City Official: At City Hospital, uninsured patients tend to have shorter stays and fewer procedures performed than do insured patients, even though insured patients, on average, have slightly less serious medical problems at the time of admission to the hospital than uninsured patients have. Critics of the hospital have concluded that the uninsured patients are not receiving proper medical care. However, this conclusion is almost certainly false. Careful investigation has recently shown two things: insured patients have much longer stays in the hospital than necessary, and they tend to have more procedures performed than are medically necessary.
In the city official's argument, the two boldface portions play which of the following roles?
Economist: Tropicorp, which constantly seeks profitable investment opportunities, has been buying and clearing sections of tropical forest for cattle ranching, although pastures newly created there become useless for grazing after just a few years. The company has not gone into rubber tapping, even though greater profits can be made from rubber tapping, which leaves the forest intact. Thus, some environmentalists conclude that Tropicorp has not acted wholly out of economic self-interest. However, these environmentalists are probably wrong. The initial investment required for a successful rubber-tapping operation is larger than that needed for a cattle ranch. Furthermore, there is a shortage of workers employable in rubber-tapping operations, and finally, taxes are higher on profits from rubber tapping than on profits from cattle ranching.
In the economist's argument, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?
From 1980 to 1989, total consumption of fish in the country of Jurania increased by 4.5 percent, and total consumption of poultry products there increased by 9.0 percent. During the same period, the population of Jurania increased by 6 percent, in part due to immigration to Jurania from other countries in the region.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true on the basis of them?
The primary purpose of the passage is to
In the context of the passage, the phrase "fossils of a predicted kind" (highlight) most likely refers to which of the following?
Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as an argument made by scientists who are unconvinced that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs?
According to the passage, one source of dissatisfaction for Parisian seamstresses after the establishment of the seamstresses' guild was that
It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following was true of seamstresses employed by relatives who were members of the tailors' guild?
The author mentions the seamstresses' view of guild membership as a "mark of independence from the patriarchal family" (highlighted text) primarily in order to