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?

Fearing competition from stores that rent video games for home use, owners of stores that sell video games lobbied for protective legislation. Citing as a precedent legislation that postpones home film rentals until one year after general release to theaters, the video sellers proposed as an equitable solution a plan that would postpone rental of any video game until it had been available for sale for one year.

Which of the following, if true, would support an objection by owners of video rental stores that the fairness of the proposed legislation is not supported by the precedent cited?

Because ethylene dibromide, a chemical used to fumigate grain, was blamed for the high rate of nerve damage suffered by people who work in grain-processing plants, many such plants switched to other chemical fumigants two years ago. Since then, however, the percentage of workers at these plants who were newly diagnosed with nerve damage has not dropped significantly. Therefore, either ethylene dibromide was wrongly blamed or else the new chemicals also cause nerve damage.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

Lightbox, Inc., owns almost all of the movie theaters in Washington County and has announced plans to double the number of movie screens it has in the county within five years. Yet attendance at Lightbox's theaters is only just large enough for profitability now and the county's population is not expected to increase over the next ten years. Clearly, therefore, if there is indeed no increase in population, Lightbox's new screens are unlikely to prove profitable.

Which of the following, if true about Washington County, most seriously weakens the argument?

In the past the country of Siduria has relied heavily on imported oil. Siduria recently implemented a program to convert heating systems from oil to natural gas. Siduria already produces more natural gas each year than it burns, and oil production in Sidurian oil fields is increasing at a steady pace. If these trends in fuel production and usage continue, therefore, Sidurian reliance on foreign sources for fuel should decline soon.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

Many large department stores in Montalia now provide shopping carts for their customers. Since customers using shopping carts tend to buy more than those without shopping carts, most of these stores are experiencing strong sales growth, while most other department stores are not. Therefore, in order to boost sales, managers of Jerrod's, Montalia's premier department store, are planning to purchase shopping carts and make them available to the store's customers next month.

Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt whether the managers' plan, if implemented, will achieve its goal?

A mosquito bite can transmit to a person the parasite that causes malaria, and the use of mosquito nets over children's beds can significantly reduce the incidence of malarial infection for children in areas where malaria is common. Yet public health officials are reluctant to recommend the use of mosquito nets over children's beds in such areas.

Which of the following, if true, would provide the strongest grounds for the public health officials' reluctance?

For similar cars and drivers, automobile insurance for collision damage has always cost more in Greatport than in Fairmont. Police studies, however, show that cars owned by Greatport residents are, on average, slightly less likely to be involved in a collision than cars in Fairmont. Clearly, therefore, insurance companies are making a greater profit on collision-damage insurance in Greatport than in Fairmont.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

Criminologist: Some legislators advocate mandating a sentence of life in prison for anyone who, having twice served sentences for serious crimes, is subsequently convicted of a third serious crime. These legislators argue that such a policy would reduce crime dramatically, since it would take people with a proven tendency to commit crimes off the streets permanently. What this reasoning overlooks, however, is that people old enough to have served two prison sentences for serious crimes rarely commit more than one subsequent crime. Filling our prisons with such individuals would have exactly the opposite of the desired effect, since it would limit our ability to incarcerate younger criminals, who commit a far greater proportion of serious crimes.

In the argument as a whole, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?

The traditional treatment of strep infections has been a seven-day course of antibiotics, either penicillin or erythromycin. However, since many patients stop taking those drugs within three days, reinfection is common in cases where those drugs are prescribed. A new antibiotic requires only a three-day course of treatment. Therefore, reinfection will probably be less common in cases where the new antibiotic is prescribed than in cases where either penicillin or erythromycin is prescribed.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

Over the past five years, the price gap between name-brand cereals and less expensive store-brand cereals has become so wide that consumers have been switching increasingly to store brands despite the name brands' reputation for better quality. To attract these consumers back, several manufacturers of name-brand cereals plan to narrow the price gap between their cereals and store brands to less than what it was five years ago.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the likelihood that the manufacturers' plan will succeed in attracting back a large percentage of consumers who have switched to store brands?

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

A significant number of Qualitex Corporation's department heads are due to retire this year. The number of employees other than current department heads who could take on the position of department head is equal to only about half of the expected vacancies. Oualitex is not going to hire department heads from outside the company or have current department heads take over more than one department, so some departments will be without department heads next year unless Qualitex ______.

Business Analyst: National Motors began selling the Luxora-its new model of sedan-in June. Last week, National released sales figures for the summer months of June, July, and August that showed that by the end of August only 80,000 Luxoras had been sold. Therefore, National will probably not meet its target of selling 500,000 Luxoras in the model's first twelve months.

Which of the following would be most useful to establish in order to evaluate the analyst's prediction?

Disposable diapers, while a convenience, are an environmental disaster. If people would use cloth diapers instead of those made of disposable paper, much less paper would be produced saving millions of trees each year. Therefore, people should go back to buying, washing and reusing cloth diapers and Earth's precious natural resources would not be consumed so rapidly.

This argument depends of which of the following assumptions?

Industry Analyst: This summer is expected to be particularly hot and dry in the major orange-growing regions of Florida, the state accounting for the largest share of orange production in the United States. While hot and dry weather usually leads to a substantial drop in the yield of oranges, my projections indicate that the revenues of Florida orange producers will not be substantially affected by these unfavorable conditions.

Which of the following statements, if true, would support the claim of the Industry Analyst?