13. The correct answer is (A). If an hourly-wage employee works fewer than five days per week, the employee would need to work more than 8 hours per day on average to qualify for overtime pay in state Y. On the other hand, the same employee would need to work more than 8 hours per day only on one day to qualify for overtime pay in state X. Thus, employees working fewer than five days per week would prefer to work in state X. Given that most employees prefer to work in state Y, it is reasonable to conclude that most employees work at least five days per week. 14. The correct answer is (D). The argument relies on the unstated assumption that no other event since the picnic could have caused the outbreak. Choice (D) provides some evidence that the employees who have reported disporella symptoms in fact contracted disporella at least one week ago. Accordingly, choice (D) helps support the claim that it was the food served at the picnic two weeks ago that caused the outbreak. Admittedly, choice (D) would provide even stronger support if it indicated that symptoms never appear until one week after contamination. Nevertheless, choice (D) is the best of the five answers. 15. The correct answer is (A). The author states in the first paragraph that “[f]orcings can arise from either natural or anthropogenic causes.” In the following sentence, the author describes two specific causes of forcings, presumably to illustrate the point of the previous sentence. It can be reasonably inferred by considering both sentences together that the first example (volcanic activity) is a natural cause, while the second (the burning of fossil fuels) is an anthropogenic cause. 16. The correct answer is (E). According to the passage, radiative “forcings are quantities normally specified in global climate model simulations, while feedbacks are calculated quantities” (lines 12–15). 17. The correct answer is (B). This choice restates the author’s point in the first sentence of the second paragraph. Immediately thereafter, the author discusses clouds as an example of this point: it is difficult to predict the impact of greenhouse gases on clouds and thus on temperature. 18. The correct answer is (B). The argument relies on the unstated assumption that prenatal care results in better health and therefore less cost to society. Choice (B) helps affirm this assumption. Choice (E) describes benefits that might decrease the overall tax burden, but only if the prenatal care program serves to reduce the amount of infant-care benefits paid. The argument does not inform us whether this is the case. Thus it is impossible to assess the extent to which choice (E) would explain how the prenatal care would save the taxpayers money. answers practice test 6 Practice Test 6 643 www.petersons.com 19. The correct answer is (D). The original argument bases a conclusion that one phenomenon causes another on an observed correlation between the two phenomena. The argument boils down to the following: Premise: X (beautiful beach) is correlated with Y (crowd of people). Conclusion: X (beautiful beach) causes Y (crowd of people). Answer choice (D) demonstrates the same pattern of reasoning: Premise: X (warm weather) is correlated with Y (fleas). Conclusion: X (warm weather) causes Y (fleas). 20. The correct answer is (D). The original version is redundant. Either by means of or using would be acceptable here, but not both. Choice (D) corrects the redundancy by omitting using. 21. The correct answer is (C). The original sentence is flawed in three ways. First, it uses the awkward passive voice (. . . was recognized by ). Second, between is incorrectly used to refer to more than two states; among should be used instead. Third, the pronoun its (in the final clause) does not refer clearly (or correctly) to its intended antecedent states. Choice (C) revamps the sentence, remedying all three problems. 22. The correct answer is (C). The less likely it is that a person will sustain an injury somewhere other than the workplace, the lower the person’s risk of incurring medical expenses for such injuries. Thus, choice (C), if true, helps to refute Bharti’s argument that the worker’s compensation scheme actually puts workers at greater risk of financial hardship. 23. The correct answer is (B). Choice (B) provides at least some evidence that the slot machines at Casino Y are “loose” and accordingly that Elaine’s chances of winning at one of those machines is relatively good. 24. The correct answer is (D). In the original version, the superfluous there is sets up an awkward construction. The sentence should be reconstructed, omitting there is. Among the other four versions, choice (D) provides the best solution. 25. The correct answer is (A). The original version is the best one. The use of the passive voice by way of the phrase be weighed against is idiomatic, and the sentence contains no grammatical errors. Choices (B) and (E) are incorrect because their grammatical construction suggests illogically that weighing is to be done by a justification rather than by government. Choice (C) illogically shifts the sentence’s tense from the future to the present. Choice (D) ineffectively expresses the sentence’s intended meaning; choice (A) is much clearer. 26. The correct answer is (A). The author’s threshold purpose, articulated in the final sentence of the first paragraph, is to identify the significant forms of dissent to Arnoldian culture. But the author proceeds to do more than merely identify and describe these forms of dissent; the author is also critical of the dissenters because they have misunderstood Arnold. Choice (A) embraces both the author’s threshold and ultimate concerns. 644 PART VI: Five Practice Tests www.petersons.com 27. The correct answer is (B). Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy was published in 1869. The three forms of opposition to Arnold’s ideas as presented in this work, therefore, must have emerged later than 1869. 28. The correct answer is (D). The only analogy in the passage is found in the final sentence, in which the author compares striving for perfection (i.e., culture) to conceiving “finer sunsets and unheard melodies.” Although the author uses this analogy to help the reader understand the author’s final argument against Arnold’s dissenters, this analogy is not in the nature of “an insupportable theory,” which the author compares to a claim made by Arnold’s dissenters, as choice (D) suggests. 