GMAT Verbal

1. Eggplants are always purple. John bought a purple vegetable. Therefore, it was an eggplant. Which of the following arguments contains reasoning most similar to the flawed reasoning in the above argument?
Adapted from Reflections on the Revolution in France, by Edmund Burke (1790) (Project Gutenberg Edition)

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in—glittering like the morning-star, full of life and splendor and joy. Oh! what a revolution! and what an heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! Little did I dream, when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom! little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor, and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness!

2. The tone of this passage can best be described as __________.
3. Perhaps the shift in the profit sectors will reverse itself in the next few months, makes the entire conversation unnecessary in the long run.
4. The server went to check on her last customer; she was frustrated by her impatience.
5. Prior to becoming involved in politics, she was a schoolteacher at a public elementary school in her hometown for special needs children.
6. States have changed the way they finance education, allocating funds in extreme specified manners rather than in large chunks.
7. During its early years, Ford Motor Company produced just a few cars with groups of two or three men working on each car, but within a decade the company would lead the world in the expansion and refinement of the assembly line concept, which made use of in-house part production and vertical integration.
8. What makes habitus unique is that it is a movement beyond the natural order, while the other nine categories relate to things that can be by nature, habitus is metaphysically distinct because it implies a “second nature,” an addition through artifice to a being’s natural capacities or an artificial change to its natural inclinations.
9. The first progress in combating infection was made in 1847 by the Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis, who, despite ridicule and opposition, introduced compulsory handwashing for everyone entering the maternal wards, and he was rewarded with a plunge in maternal and fetal deaths, however the Royal Society dismissed his advice.
10. A majority of the electorate believes that policy directives have little to no impact on the day-to-day lives of the people at the national level.
11. While evidence of the the growing influence of Punic identity in North Africa can be found in many of his writings, and it is most prominent in his many surviving letters.
Adapted from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)

Every one admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep faith, and to live with integrity and not with craft. Nevertheless our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have held good faith of little account, and have known how to circumvent the intellect of men by craft, and in the end have overcome those who have relied on their word. You must know there are two ways of contesting, the one by the law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and the man. This has been figuratively taught to princes by ancient writers, who describe how Achilles and many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse, who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both natures, and that one without the other is not durable. A prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about. Therefore a wise lord cannot, nor ought he to, keep faith when such observance may be turned against him, and when the reasons that caused him to pledge it exist no longer. If men were entirely good this precept would not hold, but because they are bad, and will not keep faith with you, you too are not bound to observe it with them. Nor will there ever be wanting to a prince legitimate reasons to excuse this non-observance. Of this endless modern examples could be given, showing how many treaties and engagements have been made void and of no effect through the faithlessness of princes; and he who has known best how to employ the fox has succeeded best. But it is necessary to know well how to disguise this characteristic, and to be a great pretender and dissembler; and men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.

12. The lion and fox are mentioned in order to __________.
13. The author views the faith of princes as an issue that is __________.
14. The word “dissembler," underlined in the last sentence, is referring to __________.
15. Which of the following is given as an example of the faithlessness of princes in the passage?
16. All of the following can be inferred from the text except that __________.
17. The author believes that a prince is not bound to observe faith because __________.
Adapted from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke (1689)

But yet, if any one will be so sceptical as to distrust his senses, and to affirm that all we see and hear, feel and taste, think and do, during our whole being, is but the series and deluding appearances of a long dream, whereof there is no reality; and therefore will question the existence of all things, or our knowledge of anything: I must desire him to consider, that, if all be a dream, then he doth but dream that he makes the question, and so it is not much matter that a waking man should answer him.

But yet, if he pleases, he may dream that I make him this answer, That the certainty of things existing in rerum natura when we have the testimony of our senses for it is not only as great as our frame can attain to, but as our condition needs. For, our faculties being suited not to the full extent of being, nor to a perfect, clear, comprehensive knowledge of things free from all doubt and scruple; but to the preservation of us, in whom they are; and accommodated to the use of life: they serve to our purpose wen enough, if they will but give us certain notice of those things, which are convenient or inconvenient to us.

For he that sees a candle burning, and hath experimented the force of its flame by putting his finger in it, will little doubt that this is something existing without him, which does him harm, and puts him to great pain; which is assurance enough, when no man requires greater certainty to govern his actions by than what is as certain as his actions themselves. And if our dreamer pleases to try whether the glowing heat of a glass furnace be barely a wandering imagination in a drowsy man's fancy, by putting his hand into it, he may perhaps be wakened into a certainty greater than he could wish, that it is something more than bare imagination.

So that this evidence is as great as we can desire, being as certain to us as our pleasure or pain, i.e. happiness or misery; beyond which we have no concernment, either of knowing or being. Such an assurance of the existence of things without us is sufficient to direct us in the attaining the good and avoiding the evil which is caused by them, which is the important concernment we have of being made acquainted with them.

