GMAT Section 3 Verbal Ability

GMAT Section 3 Verbal Ability practice questions, page 27 of 30, with answer review and explanations.

Question 131

In prenatal testing for spina bifida, a life threatening disease, a false positive result indicates that an fetus has spina bifida when, in fact, it does not; a false negative result indicates that a fetus does not have spina bifida when, in fact, it does. To detect spina bifida most accurately, physicians should use the laboratory test that has the lowest proportion of false positive results. Which of the following, if true, gives the most support to the recommendation above?

  1. All laboratory tests to detect spina bifida have the same proportion of false negative results.
  2. The laboratory test that has the lowest proportions of false positive results causes the same minor side effects as do the other laboratory tests used to detect spina bifida.
  3. In treating spina bifida patients, it is essential to begin treatment as early as possible, since even a week of delay can result in loss of life.
  4. The proportion of inconclusive test results is equal for all laboratory tests used to detect spina bifida.
  5. The accepted treatment for spina bifida does not have damaging side effects

Question 132

Health club membership has increased dramatically over the last five years. In order to take advantage of this increase, Fitness Express plans to open more of the same types of classes available during the week, while continuing its already very extensive advertising in newspapers and on the radio. Which of the following, if true, provides most support for the view that Fitness Express cannot increase membership to its gyms by adopting the plan outlined above?

  1. Although it fills all of the classes it opens, Fitness Express’s share of all health club memberships has declined over the last five years.
  2. Fitness Express’ number of classes offered to their clients has declined slightly over the last year.
  3. Advertising has made the name of Fitness Express widely known, but few customers know that Fitness Express health clubs also off acupuncture and shiatsu treatments.
  4. Fitness Express’s health clubs is one of three clubs that have together accounted for 88% of health club memberships.
  5. Despite a slight decline in membership price, sales of Fitness Express memberships have fallen in the last five years.

Question 133

In a psychological experiment conducted at South bay University, groups of men with various levels of education read stories in which people caused harm, some of them doing so intentionally, and some accidentally. When asked about appropriate penalization for those who had caused harm, the less educated men, unlike the educated ones, assigned punishments that did not vary according to whether the harm was done intentionally or accidentally. Uneducated men, then, do not regard peoples intentions as relevant to penalization. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion above?

  1. In these stories, the severity of the harm produced was clearly stated.
  2. In interpreting these stories, the listeners had to draw on a relatively feminine sense of human psychology in order to tell whether harm was produced intentionally or accidentally.
  3. Relatively uneducated men are as likely to produce harm unintentionally as are more educated men.
  4. The more educated men assigned penalization in a way that closely resembled the way women had assign penalization in a similar experiment.
  5. The less educated men assigned penalization that varied according to the severity of the harm done by the agents in the stories

Question 134

More sports journals are sold in Hornby than in Milston. Therefore, the residents of Hornby are better informed about major sporting events than are the residents of Milston. Each of the following, if true, weakens the conclusion above EXCEPT:

  1. Hornby has a larger population than Milston.
  2. Most residents of Milston work in Hornby and buy their reading material there.
  3. The average newsstand price of journals sold in Hornby is lower than the average price of journals sold in Milston.
  4. A monthly journal restricted to the coverage of local events is published in Hornby.
  5. The average resident of Hornby spends less time reading sports journals than does the average resident of Milston.

Question 135

Which of the following, best completes the passage below? At last months symposium on the increasing air pollution affecting the Beaumont forest, most participating members favored uniform controls on the quality of exhaust fumes, whether of not specific environmental damage could be attributed to a particular source of fumes. What must, of course, be shown, in order to avoid excessively restrictive controls, is that __________ .

  1. any uniform controls that are adopted are likely to be implemented without delay
  2. environmental damage already inflicted on the Beaumont forest is reversible
  3. the members favoring uniform controls are those representing bodies that generate the largest quantities of exhaust fumes
  4. all of any given pollutant that is to be controlled actually reaches Beaumont forest at present
  5. any substance to be made subject to controls can actually cause environmental damage