The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

Just like the Internet today, often being called an “information superhighway,” the telegraph was described in its day as an “instantaneous highway of thought.”

Michelangelo, it is believed, had made his sculpture of David using an eight-inch plaster model that was recently discovered after being lost for nearly 300 years.

In the six-month period that ended on September 30, the average number of Sunday papers sold by the company was 81,000 less than the comparable period a year ago.

A product that represents a clear technological advance over competing products can generally command a high price. Because technological advances tend to be quickly surpassed and companies want to make large profits while they still can, many companies charge the greatest price the market will bear when they have such a product. But large profits on the new product will give competitors a strong incentive to quickly match the new product's capabilities. Consequently, the strategy to maximize overall profit from a new product is to charge less than the greatest possible price.

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

Political Strategist: The domestic policies of our opponents in Party X are contrary to the priorities of many middle-class voters. Yet some of these same voters are supporters of Party X and its candidates due to the party's appeals about foreign policy. In order to win these voters back, we in Party Y must prove to middle-class voters that Party X does not represent their priorities with respect to domestic policy.

Which of the following would, if true, most strongly suggest that the political strategist's plan is unlikely to succeed?

As opposed to adults, pound for pound, children breathe twice as much air, drink two and a half times as much water, eat three to four times as much food, and have more skin surface area.

Lockeport's commercial fishing boats use gill nets, which kill many of the netted fish, including some fish of endangered species. The fishing commission has proposed requiring the use of tent nets, which do not kill fish: boat crews would then throw back fish of endangered species. Profitable commercial fishing boats in similar areas have already switched over to tent nets. The proposal can therefore be implemented without economic harm to Lockeport's commercial fishing boat operators.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the argument made for the proposal?

The country of Virodia has, until now, been barely self-sufficient in both meat and grain. Greater prosperity there has gone hand in hand with steadily increasing per capita consumption of meat, and it takes several pounds of grain used as feed to produce one pound of meat. Per capita income is almost certain to rise further, yet increases in domestic grain production are unlikely.

 Which of the following is most strongly supported by the information given?

Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.