After successfully completing the CAT 2016 sprint series and the SNAP 2016 sprint series, we are back with the XAT 2017 – Critical Reasoning, Decision Making Marathon – 12 to boost your prep. This series will consist of 15 sets of questions that will test your reasoning skills and will enable you to do well in the crucial Decision Making section of XAT 2017.
You may check out the entire series here: XAT 2017 – Critical Reasoning, Decision Making Marathon
XAT 2017 – Critical Reasoning, Decision Making Marathon – 12
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 question. 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. In considering the fact that many people believe that promotions are often given to undeserving employees because the employees successfully flatter their supervisors, a psychologist argued that although many people who flatter their supervisors are subsequently promoted, flattery generally is not the reason for their success, because almost all flattery is so blatant that it is obvious even to those toward whom it is directed.
Which one of the following, if assumed, enables the psychologist’s conclusion to be properly drawn?
(A) People in positions of responsibility expect to be flattered.
(B) Official guidelines for granting promotion tend to focus on merit.
(C) Flattery that is not noticed by the person being flattered is ineffective.
(D) Many people interpret insincere flattery as sincere admiration.
(E) Supervisors are almost never influenced by flattery when they notice it.
2. The government is being urged to prevent organizations devoted to certain views on human nutrition from advocating a diet that includes large portions of uncooked meat, because eating uncooked meat can be very dangerous. However, this purported fact does not justify the government’s silencing the groups, for surely the government would not be justified in silencing a purely political group merely on the grounds that the policies the group advocates could be harmful to some members of society. The same should be true for silencing groups with certain views on human nutrition.
Which one of the following principles most helps to justify the reasoning in the argument?
(A) The government should not silence any group for advocating a position that a significant proportion of society believes to be beneficial.
(B) The government ought to do whatever is in the best interest of society.
(C) One ought to advocate a position only if one believes that it is true or would be beneficial.
(D) The government ought not to silence an opinion merely on the grounds that it could be harmful to disseminate the opinion.
(E) One ought to urge the government to do only those things the government is justified in doing.
3. Medical researcher: Scientists compared a large group of joggers who habitually stretch before jogging to an equal number of joggers who do not stretch before jogging. Both groups of joggers incurred roughly the same number of injuries. This indicates that stretching before jogging does not help to prevent injuries.
Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken the medical researcher’s argument?
(A) For both groups of joggers compared by the scientists, the rate of jogging injuries during the study was lower than the overall rate of jogging injuries.
(B) Among the joggers in the groups compared by the scientists, many of those previously injured while jogging experienced difficulty in their efforts to perform stretches.
(C) Most jogging injuries result from falls, collisions, and other mishaps on which the flexibility resulting from stretching would have little if any effect.
(D) The more prone a jogger is to jogging injuries, the more likely he or she is to develop the habit of performing stretches before jogging.
(E) Studies have found that, for certain forms of exercise, stretching beforehand can reduce the severity of injuries resulting from that exercise.
4. Superconductor development will enable energy to be transported farther with less energy lost in transit. This will probably improve industrial productivity, for a similar improvement resulted when oil and natural gas replaced coal as the primary fossil fuels used in North America. Shipping costs, a function of the distance fossil fuels are shipped and the losses of material in transit, decreased for factory owners at that time.
The claim that superconductor development will probably improve industrial productivity plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
(A) It is a conclusion for which the claim that shipping costs for fossil fuels are partly a function of the losses of material in transit is offered as partial support.
(B) It is a generalization for which the claim that superconductor development will enable energy to be transported farther with less energy lost in transit is offered as an illustration.
(C) It is an assumption supporting the conclusion that superconductor development will enable energy to be transported farther with less energy lost in transit.
(D) It is a premise offered to support the claim that oil and natural gas have replaced coal as the primary fossil fuels used in North America.
(E) It is cited as evidence that shipping costs are a function of the distances fossil fuels are shipped and the losses of material in transit.
5. The French novelist Colette (1873–1954) has been widely praised for the vividness of her language. But many critics complain that her novels are indifferent to important moral questions. This charge is unfair. Each of her novels is a poetic condensation of a major emotional crisis in the life of an ordinary person of her time. Such emotional crises almost invariably raise important moral questions.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
(A) Critics who suggest that Colette’s novels are indifferent to great moral questions of her time greatly underestimate her literary achievements.
(B) A novel that poetically condenses a major emotional crisis does not have to be indifferent to the important moral questions raised by that crisis.
(C) To deserve the level of praise that Colette has received, a novelist’s work must concern itself with important moral questions.
(D) The vividness of Colette’s language was not itself the result of poetic condensation.
