corporation tends to inhibit communication up and down the corporate hierarchy. Since an executive who uses a title is treated with more respect by outsiders, however, use of a title can facilitate an executive's dealings with external businesses. Clearly, corporations should adopt the compromise of encouraging their executives to use their corporate titles externally but not internally, since even if it is widely known that the corporation's executives use titles outside their organization, this knowledge does not by itself inhibit communication within the corporation.

In the consultant's reasoning, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

Because ethylene dibromide, a chemical used to fumigate grain, was blamed for the high rate of nerve damage suffered by people who work in grain-processing plants, many such plants switched to other chemical fumigants two years ago. Since then, however, the percentage of workers at these plants who were newly diagnosed with nerve damage has not dropped significantly. Therefore, either ethylene dibromide was wrongly blamed or else the new chemicals also cause nerve damage.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

For most people, the left half of the brain controls linguistic capabilities, but some people have their language centers in the right half. When a language center of the brains is damaged, for example, by a stroke, linguistic capabilities are impaired in some way. Therefore, people who have suffered a serious stroke on the left side of the brain without suffering any such impairment must have their language centers in the right half.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the reasoning in the argument above depends?

Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?

A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province's highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.

Ecologists:the Scottish Highlands were once the site of extensive forests, but these forests have mostly disappeared and been replaced by peat bogs. The common view is that the Highland's deforestation was caused by human activity, especially agriculture. However, agriculture began in the Highlands less than 2,000 years ago. Peat bogs, which consist of compressed decayed vegetable matter, build up by only about one foot per 1000 years, and, throughout the Highlands, remains of trees in peat bogs are almost all at depth great than four feet. Since climate changes that occurred between 7,000 years and 4,000 years ago favored the development of peat bogs rather than the survival of forests, the deforestation was more likely the result of natural processes than of human activity.

In the ecologist's argument, the two portions in boldfaces play which of the following roles?

The percentage of households with an annual income of more than $40,000 is higher in Merton county than in any other county. However, the percentage of households with an annual income of $60,000 or more is highest in Sommer county.

If the statements above are true, which of the following can properly be concluded on the basis of them?

Scientists typically do their most creative work before the age of forty. It is commonly thought that this happens because aging by itself brings about a loss of creative capacity. However, a study has found that almost all scientists who produce highly creative work beyond the age of forty entered their fields late and less than a dozen years before their creative breakthroughs. Since creative breakthroughs by scientists under forty also generally occur within a dozen years of the scientists' entry into the field, the study's finding strongly suggests that the real reason why scientists over forty rarely produce highly creative work is not due to age but rather because most have spent too long in their fields.

In the argument given, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

In January of last year the Moviemania chain of movie theaters started propping its popcorn in canola oil, instead of the less healthful coconut oil that it had been using until then. Now Moviemania is planning to switch back, saying that the change has hurt popcorn sales. That claim is false, however, since according to Moviemania's own sales figures, Moviemania sold 5 percent more popcorn last year than in the previous year.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the argument against Moviemania's claim?

Fact: Asthma, a bronchial condition, is much less common ailment than hay fever, an allergic inflammation of the nasal passages.

Fact: Over 95 percent of people who have asthma also suffer from hay fever.

If the information given as facts above is true, which of the following must also be true?

Fearing competition from stores that rent video games for home use, owners of stores that sell video games lobbied for protective legislation. Citing as a precedent legislation that postpones home film rentals until one year after general release to theaters, the video sellers proposed as an equitable solution a plan that would postpone rental of any video game until it had been available for sale for one year.

Which of the following, if true, would support an objection by owners of video rental stores that the fairness of the proposed legislation is not supported by the precedent cited?