18. In this passage, the author is primarily concerned with arguing against the position that __________.
19. The relationship between the candle and the glass furnace mentioned in paragraph three is analagous to ___________.
20. The advertisement’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it fails to consider whether ___________________
21. Two students were given practice exams. One exam ordered the questions from hardest to easiest, while the other exam ordered the questions from easiest to hardest. The student who took the test with questions ordered hardest to easiest performed more poorly than the other student. Therefore, tests that ordered hardest to easiest will cause a student to perform more poorly.
This argument is most vulnerable to criticism if which of the following statements is true?
Shopping in person is an activity that many people loathe. This accounts for the popularity of online shopping, which has few of the hassles of in-person shopping. Online shoppers are able to avoid lines, traffic, and having to hunt around the store for the items they need. With a few keystrokes and a credit card, they can accomplish a task in a few minutes that might have taken hours in "real life."

22. The claim that shopping in person is an activity that many people loathe plays which of the following roles in the argument?
23. Our collective obsession with celebrities and entertainment news is ruining this country. As a nation, we face daunting political, economic, social and environmental problems that threaten our existence. Instead of dealing with these problems, we instead focus on the minute details of even the most minor celebrities. How can we prepare for the challenges of the future when we’re so obsessed with trivia of the present?
The argument depends on which of the following assumptions?
Everyone who thinks the Rams would win the championship thought that Jones would receive the award for Most Valuable Player. But Jones did not receive the award for Most Valuable Player. Therefore, anyone who believes the Rams will win the championship is wrong.

24. Which one of the following arguments contains flawed reasoning most similar to that in the argument above?
When we eat food, our perceptions of the flavors are highly subjective, and are influenced by far more than simply our senses of taste and smell. Our visual, tactile, and even auditory senses all play a role in signaling to our brains how we enjoy food. The more brightly colored that produce is, the more that we associate it with the quality of being fresh. As a result, some chefs prepare food in order to maximize the color of the produce, manipulating other ingredients in order to obtain the desired flavors of the dish. With respect to how our auditory senses affect our experience of food, studies have shown that diners experiencing their food to the backdrop of soothing music enjoyed their food more than diners who did not.

Unlike everyday diners, food critics are trained to consider their experiences of food by evaluating them through the lens of each of their various senses, and consider how their various perceptions give rise to the aggregate dining experience. They are aware of the visual, tactile and even auditory elements, yet able to experience the smell and taste of food independently of those senses. While some people may make the mistake of underestimating the acumen involved in assessing the quality of food, it is truly an art form that few are capable of performing. However, with the rapid expansion of online news sources, it is becoming increasingly easy for any person to create a blog or column and offer his or her two cents on rising restaurants or new cuisine. While some might see this development as more egalitarian, others see it as tainting what was before a highly selective field of food critics and writers.

25. The author would likely agree with all of the following statements except which one?
26. The author’s tone in the passage is best described as __________.
27. Hydraulic fracturing causes earthquakes that are usually too small to be detected at the surface, although tremors attributed to fluid injection into disposal wells have been large enough to be felt by people on numerous occasions.
28. In order to prevent rhino poaching, members of the Rhino Rescue Project have developed a novel technique, injecting a mixture of indelible dye and a parasiticide that allows them to track the horns and poison the rhino horn consumers.
29. The key issue in the case concerned whether or not the defendant ever having possession of the murder weapon.
30. Due to the legal complexities of the case, the brief was filed by the lawyer's associate in a neighboring jurisdiction that has friendlier laws.
31. The publicist made it clear that he was speaking for both the organization and him, inviting even more criticism from the press.
32. After hours of negotiation and bargaining, the CEO and the technology expert had reached a bargain in which he received most of his demands.
33. The young woman had severed all ties with her family after they had shown strong disapproval for her choice to move across the country.
34. Many soldiers have undertaken specialized education, which both helps them with current combat tasks and future endeavors.
35. With a painting style built on abstract shapes and Eastern techniques, she was by far the most unique student at the entire academy.
36. Which option best replaces the underlined sentence?
37. Many athletes argue that the hardest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball, coaches often insist it is keeping the proper motivation up for a whole season.
38. Among the many odd experiments being demonstrated at the exhibition were: a waterless dishwasher, an electric personal helicopter, and a solar-powered machine gun.
The political crises that most significantly influenced legal thought in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were: the Second Council of Lyon; the issuing of the papal bull Unum Sanctum; the Avignon Papacy and the "Babylonian Captivity;" and the Western Schism.

39. Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.
40. All of Mr. Jones's children's teeths' roots were in good health, according to several dentists' assessments.
41. The olympic weightlifting coach always stressed three points with his athletes: maintaining a strict training regimen, to eat a balanced diet, and to sleep for an adequate number of hours.
GMAT Verbal
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