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 – 9 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 – 9
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. Small experimental vacuum tubes can operate in heat that makes semiconductor components fail. Any component whose resistance to heat is greater than that of semiconductors would be preferable for use in digital circuits, but only if that component were also comparable to semiconductors in all other significant respects, such as maximum current capacity. However, vacuum tubes’ maximum current capacity is presently not comparable to that of semiconductors.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true?
(A) Vacuum tubes are not now preferable to semiconductors for use in digital circuits.
(B) Once vacuum tubes and semiconductors have comparable maximum current capacity, vacuum tubes will be used in some digital circuits.
(C) The only reason that vacuum tubes are not now used in digital circuits is that vacuum tubes’ maximum current capacity is too low.
(D) Semiconductors will always be preferable to vacuum tubes for use in many applications other than digital circuits.
(E) Resistance to heat is the only advantage that vacuum tubes have over semiconductors.
2. The cause of the epidemic that devastated Athens in 430 B.C. can finally be identified. Accounts of the epidemic mention the hiccups experienced by many victims, a symptom of no known disease except that caused by the recently discovered Ebola virus. Moreover, other symptoms of the disease caused by the Ebola virus are mentioned in the accounts of the Athenian epidemic.
Each of the following, if true, weakens the argument EXCEPT:
(A) Victims of the Ebola virus experience many symptoms that do not appear in any of the accounts of the Athenian epidemic.
(B) Not all of those who are victims of the Ebola virus are afflicted with hiccups.
(C) The Ebola virus’s host animals did not live in Athens at the time of the Athenian epidemic.
(D) The Ebola virus is much more contagious than the disease that caused the Athenian epidemic was reported to have been.
(E) The epidemics known to have been caused by the Ebola virus are usually shorter-lived than was the Athenian epidemic.
3. Letter to the editor: Your article was unjustified in criticizing environmentalists for claiming that more wolves on Vancouver Island are killed by hunters than are born each year. You stated that this claim was disproven by recent studies that indicate that the total number of wolves on Vancouver Island has remained roughly constant for 20 years. But you failed to account for the fact that, fearing the extinction of this wolf population, environmentalists have been introducing new wolves into the Vancouver Island wolf population for 20 years.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the conclusion of the argument in the letter to the editor?
(A) Environmentalists have been successfully maintaining the wolf population on Vancouver Island for 20 years.
(B) As many wolves on Vancouver Island are killed by hunters as are born each year.
(C) The population of wolves on Vancouver Island should be maintained by either reducing the number killed by hunters each year or introducing new wolves into the population.
(D) The recent studies indicating that the total number of wolves on Vancouver Island has remained roughly constant for 20 years were flawed.
(E) The stability in the size of the Vancouver Island wolf population does not warrant the article’s criticism of the environmentalists’ claim.
4. Computer scientist: For several decades, the number of transistors on new computer microchips, and hence the microchips’ computing speed, has doubled about every 18 months. However, from the mid-1990s into the next decade, each such doubling in a microchip’s computing speed was accompanied by a doubling in the cost of producing that microchip.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the computer scientist’s statements?
(A) The only effective way to double the computing speed of computer microchips is to increase the number of transistors per microchip.
(B) From the mid-1990s into the next decade, there was little if any increase in the retail cost of computers as a result of the increased number of transistors on microchips.
(C) For the last several decades, computer engineers have focused on increasing the computing speed of computer microchips without making any attempt to control the cost of producing them.
(D) From the mid-1990s into the next decade, a doubling in the cost of fabricating new computer microchips accompanied each doubling in the number of transistors on those microchips.
(E) It is unlikely that engineers will ever be able to increase the computing speed of microchips without also increasing the cost of producing them.
5. Ms. Sandstrom’s newspaper column describing a strange natural phenomenon on the Mendels’ farm led many people to trespass on and extensively damage their property. Thus, Ms. Sandstrom should pay for this damage if, as the Mendels claim, she could have reasonably expected that the column would lead people to damage the Mendels’ farm.
The argument’s conclusion can be properly inferred if which one of the following is assumed?
(A) One should pay for any damage that one’s action leads other people to cause if one could have reasonably expected that the action would lead other people to cause damage.
(B) One should pay for damage that one’s action leads other people to cause only if, prior to the action, one expected that the action would lead other people to cause that damage.
(C) It is unlikely that the people who trespassed on and caused the damage to the Mendels’ property would themselves pay for the damage they caused.
(D) Ms. Sandstrom knew that her column could incite trespassing that could result in damage to the Mendels’ farm.
