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 – 2 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 – 2
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. Most universities today offer students a more in-depth and cosmopolitan education than ever before. Until recently, for example, most university history courses required only the reading of textbooks that hardly mentioned the history of Africa or Asia after the ancient periods, or the history of the Americas’ indigenous cultures. The history courses at most universities no longer display such limitations.
Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?
(A) The history courses that university students find most interesting are comprehensive in their coverage of various periods and cultures.
(B) Many students at universities whose history courses require the reading of books covering all periods and world cultures participate in innovative study-abroad programs.
(C) The extent to which the textbooks of university history courses are culturally inclusive is a strong indication of the extent to which students at those universities get an in-depth and cosmopolitan education.
(D) Universities at which the history courses are quite culturally inclusive do not always have courses in other subject areas that show the same inclusiveness.
(E) University students who in their history courses are required only to read textbooks covering the history of a single culture will not get an in-depth and cosmopolitan education from these courses alone.
2. The government has recently adopted a policy of publishing airline statistics, including statistics about each airline’s number of near collisions and its fines for safety violations. However, such disclosure actually undermines the government’s goal of making the public more informed about airline safety, because airlines will be much less likely to give complete reports if such information will be made available to the public.
The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it
(A) fails to consider that, even if the reports are incomplete, they may nevertheless provide the public with important information about airline safety
(B) presumes, without providing justification, that the public has a right to all information about matters of public safety
(C) presumes, without providing justification, that information about airline safety is impossible to find in the absence of government disclosures
(D) presumes, without providing justification, that airlines, rather than the government, should be held responsible for accurate reporting of safety information
(E) fails to consider whether the publication of airline safety statistics will have an effect on the revenues of airlines
3. Many economists claim that financial rewards provide the strongest incentive for people to choose one job over another. But in many surveys, most people do not name high salary as the most desirable feature of a job. This shows that these economists overestimate the degree to which people are motivated by money in their job choices.
Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?
(A) Even high wages do not enable people to obtain all the goods they desire.
(B) In many surveys, people say that they would prefer a high-wage job to an otherwise identical job with lower wages.
(C) Jobs that pay the same salary often vary considerably in their other financial benefits.
(D) Many people enjoy the challenge of a difficult job, as long as they feel that their efforts are appreciated.
(E) Some people are not aware that jobs with high salaries typically leave very little time for recreation.
4. Editorial: A proposed new law would limit elementary school class sizes to a maximum of 20 students. Most parents support this measure and argue that making classes smaller allows teachers to devote more time to each student, with the result that students become more engaged in the learning process. However, researchers who conducted a recent study conclude from their results that this reasoning is questionable. The researchers studied schools that had undergone recent reductions in class size, and found that despite an increase in the amount of time teachers spent individually with students, the students’ average grades were unchanged.
Which one of the following is an assumption required by the researchers’ argument?
(A) The only schools appropriate for study are large elementary schools.
(B) Teachers generally devote the same amount of individualized attention to each student in a class.
(C) Reductions in class size would also involve a decrease in the number of teachers.
(D) Degree of student engagement in the learning process correlates well with students’ average grades.
(E) Parental support for the proposed law rests solely on expectations of increased student engagement in the learning process.
5. Camille: Manufacturers of water-saving faucets exaggerate the amount of money such faucets can save. Because the faucets handle such a low volume of water, people using them often let the water run longer than they would otherwise.
Rebecca: It is true that showering now takes longer. Nevertheless, I have had lower water bills since I installed a water-saving faucet. Thus, it is not true that the manufacturers’ claims are exaggerated.
The reasoning in Rebecca’s argument is questionable in that she takes for granted that
(A) the cost of installing her water-saving faucet was less than her overall savings on her water bill
(B) she saved as much on her water bills as the manufacturers’ claims suggested she would
(C) the manufacturers’ claims about the savings expected from the installation of water-saving faucets are consistent with one another
(D) people who use water-saving faucets are satisfied with the low volume of water handled by such faucets
(E) installing more water-saving faucets in her house would increase her savings
6. Company spokesperson: In lieu of redesigning our plants, our company recently launched an environmental protection campaign to buy and dispose of old cars, which are generally highly pollutive. Our plants account for just 4 percent of the local air pollution, while automobiles that predate 1980 account for 30 percent. Clearly, we will reduce air pollution more by buying old cars than we would by redesigning our plants.
Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the company spokesperson’s argument?
(A) Only 1 percent of the automobiles driven in the local area predate 1980.
(B) It would cost the company over $3 million to reduce its plants’ toxic emissions, while its car-buying campaign will save the company money by providing it with reusable scrap metal.
(C) Because the company pays only scrap metal prices for used cars, almost none of the cars sold to the company still run.
(D) Automobiles made after 1980 account for over 30 percent of local air pollution.
