15.   Six months or so after getting a video recorder, many early buyers apparently lost interest in obtaining videos to watch on it. The trade of businesses selling and renting videos is still buoyant, because the number of homes with video recorders is still growing. But clearly, once the market for video recorders is saturated, businesses distributing videos face hard times.Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion above?

(A) The market for video recorders would not be considered saturated until there was one in 80 percent of homes.

(B) Among the items handled by video distributors are many films specifically produced as video features.

(C) Few of the early buyers of video recorders raised any complaints about performance aspects of the new product.

(D) The early buyers of a novel product are always people who are quick to acquire novelties, but also often as quick to tire of them.

(E) In a shrinking market, competition always intensifies and marginal businesses fail.

16.   Advertiser: The revenue that newspapers and magazines earn by publishing advertisements allows publishers to keep the prices per copy of their publications much lower than would otherwise be possible. Therefore, consumers benefit economically from advertising.Consumer: But who pays for the advertising that pays for low-priced newspapers and magazines? We consumers do, because advertisers pass along advertising costs to us through the higher prices they charge for their products.Which of the following best describes how the consumer counters the advertiser’s argument?

(A) By alleging something that, if true, would weaken the plausibility of the advertiser’s conclusion

(B) By questioning the truth of the purportedly factual statement on which the advertiser’s conclusion is based

(C) By offering an interpretation of the advertiser’s opening statement that, if accurate, shows that there is an implicit contradiction in it

(D) By pointing out that the advertiser’s point of view is biased

(E) By arguing that the advertiser too narrowly restricts the discussion to the effects of advertising that are economic

17.   Mr. Lawson: We should adopt a national family policy that includes legislation requiring employers to provide paid parental leave and establishing government-sponsored day care. Such laws would decrease the stress levels of employees who have responsibility for small children. Thus, such laws would lead to happier, better-adjusted families.Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion above?

(A) An employee’s high stress level can be a cause of unhappiness and poor adjustment for his or her family.

(B) People who have responsibility for small children and who work outside the home have higher stress levels than those who do not.

(C) The goal of a national family policy is to lower the stress levels of parents.

(D) Any national family policy that is adopted would include legislation requiring employers to provide paid parental leave and establishing government-sponsored day care.

(E) Most children who have been cared for in daycare centers are happy and well adjusted.

18.   Lark Manufacturing Company initiated a voluntary Quality Circles program for machine operators. Independent surveys of employee attitudes indicated that the machine operators participating in the program were less satisfied with their work situations after two years of the program’s existence than they were at the program’s start. Obviously, any workers who participate in a Quality Circles program will, as a result, become less satisfied with their jobs.Each of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion drawn above EXCEPT:

(A) The second survey occurred during a period of recession when rumors of cutbacks and layoffs at Lark Manufacturing were plentiful.

(B) The surveys also showed that those Lark machine operators who neither participated in Quality Circles nor knew anyone who did so reported the same degree of lessened satisfaction with their work situations as did the Lark machine operators who participated in Quality Circles.

(C) While participating in Quality Circles at Lark Manufacturing, machine operators exhibited two of the primary indicators of improved job satisfaction: increased productivity and decreased absenteeism.

(D) Several workers at Lark Manufacturing who had participated in Quality Circles while employed at other companies reported that, while participating in Quality Circles in their previous companies, their work satisfaction had increased.

(E) The machine operators who participated in Quality Circles reported that, when the program started, they felt that participation might improve their work situations.

Questions 19-20 are based on the following.

Blood banks will shortly start to screen all donors for NANB hepatitis. Although the new screening tests are estimated to disqualify up to 5 percent of all prospective blood donors, they will still miss two-thirds of donors carrying NANB hepatitis. Therefore, about 10 percent of actual donors will still supply NANB-contaminated blood.

19.   The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

(A) Donors carrying NANB hepatitis do not, in a large percentage of cases, carry other infections for which reliable screening tests are routinely performed.

(B) Donors carrying NANB hepatitis do not, in a large percentage of cases, develop the disease themselves at any point.

(C) The estimate of the number of donors who would be disqualified by tests for NANB hepatitis is an underestimate.

(D) The incidence of NANB hepatitis is lower among the potential blood donors than it is in the population at large.

(E) The donors who will still supply NANB-contaminated blood will donate blood at the average frequency for all donors.

20.   Which of the following inferences about the consequences of instituting the new tests is best supported by the passage above?

(A) The incidence of new cases of NANB hepatitis is likely to go up by 10 percent.

(B) Donations made by patients specifically for their own use are likely to become less frequent.

(C) The demand for blood from blood banks is likely to fluctuate more strongly.

(D) The blood supplies available from blood banks are likely to go down.

(E) The number of prospective first-time donors is likely to go up by 5 percent.

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