Machines replacing human labor, there was wide anticipation that the workweek would continue to become shorter.

More ancient Egyptian temples were constructed in the reign of Ramses II as in any other.

The chanterelle, a type of wild mushroom, grows beneath host trees such as the Douglas fir, which provide it with necessary sugars. The underground filaments of chanterelles, which extract the sugars, in turn provide nutrients and water for their hosts. Because of this mutually beneficial relationship, harvesting the chanterelles growing beneath a Douglas fir seriously endangers the tree.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the conclusion drawn above?

Because the financial review covered only the last few fiscal years, and therefore the investigators were unable to determine the extent of possible earlier overpayments.

The reason much refrigerated food spoils is that it ends up out of sight at the back of the shelf. So why not have round shelves that rotate? Because such rotating shelves would have just the same sort of drawback, since things would fall off the shelves’ edges into the rear corners.

Which of the following is presupposed in the argument against introducing rotating shelves?

It would cost Rosetown one million dollars to repair all of its roads. In the year after completion of those repairs, however, Rosetown would thereby avoid incurring three million dollars worth of damages, since currently Rosetown pays that amount annually in compensation for damage done to cars each year by its unrepaired roads.

Which of the following, if true, gives the strongest support to the argument above?

At ground level, ozone is a harmful pollutant, but in the stratosphere it shields the Earth from the most biologically harmful radiation emitted by the Sun, radiation in the ultraviolet band of the spectrum.

Socrates could have fled from Athens after he was sentenced to death, but he refused to do it.

As sales of cars and light trucks made in North America were declining 13.6 percent in late February, many analysts conclude that evidence of a recovering automotive market remains slight.

Two experimental garden plots were each planted with the same number of tomato plants. Magnesium salts were added to the first plot but not to the second. The first plot produced 20 pounds of tomatoes and the second plot produced 10 pounds. Since nothing else but water was added to either plot, the higher yields in the first plot must been due to the magnesium salts.

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

Archaeologists have found wheeled ceramic toys made by the Toltec, twelfth-century inhabitants of what is now Veracruz. Although there is no archaeological evidence that the Toltec used wheels for anything but toys, some anthropologists hypothesize that wheeled utility vehicles were used to carry materials needed for the monumental structures the Toltec produced.

Which of the following, if true, would most help the anthropologists explain the lack of evidence noted above?

A prolific architect who worked from the turn of the century until the late 1950’s, Julia Morgan designed nearly 800 buildings in California, perhaps most notably William Randolph Hearst’s monumental estate at San Simeon.

The new regulations mandate that a company allows their retiring employees who would otherwise lose group health care coverage to continue the same insurance at their own expense for a specific period.

Demographers doing research for an international economics newsletter claim that the average per capita income in the country of Kuptala is substantially lower than that in the country of Bahlton. They also claim, however, that whereas poverty is relatively rare in Kuptala, over half the population of Bahlton lives in extreme poverty. At least one of the demographers’ claims must, therefore, be wrong.

The argument above is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms?

Studies show that young people with higher-than-average blood pressure and their families have a history of high blood pressure are more likely than others to develop a severe form of the condition.

Normally, increases in the price of a product decrease its sales except when the price increase accompanies an improvement in the product. Wine is unusual, however. Often increases in the price of a particular producer’s wine will result in increased sales, even when the wine itself is unchanged.

Which of the following, if true, does most to explain the anomaly described above?The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

During the 1980’s approximately $50 billion in private investment capital is estimated to have left Mexico and added to the strain on the country’s debt-ridden economy.

The recent decline in land prices has hurt many institutions that had invested heavily in real estate. Last year, before the decline began, a local college added 2,000 acres to its holdings. The college, however, did not purchase the land but received it as a gift. Therefore the price decline will probably not affect the college.

Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the conclusion above?