A
Shareholders sometimes will be satisfied even if dividends paid to them from company profits are not high.
B
The president and the board of directors of a corporation are jointly responsible for advancing the key interests of the shareholders.
C
Keeping a corporation’s profits high is likely to advance the important interests of the corporation’s shareholders.
D
In considering where to invest, most potential shareholders are interested in more than just the profitability of a corporation.
E
The president of a corporation has many functions besides advancing the important interests of the corporation’s shareholders.
No children under the age of 6 are allowed to swim at Barton Pool between noon and 5pm.
Between 5pm and close, only adults are permitted to swim at Barton Pool.
If there are children under 6 in Biba’s neighborhood, they are allowed to swim at Barton Pool at some time during the pools open hours.
If there are children under 6 in Biba’s neighborhood, they are allowed to swim at Barton Pool sometime before noon.
A
Few children under the age of 6 live in Biba’s neighborhood.
B
If Biba’s next-door neighbor has a child under the age of 6, then Barton Pool is open before noon.
C
If most children who swim in Barton Pool swim in the afternoon, then the pool is generally less crowded after 5 P.M.
D
On days when Barton Pool is open, at least some children swim there in the afternoon.
E
Any child swimming in Barton Pool before 5 P.M. must be breaking Barton Pool rules.
A
Residents of prairie towns have been setting off loud firecrackers near kites’ roosting spots because of the birds’ habit of diving at people and frightening them.
B
Towns on the prairies tend to be small, with a low density of human population and large numbers of wild birds and animals.
C
Since the international migratory bird protection treaty of 1972, it has been illegal to shoot kites, and the treaty has been effectively enforced.
D
Wildlife such as pigeons and raccoons had already adapted successfully to towns and cities long before there were towns on the North American prairies.
E
Trees are denser in towns than elsewhere on the prairie, and these denser trees provide greater protection from hail and windstorms for kites’ nests and eggs.
A
It is the only conclusion that the argument attempts to establish.
B
It is one of two unrelated conclusions, each of which the same premises are used to support.
C
It is a general principle from which the argument’s conclusion follows as a specific instance.
D
It describes a phenomenon for which the rest of the argument offers an explanation.
E
Premises are used to support it, and it is used to support the main conclusion.
Commentator: Recently, articles criticizing the environmental movement have been appearing regularly in newspapers. According to Winslow, this is due not so much to an antienvironmental bias among the media as to a preference on the part of newspaper editors for articles that seem “daring” in that they seem to challenge prevailing political positions. It is true that editors like to run antienvironmental pieces mainly because they seem to challenge the political orthodoxy. But serious environmentalism is by no means politically orthodox, and antienvironmentalists can hardly claim to be dissidents, however much they may have succeeded in selling themselves as renegades.
Summary
Winslow believes that articles criticizing the environmental movement have been appearing in newspapers due to the desire of newspaper editors for articles that seem to challenge prevailing political positions. The commentator concedes that editors like to run antienvironmental pieces primarily because they like to challenge prevailing positions. But the commentator asserts that, despite what news editors might think, environmentalism isn’t actually the prevailing position.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Newspaper editors are selecting some stories on the basis of an inaccurate understanding of what is a prevailing position.
At least some people have an inaccurate understanding about the prevalence of serious environmentalism.
A
Winslow is correct about the preference of newspaper editors for controversial articles.
Strongly supported. The commentator acknowledges that editors like to run antienvironmental pieces because they like to challenge what they perceive to be prevailing positions. This preference can be characterized as a preference for “controversial” pieces.
B
Critics of environmentalism have not successfully promoted themselves as renegades.
Unsupported. The commentator asserts that antienvironmentalists are not actually dissidents, “however much they may have succeeded” in selling themselves as renegades. This acknowledges the critics may have succeeded in portraying themselves as renegades.
C
Winslow’s explanation is not consonant with the frequency with which critiques of environmentalism are published.
Unsupported. The commentator supports Winslow’s explanation about why newspaper editors have regularly published antienvironmentalist pieces. So, the stimulus doesn’t support a claim that the explanation is inconsistent with anything.
D
The position attacked by critics of environmentalism is actually the prevailing political position.
Antisupported. The commentator says that serious environmentalism is not the prevailing position. So, the position attacked by critics of environmentalism is not the prevailing position.
E
Serious environmentalism will eventually become a prevailing political position.
Unsupported. The commentator doesn’t say anything about the future of serious environmentalism.
Expert: What criteria distinguish addictive substances from nonaddictive ones? Some have suggested that any substance that at least some habitual users can cease to use is nonaddictive. However, if this is taken to be the sole criterion of nonaddictiveness, some substances that most medical experts classify as prime examples of addictive substances would be properly deemed nonaddictive. Any adequate set of criteria for determining a substance’s addictiveness must embody the view, held by these medical experts, that a substance is addictive only if withdrawal from its habitual use causes most users extreme psychological and physiological difficulty.
Summary
Some people say that any substance that at least some habitual users can stop using is nonaddictive. But this is wrong.
In order to be addictive, it must be the case that withdrawal from habitual use causes most users extreme psychological and physiological difficulty.
Very Strongly Supported Conclusions
Just because some habitual users can stop using a substance does not imply that substance is not addictive.
If it’s not the case that most users of a substance experience extreme psychological and physiological difficulty after stopping the habitual use of the substance, then the substance is not addictive.
A
If a person experiences extreme psychological and physiological difficulty in ceasing to use a substance habitually, that substance is addictive.
The stimulus never tells us what is sufficient to imply something is addictive. The criteria set forth by the author tells us what is REQUIRED (”only if”) to be addictive. But meeting the requirement described does not, by itself, establish that a substance is addictive.
B
Fewer substances would be deemed addictive than are deemed so at present if an adequate definition of “addictive” were employed.
The stimulus does not compare the number of substances deemed addictive now to the number that would be deemed addictive under a different definition. We don’t know whether the current definition is more or less restrictive than the one proposed by the author.
C
A substance that some habitual users can cease to use with little or no psychological or physiological difficulty is addictive only if that is not true for most habitual users.
Must be true based on the last sentence. In order to be addictive, then for most habitual users, when they stop using the substance, they should experience extreme psych. & phys. difficulty. So even if some habitual users can stop without that difficulty, in order to be addictive, we still need most users to experience that difficulty when stopping use of the substance.
D
A chemical substance habitually used by a person throughout life without significant psychological or physiological difficulty is nonaddictive.
Not supported, because we don’t know whether most habitual users who stop using the substance described in (D) don’t experience extreme psych. + phys. difficulty. (D) says nothing about whether stopping use causes difficulty.
E
“Addiction” is a term that is impossible to define with precision.
Not supported. The author tells us at least one thing that is required for addictiveness. We have no reason to think the author believes we can’t come up with a precise definition.
A
The company should make shipping books its highest priority.
B
By increasing its efficiency, the company can maintain its competitive edge.
C
The company will be outsold if it does not maintain its competitors’ high level of organization.
D
It is imperative that the company ship fitness and exercise books on time.
E
The company should do whatever is required in order to adopt its competitors’ shipping practices.