SECTION IV

Time-35 minutes

25 Questions

Directions: The questions in this section are based on the reasoning contained in brief statements or passages. For some questions, More than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. However, You are to choose the best answer; that is the response that most accurately and completely answers the questions. You should not make assumptions that are by commonsense standards implausible, superfluous. or incompatible with the passage. After you have chosen the best answer; blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet.

1. A major art theft from a museum was remarkable in that the pieces stolen clearly had been carefully selected. The criterion for selection, however, clearly had not been greatest estimated market value. It follows that the theft was specifically carried out to suit the taste of some individual collector for whose private collection the pieces were destined.

The argument tacitly appeals to which one of the following principles?

(A) Any art theft can, on the evidence of the selection of pieces stolen, be categorized as committed either at the direction of a single known individual or at the direction of a group of known individuals.

(B) Any art theft committed at the direction of a single individual results in a pattern of works taken and works left alone that defies rational analysis.

(C) The pattern of works taken and works left alone can sometimes distinguish one type of art theft from another.

(D) Art thefts committed with no preexisting plan for the disposition of the stolen works do not always involve theft of the most valuable pieces only.

(E) The pattern of works taken and works left alone in an art theft can be particularly damaging to the integrity of the remaining collection.

2. The teeth of some mammals show “growth rings” that result from the constant depositing of layers of cementum as opaque bands in summer and translucent bands in winter. Cross sections of pigs teeth found in an excavated Stone Age trash pit revealed bands of remarkably constant width except tat the band deposited last, which was invariably that the band deposited last, which was invariably translucent, was only about half the normal width.

The statements above most strongly support the conclusion that the animals died

(A) in an unusually early winter

(B) at roughly the same age

(C) roughly in midwinter

(D) in a natural catastrophe

(E) from starvation

3. The United States has never been a great international trader. It found most of its raw materials and customers for finished products within its own borders. The terrible consequences of this situation have become apparent, as this country now owes the largest foreign debt in the world and is a playground for wealthy foreign investors. The moral is clear: a country can no more live without foreign trade than a dog can live by eating its own tail.

In order to advance her point of view, the author does each of the following EXCEPT

(A) draw on an analogy

(B) appeal to historical fact

(C) identify a cause and an effect

(D) suggest a cause of the current economic situation

(E) question the ethical basis of an economic situation

4. Giselle: The government needs to ensure that the public consumes less petroleum. When things cost more, people buy and use less of them. Therefore, the government should raise the sales tax on gasoline, a major petroleum product.

Antoine: The government should not raise the sales tax on gasoline. Such an increase would be unfair to gasoline users. If taxes are to be increased, the increases should be applied in such a way that they spread the burden of providing the government with increased revenues among many people, not just the users of gasoline.