An airplane engine manufacturer developed a new engine model with safety features lacking in the earlier model, which was still being manufactured. During the first year that both were sold, the earlier model far outsold the new model; the manufacturer thus concluded that safety was not the customers’ primary consideration.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the manufacturer’s conclusion?

Between 1975 and 1985, nursing-home occupancy rates averaged 87 percent of capacity’ while admission rates remained constant at an average of 95 admissions per l,000 beds per year. Between 1985 and 1988, however, occupancy rates rose to an average of 92 percent of capacity, while admission rates declined to 81 per 1,000 beds per year.

If the statements above are true, which of the following conclusions can be most properly drawn?

Firms adopting 6’profit-related-pay” (PRP) contracts pay wages at levels that vary with the firm’s profits. In the metalworking industry last year, firms with PRP contracts in place showed productivity per worker on average 13 percent higher than that of their competitors who used more traditional contracts.

If, on the basis of the evidence above, it is argued that PRP contracts increase worker productivity which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken that argument?

Mouth cancer is a danger for people who rarely brush their teeth. In order to achieve early detection of mouth cancer in these individuals, a town’s public health officials sent a pamphlet to all town residents, describing how to perform weekly self-examinations of the mouth for lumps.

Which of the following, if true, is the best criticism of the pamphlet as a method of achieving the public health officials’goal?

Companies O and P each have the same number of employees who work the same number of hours per week. According to records maintained by each company, the employees of Company O had fewer job-related accidents last year than did the employees of Company P. Therefore, employees of Company O are less likely to have job-related accidents than are employees of Company P.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion above?

Useful protein drugs, such as insulin, must still be administered by the cumbersome procedure of injection under the skin. If proteins are taken orally, they are digested and cannot reach their target cells. Certain nonprotein drugs, however, contain chemical bonds that are not broken down by the digestive system. They can, thus, be taken orally.

The statements above most strongly support a claim that a research procedure that successfully accomplishes which of the following would be beneficial to users of protein drugs?

In the United States in 1986, the average rate of violent crime in states with strict gun-control laws was 645 crimes per 1001000 persons-about 50 percent higher than the average rate in the eleven states where strict gun-control laws had never been passed. Thus one way to reduce violent crime is to repeal strict gun control laws.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

Corporate officers and directors commonly buy and sell, for their own portfolios, stock in their own corporations. Generally when the ratio of such inside sales to inside purchases falls below 2tolfor a given stock, a rise in stock prices is imminent. In recent days, while the price of MEGA Corporation stock has been falling, the corporation,s officers and directors have bought up to nine times as much of it as they have sold.

The facts above best support which of the following predictions?

ln 1987 sinusitis was the most common chronic medical condition in the United States, followed by arthritis and high blood pressure, in that order.

The incidence rates for both arthritis and high blood pressure increase with age, but the incidence rate for sinusitis is the same for people of all ages. 

The average age of the United States population will increase between 1987 and 2000.

Which of the following conclusions can be most properly drawn about chronic medical conditions in the United States from the information given above?

Products sold under a brand name used to command premium prices because, in general, they were superior to nonbrand rival products. Technical expertise in product development has become so widespread, however, that special quality advantages are very hard to obtain these days and even harder to maintain. As a consequence, brand-name products generally neither offer higher quality nor sell at higher prices. Paradoxically brand names are a bigger marketing advantage than ever.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the paradox outlined above?