29. The correct answer is (C). In the first paragraph, the author states that Arnold helped to define the purposes of the liberal arts curriculum in the century following the publication of his Culture and Anarchy. In the second paragraph, the author claims that today’s multiculturalist movement, which opposes Arnoldian culture, is interested in deflating the “imperious authority that ‘high culture’ exercises over curriculum” (lines 38–40). It is reasonably inferable, then, that these imperious elitists are modern-day allies of Arnold who have perpetuated his ideas about culture through their authority over today’s educational curriculum. 30. The correct answer is (A). The argument boils down to the following, including the unstated assumption provided by choice (A): Premise: Students get enough reading practice already. Unstated assumption (choice A): The program provides only reading practice. Conclusion: The program is unnecessary. None of the other four choices provides the necessary assumption. 31. The correct answer is (E). The argument as a whole can be characterized as an attempt to refute an argument against treating water with sodium monofluoride. To refute that argument, the city official provides evidence tending to show that sodium monofluoride is not as harmful as some might believe. Thus, choice (E) expresses the point that the city official is leading to in the passage. 32. The correct answer is (E). The original version intends to express a contrary-to-fact situation, so the subjunctive were (instead of are) is appropriate here. Also, the reflexive pronoun themselves is improper here. (Compare the phrase consider themselves invincible, which uses the reflexive form properly.) Choice (E) corrects both problems. 33. The correct answer is (B). In the original version, the word Upon confuses the meaning of the sentence by suggesting nonsensically that comets grow large in appearance immediately—as soon as they appear as a tiny speck. Choice (B) is concise and clears up the confusion by omitting the word. answers practice test 6 Practice Test 6 645 www.petersons.com 34. The correct answer is (C). In the original sentence, the plural verb account does not agree in number with its singular subject technology. The intervening clause (set off by commas) should not affect the verb’s case, which should be singular (accounts). Also, the word amount is improperly used here and should be replaced with either quantity or number. Choice (C) corrects both problems. Although choice (B) also fixes the problems, using the subjunctive verb form would account alters the meaning of the original sentence, transforming it into a hypothetical statement. 35. The correct answer is (A). The argument relies on the assumption that Michelangelo’s portrayals of nudity are similar to modern photographic portrayals of nudity in all respects relevant to the argument. Choice (A) directly refutes this assumption by stating explicitly that Michelangelo’s works are considered not obscene for the reason that they have relatively high artistic value. 36. The correct answer is (E). In the passage’s first paragraph, the author points out that the ability to taste PTC varies among human populations. Then, in the final sentence of that paragraph, the author refers to “other, more significant, bitter substances ”Itcanreasonably be inferred from these two statements, considered together, that PTC is a bitter substance. 37. The correct answer is (A). In the first sentence, the author points out that PTC is an artificially synthesized chemical; thus, PTC has clearly not existed long enough to play any part whatsoever in the evolution of taste discrimination among primates. 38. The correct answer is (B). In the first paragraph, the author’s main concern is to point out that the variability among human populations regarding sensitivity to PTC might be a trace of the evolutionary process of natural selectivity. In the second paragraph, the author offers a similar suggestion about variability in earwax type. To support these assertions, the author implies that both characteristics still serve useful purposes among nonprimates—from whom humans presumably evolved. This inference is especially clear with respect to identifying bitter substances that might be toxic. Choice (B) accurately reflects the author’s main assertion and supporting evidence. 39. The correct answer is (C). Based on the facts, it is clear that a large portion of the kinds of trash residents used to throw into their garbage cans for disposal is now being recycled. Thus, the only explanation for the steady (not decreasing) amount of nonrecyclable trash is that Exitur’s residents are generating more of it. 40. The correct answer is (A). The original version is the best one. Choice (B) is nonsensical; lower appears to refer to energy products rather than to demand. In choice (C), the phrase in view of distorts the sentence’s meaning. Also, the idiom decline in is preferred over decline of. Choice (D) contains the awkward phrase being that. Also, prices are not said to lessen in amount, but rather decline or decrease. In choice (E), considering the fact that is wordy, and it distorts the meaning of the original sentence, unfairly suggesting that the lessening demand for alternative energy products is surprising. 646 PART VI: Five Practice Tests www.petersons.com 41. The correct answer is (E). The argument relies on the unstated assumption that Abstania’s Monrovian population either remained stable or increased during 2005. However, choice (E) provides that this population actually declined in 2005, despite the influx of Monrovians. Given that the number of Monrovians residing in Abstania decreased while the crime rate increased, choice (E) reduces the likelihood that it was Monrovians who were responsible for the increase in violent crime in 2005. Choice (A) would appear to weaken the argument by providing ostensible evidence that Abstanians are more likely than Monrovians to commit violent crimes. However, choice (A) does not account for the possibility that in Monrovia far fewer violent criminals are apprehended than in Abstania. In fact, the argument’s explicit reference to “reported” violent crimes underscores this possibility, which prohibits us from drawing any firm conclusion as to which group is more likely to be responsible for violent crimes. answers practice test 6 Practice Test 6 647 www.petersons.com APPENDIXES APPENDIX A Resources for GMAT Preparation APPENDIX B Determining Your Score APPENDIX C Word List . Resources for GMAT Preparation APPENDIX B Determining Your Score APPENDIX C Word List