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Burger Land, a nationwide fast-food chain, recently announced a special promotion dramatically reducing the price of its most popular burger, the Big and Beefy. This development has provided a strong response by the nation's nutritionists. Citing the extremely high levels of cholesterol in the Big and Beefy, they predict that the price reduction will have a negative impact on the health of our citizens. The nutritionists' argument assumes which of the following?
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Choice 1: Some consumers induced by the price reduction to purchase the Big and Beefy would otherwise have consumed food lower in cholesterol than the Big and Beefy
Choice 2: Reducing fat consumption is the most important factor in improving the one's diet
Choice 3: Burger Land could not have increased sales of the Big and Beefy by reducing its cholesterol content and appealing to health-conscious consumers
Choice 4: Other fast-food companies will not respond to Burger Land's announcement by reducing the price of their own high-cholesterol burgers
Choice 5: Lost revenue due to the price reduction in the Big and Beefy will be offset by an increase in the number of burgers sold |
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In Country X, all citizens eligible to vote must do so or face stiff fines. Because voting in Country X is mandatory, over 99 percent of the eligible voters voted in the last election. Thus, the winner of the last election is truly the people's choice. Which of the following identifies an assumption in the author's argument?
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Choice 1: In Country X, voters are allowed to vote for a candidate of their choice.
Choice 2: If Country X did not make voting mandatory, few people would vote.
Choice 3: Only in countries where voting is mandatory do people vote the way they wish to vote.
Choice 4: Country X is a true democracy, despite the fact that all people are forced to vote.
Choice 5: Only in countries where voting is not mandatory do the winners of elections truly reflect the people's choice. |
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In the next four years, the number of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers will increase significantly worldwide. Even so, the average compensation received by such professionals will not decline but rather is likely to increase. This is due, at least partly, to the fact that the median age of the world's population will increase steadily in this same period time. The argument above depends logically upon which of the following assumptions?
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Choice 1: The increase in the number of health care workers will be responsible for the increase in the average life span.
Choice 2: The compensation of doctors and physical therapists who treat the elderly will increase more than that of other health care workers.
Choice 3: As a group, older people receive more attention from health care workers than do younger people.
Choice 4: Geriatrics, a branch of medicine focusing on the health problems of older people, is the most expensive element of American health care.
Choice 5: Increased in the median age of the population will occur in all regions of the world. |
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The threatened prosecution of businesses flying 20-by-30-foot garrison flags, which are traditionally to be flown on national holidays, instead of the smaller post flags, which can be flown at any time, is unconscionable. Legal technicalities of this sort should never restrict patriotic expression. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument above?
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Choice 1: Many people find the garrison flags' size to be distracting and ill suited to neighborhood aesthetics.
Choice 2: The businesses that are flying garrison flags do so primarily to attract customers.
Choice 3: The raising and lowering of different-sized flags on the correct days of the year is a laborious and time-consuming procedure.
Choice 4: The regulations that govern the correct display of the nation's flags are part of an old and time-honored tradition.
Choice 5: The symbolic significance of a flag's size is not generally understood by most of the customers patronizing these businesses. |
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| Choice 2 (Strengthen and Weaken) |
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Any college football player who uses steroids should be banned from competition. The national agency with the responsibility to preserve the natural competitive balance between players enforces rules specifically mandating that no player be allowed to use drugs to gain a competitive advantage. Studies show that steroid users tend to have much greater strength and weight than non-users. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument?
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Choice 1: Users of steroids often suffer from acne, extreme nervousness, and reduced sexual potency.
Choice 2: Increased strength is more useful than increased weight to college football players.
Choice 3: Superior strength and weight give college football players a significant competitive advantage.
Choice 4: Steroid use is much more prevalent in college football than in college baseball.
Choice 5: Random drug testing of athletes has been shown to be effective in the detection of drug use by athletes. |
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| Choice 3 (Strengthen and Weaken) |
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The state legislature has proposed a law that requires all new cars sold in the state to be equipped with airbags for both front-seat passengers. The auto industry has lobbied against the proposed law, pointing out that the airbags would prevent only a small percentage of serious injuries because in most accidents, serious injuries can be avoided by the use of seat belts. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument put forth by the auto industry?
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Choice 1: The government has a duty to protect the welfare of its citizens.
Choice 2: The number of accidents per mile driven in the state is substantially higher than that for the rest of the nation.
Choice 3: The cost of equipping automobiles with airbags will be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.
Choice 4: Most serious injuries occur when front-seat passengers are not wearing their seat belts.
Choice 5: Because the law would apply only to new cars, it would take nearly a decade for the majority of the state's cars to become equipped with airbags. |
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| Choice 4 (Strengthen and Weaken) |
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Artistic success as an actor is directly dependent on how well an actor has developed his craft. This has been demonstrated by the discovery of a positive relationship between the number of classes taken by an actor and the number of professional productions in which the actor has appeared in the past two years. Each of the following, if true, casts doubt on the author's argument about artistic success for actors EXCEPT:
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Choice 1: The figures for the number of classes taken were based solely on information provided by actors.
Choice 2: Success as an actor cannot necessarily be judged exclusively by recent credits.
Choice 3: For most successful actors, it is not the quantity but the quality of their classes that has helped to develop their craft.
Choice 4: There is no relationship between the number of professional productions in which an actor has appeared and true artistic success.
Choice 5: Most successful actors have taken only a small number of intensive classes. |
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| Choice 4 (Strengthen and Weaken) |
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Herbed Wellness, a manufacturer of herbal products, wants its new headache remedy to be as effective as possible while using only natural ingredients. A controlled study has found that 58 percent of headache sufferers obtain complete headache relief from a dose of caffeine equivalent to that typically found in a cup of coffee. Therefore, even though the vast majority of its customers are health-conscious avoiders of coffee, Herbed Wellness should add caffeine to its new herbal headache treatment; doing so will prove both efficacious and cost-effective. The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the claim that caffeine will be efficacious in reliving headaches among Herbed Wellness customers?
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Choice 1: Is the headache relieve provided by caffeine as long-lasting as that provided by over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin?
Choice 2: What percentage of the study participants were regular coffee drinkers who suffer from caffeine-withdrawal headaches?
Choice 3: Is caffeine less expensive per dose than the individual herbs used in the headache formulation?
Choice 4: Does synthetic caffeine qualify as a natural substance?
Choice 5: What percentage of Herbed Wellness customers will shun the new headache remedy if it contains caffeine? |
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