Critical and logical Reasoning Set 7 (Assumptions)
Critical Reasoning Questions for SBI PO, IBPS PO, NICL, RBI Grade B, BOI, Bank of Baroda and other competitive exams
- Jay: Of course there are many good reasons to support the expansion of preventive medical care, but arguments claiming that it will lead to greater societal economic gains are misguided. Some of the greatest societal expenses arise from frequent urgent-care needs for people who have attained a long life due to preventive care.
Sunil: Your argument fails because you neglect economic gains outside the health care system: society suffers an economic loss when any of its productive members suffer from preventable illness.
Sunil’s response to Jay makes which of the following assumptions?
A) Those who receive preventive care are not more likely to need urgent care than are those who do not receive preventive care
B) Jay intends the phrase “economic gains” to refer only to gains accruing to institutions within the health care system.
C) Productive members of society are more likely than others to suffer preventable illnesses.
D) The economic contributions of those who receive preventive medical care may outweigh the economic losses caused by preventive care.
E) Jay is incorrect in stating that patients who receive preventive medical care are long-lived.
- Hatfield Airport, the closest airport to the city of Hatfield, has recently opened a new terminal for AirJet International, a popular low-cost airline. Since the terminal has opened, Hatfield Airport has welcomed significantly more customers, to the extent that airline staff members have complained that they can no longer serve their customers efficiently. If AirJet International were to move their major terminal to the more remote Chesterfield Airport, the staff argues, the customers of both AirJet and the airlines based at Hatfield Airport would be happier.
Which of the following is an assumption?
A) The increased traffic at the airport is due to the popularity of AirJet’s flights.
B) Other airlines based at Hatfield Airport are not as widely used as AirJet.
C) Customers are unhappy with the slowness of service at Hatfield Airport.
D) Chesterfield Airport has been losing customers since the AirJet terminal at Hatfield opened.
E) AirJet customers would not mind traveling further from Hatfield, since AirJet’s low fares save them money.
- At many top restaurants, professional chefs use cast iron pans, which retain their heat better than other pans and can be transferred directly from the stovetop to the oven. They even work well for foods such as eggs and fish, which require nonstick surfaces. However, to retain their nonstick quality, cast iron pans need to be regularly seasoned, a process that involves coating the pan with oil or butter and heating it in the oven. Coated aluminum pans use synthetic fluoropolymers to create a nonstick surface that doesn’t require as much maintenance. Thus, coated aluminum pans are ultimately more convenient than cast iron pans for cooking eggs and fish at home.
The argument above relies on which of the following assumptions?
A) Cast iron pans are difficult to maintain.
B) Cookware that requires more maintenance is not as convenient for home cooking.
C) There are no pans that are more convenient for nonstick purposes than coated aluminum pans.
D) Coated aluminum pans can be used to cook foods that do not require a nonstick coating.
E) There is no need to use butter or oil to cook in a coated aluminum pan.
- An increasing number of online retailers now allow customers to create “wish lists” of items they would like to receive as gifts. Such lists are certainly useful, but these retailers should also explore other ways to suggest gift purchases for these customers. In particular, without revealing the specifics of a customer’s purchase history, a website could quickly analyze a retailer’s entire inventory, select a list of items similar to those the customer has already purchased, and then e-mail that list to a group of contacts specified by the customer. Such a system would suggest gifts that, because of their similarity to the customer’s prior purchases, would be extremely likely to appeal to the customer.
In the argument, the assumption is that the hypothetical customers
A) are familiar with most or all of the items in stock on the websites where they shop
B) would prefer novel gifts that are unlike the items they currently own
C) do not use retail websites primarily to purchase gifts
D) would be relatively unconcerned if their retail purchase histories were available to others
E) prefer online shopping to shopping in physical retail stores
- A recent report determined that although only 3 percent of drivers on Maryland highways equipped their vehicles with radar detectors, 33 percent of all vehicles ticketed for exceeding the speed limit were equipped with them. Clearly, drivers who equip their vehicles with radar detectors are more likely to exceed the speed limit regularly than are drivers who do not.
The conclusion drawn above depends on which of the following assumptions?
