The price of fish has risen from 40 Rupees a kilogram, three years ago, to 90 Rupees a kilogram today. It is clear that fisheries have been artificially hiking prices and that government regulatory controls are needed to stabilize rising prices.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion made above?

Macro Mania entertainment have begun to manufacture new data cables using fiber optic materials rather than previously used copper cables because they are much more efficient and speedier in terms of transfer of data on networks. A cable made of fiber optic material is, however, five times as expensive to produce as a copper cable. It follows that the substitution of fiber optic cables for copper cables is, at this time, not recommended from a financial standpoint.

Which of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

From 1970 to 1995, millions of tonnes of coal ash from Ropar Thermal Plant was dumped into river Satluj. There is increasing apprehension that the ash will leak contaminants into ground water, and thereafter into drinking water supplied to the cities. This apprehension is unwarranted, as tests of the ground water and local water supply of regions near commercial manufacturers who practiced such dumping during the 1950s showed very little or no evidence of such contaminants.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument above?

Critics have recently called into question the authenticity of a piece of pottery, long believed to belong to ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro, which they now believe may have come from Mesopotamian civilization to the city. In order to determine the piece's authenticity, its visual patterns were compared to those in other pieces known to belong to Mesopotamia. Many patterns were examined, including composition and the prominence and width of designs. The patterns displayed by the piece in question were very similar to those in the other genuine items, thereby establishing the authenticity of the given piece.

Which of the following, if true, gives the strongest support to the conclusion above?

Research indicates that consumer behavior regarding the purchase of soaps varies very little except when the soap contains rose essence. Accordingly, soaps containing the ingredient will have labels indicating that rose essence is present.

Which one of the following is an assumption upon which the above argument is based?

The proposal for combined entrance test for MBA colleges, failed to pass by only a slim margin several times in the Directors Syndicate. Twenty-seven votes were required for passage. Twenty-six directors on the Syndicate voted in favor of the proposal in 1999, whereas only 24 directors voted in favor of it in 2001. This was true even though no director changed his or her vote.

Which of the following, if true, best accounts for the change in the number of votes for the proposal from 26 in 1999 to 24 in 2001?

In July 2002, the Indian airline's flights, serving Delhi-Mumbai route, substantially reduced the price of tickets for the flights. During the months, subsequent to the reduction, the number of tickets sold to Mumbai increased to well above the monthly average for the previous year. Despite this fact, the number of tickets sold by Indian airlines to Mumbai was not noticeably different from the previous year's total.

Which of the following, if true, best explains the apparent paradox in the passage above?

Statement I: From 1995 to 2002, the yearly level of infra red rays, to which the average person was exposed, went down considerably.

Statement II: From 1995 to 2002, the occurrence of skin irritation caused by infra red exposure went up threefold from previous levels, which were already high. This was true for those people whose exposure was average for each year during the seven-years period.

Which of the following, if true, would reconcile the apparent inconsistency between Statement I and Statement II?

Directions: Read the part of a conversation given below and answer the question that follows it.

Rohit: Our central government seems to function most efficiently when decision-making responsibilities are handled by only a few individuals. Therefore, our government should consolidate its leadership and move away from a parliamentary form of democracy.

Sanjeev: But moving our government in this direction could violate our constitutional mission to provide a parliamentary form of government for the people.

Which of the following statements describes Sanjeev’s response to Rohit?

A manufacturer for heavy mechanical equipments expects to renovate 5,000 units next year. Yet it is unlikely that a sufficient number of replacements being available, since the number of units being produced at the company have been consistently decreasing over the past five years.

The argument above assumes that

Directions: Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows it.

A recent medical journal published a study, which found that athletes who exercised more than five hours per week were more likely than the other athletes to have high levels of chemical compound riboflavin in their blood. High levels of this compound can be one of the first warning signs of skin cancer, which is almost always caused by excessive exposure of the body to water.

Which one of the following, if true, would cast doubt on the study’s conclusion that exercising more than five hours per week increases the odds of contracting skin cancer?

