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Question 1
According to a recent study, advertisements in medical journals often contain misleading information about the effectiveness and safety of new prescription drugs. The medical researchers who wrote the study concluded that the advertisements could result in doctors prescribing inappropriate drugs to their patients. The researchers’ conclusion would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?
A. Advertisements for new prescription drugs are an important source of revenue for medical journals.
B. Editors of medical journals are often unable to evaluate the claims made in advertisements for new prescription drugs.
C. Doctors rely on the advertisements as a source of information about new prescription drugs.
D. Advertisements for new prescription drugs are typically less accurate than medical journal articles evaluating those same drugs.
E. The Food and Drug Administration, the government agency responsible for drug regulation, reviews advertisements for new drugs before the ads have been printed.
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Question 2
A state legislator argues that her state’s ban on casino gambling is inconsistent and impractical, since other forms of gambling such as bingo and the state lottery are legal. She claims that instead of vainly attempting to enforce the ban, the legislature should simply legalize all gambling, and that doing so would also have the positive effect of reducing the crime rate. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the legislator’s argument above?
A. Since many people enjoy the thrill of participating in illegal practices, legalizing gambling would probably cause a decline rather than an increase in this activity.
B. Because prosecutors rarely seek prison terms for illegal gamblers, legalizing gambling would not result in a significant savings of money.
C. Long-term studies have shown that the number of people who participate in the lottery is higher now than it was when the lottery was prohibited.
D. Legalizing gambling would entice gamblers from states where it is still banned, and many of them are involved in other illegal activities such as drug smuggling.
E. Many people who participate in illegal gambling claim that they would risk their money on the stock market if they had more disposable income.
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Question 3
A researcher studying cats discovered that during the dream state of sleep, the cerebral cortex of a cat’s brain fires messages to the cat’s body as rapidly as it does during wakefulness. In an effort to determine why the sleeping cat’s body does not respond to the messages being fired by the brain, the researcher removed a cluster of neurons from a sleeping cat’s brain stem, the part of the brain that connects the cerebral cortex to the spinal cord. After he had done so, the still sleeping cat stood up, pounced as if it were chasing a mouse, and arched its back.
Which of the following, if true, taken together with the information above, best supports the conclusion that the sleeping cat was acting out its dreams?
A. The neurons that were removed from the brain stem normally serve to trigger the dream state of sleep and the rapid brain activity that accompanies it.
B. The cerebral cortex is able to receive and transmit sensory information even when the brain is in a sleeping state.
C. The neurons that were removed from the brain stem are normally responsible for transmitting messages from the cerebral cortex.
D. The neurons that were removed from the brain stem normally prevent messages fired by the cerebral cortex during sleep from being received by the spinal cord.
E. The types of brain waves produced by the cerebral cortex during sleep have distinctly different properties from those produced during a wakeful state.
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Question 4
According to a commonly held archaeological theory, the Neanderthals of Europe, an archaic version of Homo sapiens, competed with and were eventually replaced by modern humans, with little or no interbreeding between the two populations. A rival theory, developed more recently, suggests that Neanderthals were more similar to modern humans than previously supposed— that, in fact, modern humans evolved from them and from other archaic versions of Homo sapiens. Evidence that would strongly support the more recent theory concerning the relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans would be
A. DNA analyses indicating that modern humans appeared in Africa 200,000 years ago, before migrating to Europe and other continents
B. archaeological evidence that Neanderthals and modern humans developed similar cultures, shared stone tools, and performed similar burial rituals
C. skulls of early modern humans in central Europe that exhibit a bone near the mandibular nerve that is a typical Neanderthal characteristic
D. evidence that the stone tools of Neanderthals remained unchanged for thousands of years, while the tools of modern humans in Europe were more specialized
E. biological evidence that Neanderthals had unique physical traits that enabled them to survive ice-age temperatures in Europe
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Question 5
Aggressive fertility treatments are not responsible for the rise in the incidence of twin births. Rather, this increase can be attributed to the fact that women are waiting longer to become mothers. Statistically, women over 35 are more likely to conceive twins, and these women now comprise a greater percentage of women giving birth than ever before. The argument above is flawed in that it ignores the possibility that