(E) The Mendels believe that Ms. Sandstrom is able to form reasonable expectations about the consequences of her actions.
6. Meyer was found by his employer to have committed scientific fraud by falsifying data. The University of Williamstown, from which Meyer held a PhD, validated this finding and subsequently investigated whether he had falsified data in his doctoral thesis, finding no evidence that he had. But the university decided to revoke Meyer’s PhD anyway.
Which one of the following university policies most justifies the decision to revoke Meyer’s PhD?
(A) Anyone who holds a PhD from the University of Williamstown and is found to have committed academic fraud in the course of pursuing that PhD will have the PhD revoked.
(B) No PhD program at the University of Williamstown will admit any applicant who has been determined to have committed any sort of academic fraud.
(C) Any University of Williamstown student who is found to have submitted falsified data as academic work will be dismissed from the university.
(D) Anyone who holds a PhD from the University of Williamstown and is found to have committed scientific fraud will have the PhD revoked.
(E) The University of Williamstown will not hire anyone who is under investigation for scientific fraud.
7. Aerobics instructor: Compared to many forms of exercise, kickboxing aerobics is highly risky. Overextending when kicking often leads to hip, knee, or lower-back injuries. Such overextension is very likely to occur when beginners try to match the high kicks of more skilled practitioners.
Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the aerobics instructor’s statements?
(A) Skilled practitioners of kickboxing aerobics are unlikely to experience injuries from overextending while kicking.
(B) To reduce the risk of injuries, beginners at kickboxing aerobics should avoid trying to match the high kicks of more skilled practitioners.
(C) Beginners at kickboxing aerobics will not experience injuries if they avoid trying to match the high kicks of more skilled practitioners.
(D) Kickboxing aerobics is more risky than forms of aerobic exercise that do not involve high kicks.
(E) Most beginners at kickboxing aerobics experience injuries from trying to match the high kicks of more skilled practitioners.
8. A large company has been convicted of engaging in monopolistic practices. The penalty imposed on the company will probably have little if any effect on its behavior. Still, the trial was worthwhile, since it provided useful information about the company’s practices. After all, this information has emboldened the company’s direct competitors, alerted potential rivals, and forced the company to restrain its unfair behavior toward customers and competitors.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the overall conclusion drawn in the argument?
(A) Even if the company had not been convicted of engaging in monopolistic practices, the trial probably would have had some effect on the company’s behavior.
(B) The light shed on the company’s practices by the trial has emboldened its competitors, alerted potential rivals, and forced the company to restrain its unfair behavior.
(C) The penalty imposed on the company will likely have little or no effect on its behavior.
(D) The company’s trial on charges of engaging in monopolistic practices was worthwhile.
(E) The penalty imposed on the company in the trial should have been larger.
9. Waller: If there were really such a thing as extrasensory perception, it would generally be accepted by the public since anyone with extrasensory powers would be able to convince the general public of its existence by clearly demonstrating those powers. Indeed, anyone who was recognized to have such powers would achieve wealth and renown.
Chin: It’s impossible to demonstrate anything to the satisfaction of all skeptics. So long as the cultural elite remains closed-minded to the possibility of extrasensory perception, the popular media reports, and thus public opinion, will always be biased in favor of such skeptics.
Waller’s and Chin’s statements commit them to disagreeing on whether
(A) extrasensory perception is a real phenomenon
(B) extrasensory perception, if it were a real phenomenon, could be demonstrated to the satisfaction of all skeptics
(C) skeptics about extrasensory perception have a weak case
(D) the failure of the general public to believe in extrasensory perception is good evidence against its existence
(E) the general public believes that extrasensory perception is a real phenomenon
10. Counselor: Hagerle sincerely apologized to the physician for lying to her. So Hagerle owes me a sincere apology as well, because Hagerle told the same lie to both of us.
Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the counselor’s reasoning?
(A) It is good to apologize for having done something wrong to a person if one is capable of doing so sincerely.
(B) If someone tells the same lie to two different people, then neither of those lied to is owed an apology unless both are.
(C) Someone is owed a sincere apology for having been lied to by a person if someone else has already received a sincere apology for the same lie from that same person.
(D) If one is capable of sincerely apologizing to someone for lying to them, then one owes that person such an apology.
(E) A person should not apologize to someone for telling a lie unless he or she can sincerely apologize to all others to whom the lie was told.
Answer key:
1. A
2. B
3. E
4. D
5. A
6. D
7. B
8. D
9. D
10. C
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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