(E) Since the company launched its car-buying campaign, the number of citizen groups filing complaints about pollution from the company’s plants has decreased.
7. Humankind would not have survived, as it clearly has, if our ancestors had not been motivated by the desire to sacrifice themselves when doing so would ensure the survival of their children or other close relatives. But since even this kind of sacrifice is a form of altruism, it follows that our ancestors were at least partially altruistic.
Which one of the following arguments is most similar in its reasoning to the argument above?
(A) Students do not raise their grades if they do not increase the amount of time they spend studying. Increased study time requires good time management. However, some students do raise their grades. So some students manage their time well.
(B) Organisms are capable of manufacturing their own carbohydrate supply if they do not consume other organisms to obtain it. So plants that consume insects must be incapable of photosynthesis, the means by which most plants produce their carbohydrate supplies.
(C) If fragile ecosystems are not protected by government action their endemic species will perish, for endemic species are by definition those that exist nowhere else but in those ecosystems.
(D) The natural resources used by human beings will be depleted if they are not replaced by alternative materials. But since such replacement generally requires more power, the resources used to create that power will become depleted.
(E) Public buildings do not harmonize with their surroundings if they are not well designed. But any well-designed building is expensive to construct. Thus, either public buildings are expensive to construct or else they do not harmonize with their surroundings.
8. Bus driver: Had the garbage truck not been exceeding the speed limit, it would not have collided with the bus I was driving. I, on the other hand, was abiding by all traffic regulations—as the police report confirms. Therefore, although I might have been able to avoid the collision had I reacted more quickly, the bus company should not reprimand me for the accident.
Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning in the bus driver’s argument?
(A) If a vehicle whose driver is violating a traffic regulation collides with a vehicle whose driver is not, the driver of the first vehicle is solely responsible for the accident.
(B) A bus company should not reprimand one of its drivers whose bus is involved in a collision if a police report confirms that the collision was completely the fault of the driver of another vehicle.
(C) Whenever a bus driver causes a collision to occur by violating a traffic regulation, the bus company should reprimand that driver.
(D) A company that employs bus drivers should reprimand those drivers only when they become involved in collisions that they reasonably could have been expected to avoid.
(E) When a bus is involved in a collision, the bus driver should not be reprimanded by the bus company if the collision did not result from the bus driver’s violating a traffic regulation.
9. Historian: Radio drama requires its listeners to think about what they hear, picturing for themselves such dramatic elements as characters’ physical appearances and spatial relationships. Hence, while earlier generations, for whom radio drama was the dominant form of popular entertainment, regularly exercised their imaginations, today’s generation of television viewers do so less frequently.
Which one of the following is an assumption required by the historian’s argument?
(A) People spend as much time watching television today as people spent listening to radio in radio’s heyday.
(B) The more familiar a form of popular entertainment becomes, the less likely its consumers are to exercise their imaginations.
(C) Because it inhibits the development of creativity, television is a particularly undesirable form of popular entertainment.
(D) For today’s generation of television viewers, nothing fills the gap left by radio as a medium for exercising the imagination.
(E) Television drama does not require its viewers to think about what they see.
10. Each of the candidates in this year’s mayoral election is a small-business owner. Most small-business owners are competent managers. Moreover, no competent manager lacks the skills necessary to be a good mayor. So, most of the candidates in this year’s mayoral election have the skills necessary to be a good mayor.
The pattern of flawed reasoning in which one of the following is most similar to that in the argument above?
(A) Anyone who has worked in sales at this company has done so for at least a year. Most of this company’s management has worked in its sales department. So, since no one who has worked in the sales department for more than a year fails to understand marketing, most of this company’s upper management understands marketing.
(B) Everything on the menu at Maddy’s Shake Shop is fat-free. Most fat-free foods and drinks are sugar-free. And all sugar-free foods and drinks are low in calories. Hence, most items on the menu at Maddy’s are low in calories.
(C) All the books in Ed’s apartment are hardcover books. Most hardcover books are more than 100 pages long. Ed has never read a book longer than 100 pages in its entirety in less than 3 hours. So, Ed has never read any of his books in its entirety in less than 3 hours.
(D) Each of the avant-garde films at this year’s film festival is less than an hour long. Most films less than an hour long do not become commercially successful. So, since no movie less than an hour long has an intermission, it follows that most of the movies at this year’s film festival do not have an intermission.
(E) All of the bicycle helmets sold in this store have some plastic in them. Most of the bicycle helmets sold in this store have some rubber in them. So, since no helmets that have rubber in them do not also have plastic in them, it follows that most of the helmets in this store that have plastic in them have rubber in them.
Answer key:
1. C
2. A
3. C
4. D
5. B
6. C
7. A
8. E
9. D
10. B
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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