To make the argument valid, we want to establish that if Mallotech has employees who work in unsanitary conditions, that implies the company is not socially responsible.
A
A socially responsible company would never lie about whether its employees are working in unsanitary conditions.
B
No company that conceals information from the public is socially responsible.
C
Many employees in Mallotech’s factories work in unsanitary conditions.
D
A socially responsible company would not have employees working in unsanitary conditions.
E
Every company that is well managed is socially responsible.
A
It is a generalization a particular instance of which is cited by the argument in order to undermine the viewpoint that the argument is attacking.
B
It is a portion of the conclusion drawn in the argument.
C
It is a claim that is offered as partial support for the argument’s conclusion.
D
It is a generalization the truth of which is claimed to be necessary to establish the conclusion of the argument.
E
It is a hypothesis that must be rejected, according to the argument, because it is inconsistent with certain evidence.
In a recent study, researchers collected current prices for the 300 most common pharmaceutical drugs from the leading wholesalers specializing in bulk sales. It was found that these prices average 60 to 80 percent below the suggested wholesale prices listed for the same drugs in the current annual edition of a widely used, independently published pharmaceutical price guidebook.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why were the current prices for the 300 most common drugs from top wholesalers 60-80% lower than the suggested wholesale prices in a popular, independent pharmaceutical price guide?
Objective
Four of the answer choices will provide a hypothesis that helps to explain the difference between the actual drug prices and the suggested drug prices in the study.
Note that we are looking for the answer choice that does not help to explain this difference.
A
A price war wherein pharmaceutical drug wholesalers tried to undercut each others’ prices began shortly before the study was conducted.
This helps to explain why drug prices from top wholesalers were lower than the suggested wholesale prices in the guidebook. If a price war among drug wholesalers began shortly before the study was conducted, it could have caused the studied prices to be lower than usual.
B
Suggested wholesale prices for the most common pharmaceutical drugs tend to be less than those for less common pharmaceutical drugs.
This does not help to explain why prices for the 300 most common drugs were lower than the suggested prices in the guidebook. Since we're only talking about these 300 drugs, it doesn't matter if suggested prices for less common drugs are usually higher.
C
Wholesale prices for pharmaceutical drugs often fluctuate dramatically from one month to the next.
This helps to explain why drug prices from top wholesalers were lower than the suggested wholesale prices in the guidebook. If wholesale drug prices fluctuate significantly each month, it makes sense that the annual guidebook might not reflect the prices for any given month.
D
Wholesale prices suggested by the independently published pharmaceutical price guidebook are calculated to allow every pharmaceutical wholesaler to make substantial profits.
This helps explain the difference in the actual and suggested prices. The guidebook prices allow wholesalers to make a profit, so they can still profit by charging 60-80% of the suggested price. Wholesalers might want to charge less to stay competitive or reduce consumer costs.
E
The prices suggested by the independently published pharmaceutical price guidebook are for sales of relatively small quantities of pharmaceutical drugs to individual doctors.
This helps to explain why drug prices from top wholesalers were lower than the suggested wholesale prices in the guidebook. If the suggested prices are for smaller sales to individual doctors, these wholesalers who specialize in bulk sales might charge less for bulk purchases.
If we find out that Selena does have psychic powers, then we will determine that it’s possible to have psychic powers. And, if we find out that Selena does NOT have psychic powers, then we will determine that it’s NOT possible to have psychic powers.
This conclusion is based on nothing more than the fact that Selena claims to have psychic powers.
But if Selena doesn’t have psychic powers, that doesn’t necessarily prove that it’s impossible to have psychic powers. After all, what if someone else besides Selena could have psychic powers.
So to make the argument valid, we want to establish that if Selena doesn’t have psychic powers, it’s impossible to have psychic powers. In other words, we want to know that nobody else can have psychic powers if Selena doesn’t have them.
A
No one else has yet been found to have psychic powers.
B
If it is possible to have psychic powers, then Selena has them.
C
It is possible to determine whether Selena has psychic powers.
D
If Selena’s claim turns out to be false, we will not know whether it is possible to have psychic powers.
E
We will not be able to determine whether it is possible to have psychic powers unless we find out whether Selena’s claim is true.
A
The overwhelming majority of pedestrians in high-traffic areas cross streets in crosswalks.
B
The number of pedestrians struck by cars has increased in recent years.
C
Pedestrians tend to underestimate the chances that the signals at a crosswalk will malfunction.
D
Drivers are generally most alert to pedestrians who are in or near crosswalks.
E
Measures intended to promote safety tend to make people less cautious.
Psychologist: Phonemic awareness, or the knowledge that spoken language can be broken into component sounds, is essential for learning to read an alphabetic language. But one also needs to learn how sounds are symbolically represented by means of letters; otherwise, phonemic awareness will not translate into the ability to read an alphabetic language. Yet many children who are taught by the whole-language method, which emphasizes the ways words sound, learn to read alphabetic languages.
Summary
In order to read an alphabetic language, one must have phonemic awareness and have learned how sounds are symbolically represented by means of letters.
Many children who are taught using the whole-language method learn to read alphabetic languages.
Very Strongly Supported Conclusions
Many children who are taught using the whole-language method have phonemic awareness and have learned how sounds are symbolically represented by means of letters. (This must be true, because many children who are taught using the whole-language method can read an alphabetic language, which implies that they have what’s required to read an alphabetic language.)
A
The whole-language method invariably succeeds in teaching awareness of how spoken language can be broken into component sounds.
We don’t know whether the whole-language method is ever successful in teaching how spoken language can be broken into component sounds. We know that many children who are taught using this method can learn how spoken language is broken into component sounds, but we don’t know whether they learned this from the whole-language method.
B
When the whole-language method succeeds in teaching someone how to represent sounds by means of letters, that person acquires the ability to read an alphabetic language.
We know that learning how sounds are represented by means of letters is one necessary condition for reading an alphabetic language. But we don’t know that it’s sufficient. In fact, phonemic awareness is another requirement, so if someone doesn’t have phonemic awareness, they won’t be able to read, even if they understand how sounds are represented by letters.
C
Those unable to read an alphabetic language lack both phonemic awareness and the knowledge of how sounds are symbolically represented.
Not supported, because someone who can’t read an alphabetic language might be lacking some other necessary condition that we don’t know about. It’s possible they have phonemic awareness and knowledge of how sounds are represented by letters, but still can’t read for some unknown other reason.
D
Some children who are taught by the whole-language method are not prevented from learning how sounds are represented by means of letters.
Must be true, becaue we know many children taught using the whole-language method can read alphabetic languages. So they must understand how sounds are represented by means of letters.
E
The whole-language method succeeds in teaching many children how to represent sounds symbolically by means of letters.
Not supported, because we don’t know that the whole-language method is how many children who learn to read alphabetic languages came to understand how sounds are represented by letters. It’s possible that they learned this through something else besides the whole-language method. In other words, just because they were taught using the whole-language method does not imply that this method is how they learned what’s necessary to read alphabetic languages.