James: The price of credit defaults swaps (CDS) for ABC company is exploding to the upside. Credit default swaps are effectively insurance contracts on the possibility of a company defaulting on its loans. CDS prices have gone up, partly because ABC took out more loans than they can handle. These additional loans increase the risk of default and are passed on to CDS investors in the form of more expensived insurance premiums. Therefore, reducing the quantity of unnecessary loans will be effective in lowering the price of credit default swap contracts.

Alexis: In many cases, the unnecessary loans that you mention are decisions made by upper management on behalf of the company. CEO's will often choose the financing option that maximizes the debt to equity ratio and potential valuation of the company, but may not necessarily benefit the company. As a result, in order to succeed in reducing the price of credit default swaps, we should allow the company's board of direcctors to vote on which form of financing the company should allow and which forms it shoud not allow.

In the table below, identify the assumptions upon which each person's argument depends. Choose one option for each column.

In studies of extreme isolationism, researchers tried to determine if there was a limit on age after which an "isolated" child would be unable to develop socially. One child, Anna, was an illegitimate child and became a foster child to a family that had no time to care for her. She was left in the attic often and was attended to just enough to allow her to survive. At age 5 she was sent to another foster home where she experienced more interaction, yet by the time of her death at age 8 her development had not progressed.

In another case, Rebecca, also an illegitimate child, had a new set of caretakers at age 4 and began seeing social development at age 6. Her development from age 6-10 accelerated and she was considered to have normal social development by age 10.

Researchers concluded that social development after extreme cases of isolationism cannot develop past age 5 for a child but can develop before 5.

The following excerpt from a fictitious science news report discusses a fictitious type of location called a morefa.

For zoologists studying the behavior of certain species of birds, the critical importance of observing the birds in those species' morefa during the annual breeding season is obvious. Such observation allows researchers to study not only the courtship displays of many different individuals within a species, but also the species' social hierarchy. Morever, since some species repeatedly return to the same morefa, researchers can study changes in group dynamics from year to year. The value of observing a morefa when the birds are not present, however -- such as prior to their arrival or after they have abandoned the area to establish their nests -- is only now becoming apparent.

Based on the definition of the imaginary word morefa that can be inferred from the previous paragraph, which of the following activities of a bird species must happen in a location for that location to be teh species' morefa, and which must NOT happen in a location for that location to be the species' morefa? Make only two selections, one in each column.

A literature department at a small university in an English-speaking country is organizing a two-day festival in which it will highlight the works of ten writers who have been the subjects of recent scholarly work by the faculty. Five writers will be featured each day. To reflect the department's strengths, the majority of writers scheduled for one of the days will be writers whose primary writing language is not English. On the other day of the festival, at least four of the writers will be women. Neither day should have more than two writers from the same country. Departmental members have already agreed on a schedule for eight of the writers. That schedule showing names, along with each writer's primary writing language and country of origin, is shown.

Day 

Achebe (male, English, Nigeria

Weil (female, French, France

Gavalda (female, French, France

Barret Browning (female, English, UK)

Day

Rowling (female, English, UK)

Austen (female, English, UK

Ocantos (male, Spanish, Argentina

Lu Xun (male, Chinese, China)

Select a writer who could be added to the schedule for either day. Then select a writer who could be added to the schedule for neither day. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Rock varnish is typically rich in iron and manganese, with the presence of manganese due to bacteria on the surface of the rock. Because the bacteria would not survive on the surface of rocks in the colder, continuously frozen, reaches of Antarctica, scientists were not surprised to discover that rock varnish in the Thiel Mountains area of Antarctica consists only of limonite, a form of oxidized iron. This had penetrated from the surfaces of the rocks into the cracks. However, although moisture is essential to the movement of limonite, snow has not melted in the Thiel Mountains in recent times.

Indicate which statement in the table the given information most strongly suggests is true, and the statement that the given information most strongly suggests is false. Make only two selections, one in each column.

In the table, select changes that the company could make in City A and City B, respectively, that together would probably be most helpful in testing the consultant's claim. Make only two selections, one in each column.

In the figure above,~$\overline{AB}$~, which has length ~$z$~cm, is tangent to the circle at point ~$A$~, and ~$\overline{BD}$~, which has length ~$y$~cm, intersects the circle at point ~$C$~. If ~$BC=x$~cm and ~$z=\sqrt{xy}$~, what is the value of ~$x$~?

(1) ~$CD=x$~cm

(2) ~$z=5\sqrt2$~

If ~$a, b$~, and ~$c$~ are consecutive integers and ~$0 8?

(1) The product ~$ac$~ is even.

(2)The product ~$bc$~ is a multiple of 4.

Last year ~$\frac{3}{5}$~ of the members of a certain club were males. This year the members of the club include all the members from last year plus some new members. Is the fraction of the members of the club who are males greater this year than last year?

(1)More than half of the new members are male.

(2) The number of members of the club this yearis ~$\frac{6}{5}$~  the number of members last year.

~$A$~ triangle has side length of ~$a, b$~, and ~$c$~ centimeters. Does each angle in the triangle measure less than 90 degrees?

(1) The 3 semicircles whose diametersare the sides of the triangle have areas that are equal to ~$3cm^2,4cm^2$~, and ~$6cm^2$~,respectively.

(2) ~$c