(E) Colette’s purpose in poetically condensing emotional crises in the lives of characters in her novels was to explore some of the important moral questions of her time.
6. The view that every person is concerned exclusively with her or his own self-interest implies that government by consent is impossible. Thus, social theorists who believe that people are concerned only with their self‑interest evidently believe that aspiring to democracy is futile, since democracy is not possible in the absence of government by consent.
The reasoning in the argument is flawed in that the argument
(A) infers merely from the fact of someone’s holding a belief that he or she believes an implication of that belief
(B) infers that because something is true of a group of people, it is true of each individual member of the group
(C) infers that because something is true of each individual person belonging to a group, it is true of the group as a whole
(D) attempts to discredit a theory by discrediting those who espouse that theory
(E) fails to consider that, even if an argument’s conclusion is false, some of the assumptions used to justify that conclusion may nonetheless be true
7. Archaeologist: The mosaics that were removed from Zeugma, the ancient city now flooded by the runoff from Turkey’s Birecik Dam, should have been left there. We had all the information about them that we needed to draw archaeological conclusions, and future archaeologists studying the site, who may not have access to our records, might be misled by their absence.
Which one of the following, if assumed, most helps to justify the reasoning in the archaeologist’s argument?
(A) The only considerations that bear upon the question of whether the mosaics should have been removed are archaeological.
(B) Archaeologists studying a site can tell whether or not that site had been flooded at some time.
(C) The materials used in the construction of a mosaic are readily apparent when the mosaic is examined in its original location.
(D) Archaeological sites from which artifacts have been removed rarely mislead archaeologists who later study the site.
(E) The removal of artifacts from archaeological sites rarely has any environmental impact.
8. Traffic engineers have increased the capacity of the Krakkenbak Bridge to handle rush-hour traffic flow. The resultant increase in rush-hour traffic flow would not have occurred had the city not invested in computer modeling technology last year at the request of the city’s mayor, and the city’s financial predicament would not have been resolved if the traffic flow across the bridge during rush hour had not been increased.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the information above?
(A) The city’s financial predicament would not have been resolved had the city chosen a competing computer modeling software package.
(B) The city’s financial predicament would not have been resolved had the city not invested in computer modeling technology.
(C) On an average day, more traffic crosses the Krakkenbak Bridge this year as compared to last year.
(D) Traffic flow across the Krakkenbak Bridge during rush hour would not have increased had the city’s mayor not made investing in computer modeling technology the highest budgetary priority last year.
(E) The city’s mayor was a proponent of investing in computer modeling technology because of the city’s need to increase traffic flow across the Krakkenbak Bridge during rush hour.
9. Court analyst: Courts should not allow the use of DNA tests in criminal cases. There exists considerable controversy among scientific experts about how reliable these tests are. Unless there is widespread agreement in the scientific community about how reliable a certain test is, it is unreasonable for the courts to allow evidence based on that test.
The court analyst’s reasoning is flawed because it fails to take into account that
(A) courts have the authority to admit or exclude any evidence irrespective of what experts have to say about its reliability
(B) the standard against which evidence in a criminal case is measured should not be absolute certainty
(C) experts may agree that the tests are highly reliable while disagreeing about exactly how reliable they are
(D) data should not be admitted as evidence in a court of law without scientific witnesses having agreed about how reliable they are
(E) there are also controversies about reliability of evidence in noncriminal cases
10. Members of the VideoKing Frequent Viewers club can now receive a special discount coupon. Members of the club who have rented more than ten videos in the past month can receive the discount coupon only at the VideoKing location from which the member last rented a movie. Members of the Frequent Viewers club who have not rented more than ten videos in the past month can receive the coupon only at the Main Street location. Pat, who has not rented more than ten videos in the past month, can receive the special discount coupon at the Walnut Lane location of VideoKing.
If all of the statements above are true, which one of the following must be true?
(A) The only people who can receive the special discount coupon at the Main Street location are Frequent Viewers club members who have not rented more than ten videos.
(B) Some members of the Frequent Viewers club have not rented more than ten videos.
(C) Some members of the Frequent Viewers club can receive the special discount coupon at more than one location of VideoKing.
(D) Some people who are not members of the Frequent Viewers club can receive the special discount coupon.
(E) If Pat rents a movie from the Main Street location, then she will not receive the special discount coupon.
Answer key
1. E
2. D
3. D
4. A
5. B
6. A
7. A
8. B
9. C
10. D
Meanwhile, for those who want to solve quality questions from past year XAT papers, you may check out our ongoing XAT 2017 Sprint Preparation Series.
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