A) Drivers who equip their vehicles with radar detectors are less likely to be ticketed for exceeding the speed limit than are drivers who do not.
B) Drivers who are ticketed for exceeding speed limit are more likely to exceed the speed limit regularly than are drivers who are not ticketed.
C) The number of vehicles that were ticketed for exceeding speed limit was greater than the number of vehicles that were equipped with the radar detectors.
D) Many of the vehicles that were ticketed for exceeding the speed limit were ticketed more than once in the time period covered by the report.
E) Drivers on Maryland highways exceed the speed limit more often than drivers on other state highways not covered in the report.
- The newest trend in home buying is interest-only mortgages. These mortgages require a borrower to pay only the interest on the loan. This means that the principle (which is the amount borrowed) never gets any smaller. Buyers never accumulate any equity in their homes and often have to default. Therefore, these loans are bad for Americans and should be made illegal.
The argument in the above passage depends on which of the following assumptions?
A) Homeowners can’t afford to pay more than the interest on the loan.
B) Some things that are bad for Americans should be made illegal.
C) Interest-only mortgages don’t require the buyer to pay more than the interest.
D) Buyers with no equity in their homes often have to default on their loans.
E) Owners won’t accumulate equity based on the increasing value of their house. - Studies have shown that children who watch a lot of television do not typically read above grade level. In the United States, more than three out of ten children watch television at least 35 hours per week. In other western countries, less than one child out of ten watches that much television. In contrast, these other children perform much better than American children on reading tests and more often read above grade level. A majority of these non American children read above their school grade level; a smaller percentage of American children read above grade level. In order to read as well as children in other western countries, American children will have to reduce the amount of time they spend watching television.
The passage depends upon which one of the following assumptions?
A) American children are not as interested in reading well as children in other western countries.
B) Other children are more structured in their studies than children in the United States.
C) If a child wants to become a better reader, he or she will not watch as much television.
D) If a child watches less television, his or her reading level will increase.
E) The methods American teachers and parents use to teach reading are not significantly worse than the methods used by teachers and parents in other western countries.
- Researchers have found that when very overweight people, who tend to have relatively low metabolic rates, lose weight primarily through dieting, their metabolism generally remain unchanged. They will thus burn significantly fewer calories at the new weight than do people whose weight is normally at that level. Such newly thin persons will, therefore, ultimately regain weight until their body size again matches their metabolic rate.
The conclusion of the argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?
A) Relatively few very overweight people who have dieted down to a new weight tend to continue to consume substantially fewer calories than do people whose normal weight is at that level.
B) The metabolisms of people who are usually not overweight are much more able to vary than the metabolisms of people who have been very overweight.
C) The amount of calories that a person usually burns in a day is determined more by the amount that is consumed that day than by the current weight of the individual.
D) Reseachers have not yet determined whether the metabolic rates of formerly very overweight individuals can be accelerated by means of chemical agents.
E) Because of the constancy of their metabolic rates, people who are at their usual weight normally have as much difficulty gaining weight as they do losing it.
- Graduates of medical schools are interested in practical work as practicing physicians. However, research laboratories mainly deal with theoretical work, and therefore, they are reluctant to hire personnel who are not interested in research. Consequently, research laboratories rarely hire graduates of medical schools.
The conclusion drawn above depends on which of the following assumptions?
A) Graduates of medical schools are interested in working for research laboratories.
B) The only people not interested in research work are those who are interested in practical work.
C) Most employees of research laboratories are not graduates of medical schools.
D) Research laboratories would hire graduates of medical schools if such graduates were interested in research work.
E) Few medical school graduates who are interested in practical work are also interested in research. - The local university recently hired a new soccer coach. Although she has several years’ worth of coaching experience and is a diligent student of the game, she was never a member of a collegiate soccer team. For this reason, the new coach will be unable to build a successful program.
The argument above is based on which of the following assumptions?
A) The local university should have hired a former collegiate soccer player as its new coach.
B) Coaching experience is one of the most crucial factors for coaching success.
C) The,previous coach at the university was dismissed due to her lack of success,
D) To build a successful soccer program as a coach,one must be a former collegiate soccer player.
E) The university does not plan to provide the new coach with the resources necessary to build a successful program.