Environmentalist: The use of snowmobiles in the vast park north of Milville creates unacceptable levels of air pollution and should be banned.

Milville business spokesperson: Snowmobiling brings many out-of-towners to Milville in winter months, to the great financial benefit of many local residents. So, economics dictate that we put up with the pollution.

Environmentalist: I disagree: A great many cross-country skiers are now kept from visiting Milville by the noise and pollution that snowmobiles generate.

Environmentalist responds to the business spokesperson by doing which of the following?

Escalating worldwide demand for corn has led to a sharp increase in the market price of corn, and corn prices are likely to remain high. Corn is extensive used as feed for livestock, and because profit margins are tight in the livestock business, many farmers are expected to leave the business. With fewer suppliers, meat prices will surely rise. Nonetheless, observers expect an immediate short-term decrease in meat prices.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to justify the observers' expectation?

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?

Since 1995, Congress has exempted oil companies that have leases issued by the federal government allowing them to drill for deep-water oil off the Gulf of Mexico from royalty payments as an incentive to spur development in times of low oil and gas prices. These leases were supposed to have included a provision that reinstates the royalties should the market prices of oil and gas exceed a certain level. Because of an error by the federal government, however, the language that reinstates the royalties is missing from the more than 1,100 leases issued by the U.S. government in 1998 and 1999. Since the market price of oil and gas has recently risen far above the threshold levels, this error could allow the oil companies to reap a windfall of more than $10 billion through the life of the leases. In response, the government is pressuring the oil companies to renegotiate the leases. The executives of the oil companies strongly oppose renegotiation; all have issued statements stating that they expect the government to honor the terms of the contracts and that renegotiating a duly signed agreement would set a bad precedent.

Which of the following statements best reflects the position of the oil company executives?

The children in the second grade at a local elementary school scored lower on tests of math skills this year than the second graders did last year. The school board blames the disappointing results on the budget cuts that forced the school to consolidate several classes of second-grade students, thus depriving them of the individualized attention that they had previously enjoyed.

Which of the following, if true, best supports the explanation offered by the school board for the students' lower test scores?

Ecologist: The incidence of alligator attacks on humans in the vicinity of the Blue Lagoon has increased in recent years. Relocating at least half of the Blue Lagoon's alligator population would help decrease the incidence of alligator attacks on humans.

The ecologist's claim relies on which of the following assumptions?

Congress has passed a law that scales back the tax credits offered to purchasers of hybrid cars. Because of this, the number of hybrid cars sold each year, which has approximately doubled in each of the last five years, is likely to flatten in the next few years.

Which of the following statements, if true, most weakens the conclusion that the number of hybrid cars sold annually is likely to flatten in the next few years?

The legislature of the Philippines voted recently to abolish the death penalty. In contrast, the death penalty remains legal in the United States. The difference in the legality of capital punishment demonstrates that the majority of American citizens believe in the death penalty, while the majority of Filipino citizens do not.

Which of the following is an assumption upon which the above argument depends?

On average, American consumers buy a new computer every four years even though older computers are still perfectly capable of basic operations such as word processing and surfing the Internet. This is the case despite the fact that most computers are designed to work for approximately ten years.

The statements above, if true, best support which of the following as a conclusion?

At any given time, approximately fifteen percent of all homes in Florida are on the market. In Texas, however, only seven percent of all homes are on the market at any given time. Therefore, one will have a wider selection of homes to choose from if one looks for a home in Florida rather than in Texas.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously strengthen the argument above?

Albinism is a rare genetic condition that inhibits the production of melanin, or pigmentation, in the skin and hair. People born with albinism are unusually susceptible to sunburn, melanoma, and a range of other health issues that are generally connected to excessive exposure to the sun.

The statements above, if true, provide the most support for which of the following conclusions?

Demand levels for some categories of products are closely interdependent. When one type of a product can serve as a complement for another product, the levels of demand for these goods are positively related. An increase in the demand for one product usually increases the demand for its complementary product. Similarly, a decrease in the demand for one good causes a decrease in the demand for its complementary product.

Which of the following statements provides an example of the relationship between product demands described above?

The Central City Church building was recently damaged by a fire that occurred overnight. The insurance company will not pay on a claim if it is determined that a fire was started deliberately. Since nobody was in the Central City Church building at the time the fire swept through the structure, the insurance company will most certainly reimburse the church for the damage caused by the fire.

Which of the following is an assumption that is required to reach the conclusion above?

During the recent spate of brushfires in the Southwest, homeowners who lived near affected areas were advised to douse their roofs with water to prevent their houses from catching fire before evacuating the area. After the fires were brought under control and the homeowners were allowed to return to the area, many who doused their roofs discovered significant fire damage to their houses. Clearly, then, dousing their roofs was a wasted effort.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion above?

The Blackridge Company, a software retailer, recently implemented a service offering free telephone support for its customers. After 3 months of service, the average length of a technical support call was 15 minutes, 3 minutes higher than the company's target length of 12 minutes. After studying the operations of the new telephone support division, the company discovered that customer support agents were putting customers on hold for an average of 4 minutes per call while these agents researched possible solutions to the technical issues at hand.

From the passage above, it can be inferred that the Blackridge Company could reduce the average length of its customer support calls by doing which of the following, assuming that each is a realistic possibility?