Oaks preferring drier ones, pine trees thrive in relatively wet climates.

Five fledgling sea eagles left their nests in western Scotland this summer, bringing to 34 the number of wild birds successfully raised since transplants from Norway began in 1975.

According to some economists, the July decrease in unemployment so that it was the lowest in two years suggests that the gradual improvement in the job market is continuing.

A city plans to attract new citizens with new housing and new facilities such as parks, recreation centers, and libraries.  One component of the city’s plan is to require that developers seeking permission to build this new housing provide these additional facilities at no cost to the city.

Which of the following, if true, would point to a possible flaw in the city’s plan?

Manufacturers issue cents-off coupons to get consumers to try their brand of product with the hope that the consumers who try their brand will switch their brand loyalty.  So in the initial marketing of their new brand X, Hartman Industries should issue cents-off coupons, thereby attracting a large segment of potential consumers as loyal customers.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the likelihood that the marketing strategy recommended above will have the result that is claimed?

Initiated five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992, Project SETI pledged a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

State spokesperson:  Many businesspeople who have not been to our state believe that we have an inadequate road system.  Those people are mistaken, as is obvious from the fact that in each of the past six years, our state has spent more money per mile on road improvements than any other state.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the reasoning in the spokesperson’s argument?

More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia’s Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

Hundreds of species of fish generate and discharge electric currents, in bursts or as steady electric fields around their bodies, using their power either to find and attack prey, to defend themselves, or also for communicating and navigating.

When a caterpillar emerges from the egg on a tree branch, it immediately climbs upward until it finds a leaf bud to eat. Biologists thought that this behavior displayed an innate tendency to move in the direction opposite to the pull of gravity.  In a recent experiment, a strong light source was placed at the bottom of a tree, and caterpillars, after hatching, climbed downward.

Which of the following hypotheses is best supported by the statements given?

In laboratory rats, a low dose of aspirin usually suffices to block production of thromboxane, which is a substance that promotes blood clotting, but not seriously interfering with the production of prostacyclin, which prevents clotting.

For several years, per capita expenditure on prescription drugs in Voronia rose by fifteen percent or more annually.  In order to curb these dramatic increases, the ministry of health prohibited drug manufacturers from raising any of their products’ prices.  Even though use of prescription drugs did not expand after this price freeze, per capita expenditure for prescription drugs continued to increase by a substantial percentage each year.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain why the ministry’s action did not achieve its goal?

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

The last members of a now-extinct species of a European wild deer called the giant deer lived in Ireland about 16,000 years ago.  Prehistoric cave paintings in France depict this animal as having a large hump on its back.  Fossils of this animal, however, do not show any hump.  Nevertheless, there is no reason to conclude that the cave paintings are therefore inaccurate in this regard, since __________.

Outsourcing is the practice of obtaining from an independent supplier a product or service that a company has previously provided for itself.  Vernon, Inc., a small manufacturing company that has in recent years experienced a decline in its profits, plans to boost its profits by outsourcing those parts of its business that independent suppliers can provide at lower cost than Vernon can itself.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the prediction that Vernon’s plan will achieve its goal?