Nonprescription sunglasses shield the wearer's eyes from damaging ultraviolet sunlight. Squinting, however, provides protection from ultraviolet rays that are at least as good as the protection from nonprescription sunglasses. There is, therefore, no health advantage to be gained by wearing nonprescription sunglasses rather than squinting.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens support for the conclusion above?

Most people with brain tumors undergo surgery. There are many complications that can be associated with any surgery, such as infection. Instead of surgery, doctors should recommend a combination of a modified diet and a non-invasive procedure called radiography, in which the stones are shattered with radio waves.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument relies?

Several members of the Income Tax Department were recently caught taking bribes, therefore, all the government officials are corrupt.

The argument above is most similar to which one of the following?

Chinese Giant Pandas are rapidly disappearing from their natural habitats. Therefore, to preserve this unique species, pandas must be captured and placed in zoos.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?

Since the singers are receiving larger cash rewards and exposure than ever before, many people are encouraging their children to aim for career as singers. Analogously, a few years ago, children were urged to become lawyers, during the enormous upsurge in the profession of barristers. Today, however, it is obvious that there are opportunities for only a tiny fraction of talented lawyers to reach at the higher level of the profession.

The point of the analogy above is that

A developing country, using socialist form of government, traditionally running in democratic or parliamentary method, will undoubtedly increase the quality of life of its citizens. The country of China presents the most valid example of such form of government, therefore proving the validity of this principle, developing countries like India, which are being run on the principle of democracy. Therefore, in order to become successful the countries should change their form of government.

The flaw in the argument above can best be described as which of the following?

Directions: Read the following information carefully and answer the question given below. Within the last 25 years, a large portion of the population of the India has moved from the North to the South. This shift has occurred, not because employment opportunities in the South have expanded, but because, over the same period, the life expectancy of the India's population has increased, and more people therefore move to a warmer climate when they retire.

Which of the following, if true, would strengthen the claim made above that the population now has a greater life expectancy?

Directions: Read the following information carefully and answer the question given below.

Directions: Read the following information carefully and answer the question given below.The greater the number of autonomous departments in a company, the more essential is a high level of teamwork among them. This is because increased number of autonomous departments demands a large number of mangers who deal with department specific matters, which leads to a greater burden on directors who are assigned the duty to make a universal policy which serves all the individual departments as well as company goals.

There are always greater numbers of autonomous departments in Indian companies than there are in multi national organizations.

Which of the following statements must be true if all of the statements above are true?

Directions: Read the following information carefully and answer the question given below.Last year, when the new primary teacher joined the school, she complained to the principal about the noise from another class disturbing her class. The principal's response was that because the teacher was new to the school, she had mistaken the noise coming from the playground for noise coming from another class.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the principal's response?

Directions: Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows it.

Child: All my friends are allowed to watch cartoons and play videogames for longer duration than I am allowed. This practice is unjustifiable.

Mother: You are wrong. If you would complete your homework earlier in the afternoon, you would have plenty of time to watch the cartoons and play videogames.

Which of the following explains why the mother's response to her child is inappropriate?

Directions: Read the following information carefully and answer the question given below.

A high level of safety in aircraft landing system depends upon by the level of synchronization between the ground control computer and the onboard computer system. To ensure the safety of the aircraft, the aircraft landing system would have to synchronize the two gadgets at regular intervals, and determine that the two are synchronous enough, to make the landing of the aircraft safe. Despite technological advances, every internal computerized system has, during use, proved to have serious limitations, which in certain circumstances would bring about significant failure.

Which of the following can be inferred from the statements above?

Some rats are able to subsist on the barries of the poison sumac, a poisonous plant, by peeling away the poisonous skin of the fruit before they consume it. This method ensures that some rats will always be able to subsist on poison sumac because the plant could never evolve so as to acquire the ability to produce a poison that would prove lethal in the minute quantity left after the fruit is peeled.

The conclusion drawn depends on which of the following assumptions?