Airport official: Local residents have been complaining that night flights into Plainsville airport disturb their sleep and should be sharply reduced in number. This complaint is completely unreasonable—there have been night flights coming into the airport from the very beginning, twenty years ago, and these residents should have taken that fact into account when buying their homes.

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

A physically active lifestyle has been shown to help increase longevity. In the Wistar region of Bellaria, the average age at death is considerably higher than in any other part of the country. Wistar is the only mountainous part of Bellaria. A mountainous terrain makes even such basic activities as walking relatively strenuous; it essentially imposes a physically active lifestyle on people. Clearly, this circumstance explains the long lives of people in Wistar.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

Fashion company executive: The number of competing brands of clothing is increasing much more quickly than is consumer demand for new clothing. As a result, it is becoming ever more for our clothing company to keep consumers focused on our products. To increase our sales, therefore, our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.

To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

The recent rise of low-cost airlines in Country Y has led to great increases in the number of air travelers and flights. However, a "hidden cost" of flying and certain other forms of travel is the significant amount of air pollution, which contributes to global warming. To make people pay these hidden costs—and in the process discourage the explosive growth in flying—the government of Country Y plans to impose fees on all air travel. There is a problem, however, in that many residents of Country Y would then use automobile transportation instead, without paying the hidden costs of the resulting air pollution.

Which of the following additions to the government's plan would be likely to help most in overcoming the problem referred to in the final sentence above?

The Acme Corporation has found that improvements in its information technology infrastructure allow its employees to make more decisions that are both sound and well-informed than was previously feasible. Consequently, the corporation plans to improve employee productivity by introducing new managerial techniques that delegate much of the decision-making to lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. Managers will simply set clear standards and guidelines and then allow employee teams to undertake tasks without centralized control.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support a prediction that the Acme Corporation's plan will achieve its goal?

The faster a car is traveling, the less time the driver has to avoid a potential accident, and if a car does crash, higher speeds increase the risk of a fatality. Between 1995 and 2000, average highway speeds increased significantly in the United States, yet, over that time, there was a drop in the number of car-crash fatalities per highway mile driven by cars.

Which of the following, if true about the United States between 1995 and 2000, most helps to explain why the fatality rate decreased in spite of the increase in average highway speeds?

An influential stock analyst recommends the purchase of three infrequently traded stocks in each of his weekly magazine columns. Unusually large amounts of these stocks are often purchased one day before the magazine appears on the newsstands. This pattern has recurred over a period.

Suppose that the information presented above is accurate. Each of the following statements, if true, could help to explain why the unusually large purchases occurred EXCEPT:

Paper&Print is a chain of British stores selling magazines, books, and stationery products. In Britain, magazines' retail prices are set by publishers, and the retailer's share of a magazine's retail price is 25 percent. Since Paper&Print's margin on books and stationery products is much higher, the chain's management plans to devote more of its stores' shelf space to books and stationery products and reduce the number of magazine titles that its stores carry.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly argues that the plan, if put into effect, will not increase Paper&Print's profits?

Plant scientists have used genetic engineering on seeds to produce crop plants that are highly resistant to insect damage. Unfortunately, the plants require more fertilizer and water to grow well than normal ones do, and the seeds themselves are quite expensive, and for most farmers the savings on pesticides would not compensate for the higher seed costs and the cost of additional fertilizer. However, since consumer demand for grains, fruits, and vegetables grown without the use of pesticides continues to rise, the use of genetically engineered seeds of this kind is likely to become widespread.

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

Many breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin supplements. Some of these cereals provide 100 percent of the recommended daily requirement of vitamins. Nevertheless, a well-balanced breakfast, including a variety of foods, is a better source of those vitamins than are such fortified breakfast cereals alone.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the position above?