SEMSTER-II 2020-21
CRITICAL REASONING WORKSHEET
DIRECTIONS for the questions: Answer the questions based on the
information given:
Question No. : 1
Many business offices are located in buildings having 2-8 floors. If a building
has more than 3 floors, it has a lift. If the above statements are true, which of the
following must be true?
A.
B.
C.
D.
2nd floors do not have lifts.
7th floors have lifts.
Only floors above the 3rd floors have lifts.
All floors may be reached by lifts.
Question No. : 2
If highways were restricted to cars and only those trucks with capacity of less
than 8 tons, most of the truck traffic would be forced to run outside highways.
Such a reduction in the amount of truck traffic would reduce the risk of
collisions on highways.
The conclusion drawn in the 1st sentence depends on which of the following
assumptions?
A. The roads outside highway would be as convenient as highway for most
drivers of trucks..
B. Most of the roads outside highways are not ready to handle truck traffic.
C. Most trucks that are currently running in highway have a capacity of
more than 8 tons.
D. Cars are at greater risk of being involved in collisions than are trucks.
Question: 3
There are numerous reasons why individuals want to run their own businesses.
Some foresee more personal satisfaction if they succeed in launching their own
business, while others are mainly interested in the prospect of larger financial
rewards. Since 1980s and early 1990s, tax regulation and liberal policies have
encouraged increasing number of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to start
1
new enterprises. Since 1990, one and a half million new ventures have been
started. Not all have succeeded.
The above statement makes which of the following assumptions?
A. Success in starting a new business largely depends on sound financial
planning.
B. Venture capitalists are motivated by non-monetary gains.
C. Social incentives motivate investors just as much as financial rewards.
D. None of these
Question No. : 4
Offshore oil-drilling operations involve an unavoidable risk of an oil spill but
importing oil on tankers presently involves an even greater such risk per barrel
of oil. So, if we are to lessen the risk of an oil spill without reducing our oil
usage, we must invest more in offshore operations and import less oil on
tankers.
Which of the following, if true, seriously weakens the argument above?
A. Importing oil on tankers is currently less expensive than drilling for it
offshore.
B. Tankers can easily be redesigned so that their use entails less risk of an
oil spill.
C. The impact of offshore operations on the environment can be reduced by
careful management.
D. Oil spills caused by tankers have generally been more serious than those
caused by offshore operations.
Question No. : 5
In terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), rural households have more
purchasing power than do urban and suburban households at the same income
level, since some of the income urban and suburban households utilize for food
and shelter can be utilized by rural households for other needs. Which of the
following inferences is best supported by the statement made above?
A. All three types of households, urban, suburban, and rural, spend more of
their income on housing than all other purchases combined.
B. Rural households have lower housing and food costs than do either urban
or suburban households.
C. The median income of suburban and urban households is generally more
than that of rural households.
2
D. The average rural households include more people than does the average
urban or suburban holds.
Question No. : 6
In contrast to the earlier predictions, demand for sugarcane has not risen in
recent years, yet, even though production amounts and price have also been
stable during the last 3 years. Last year, sugarcane growers increased their
profits by more than 10 percent over the previous year’s level.
Any of the following statements, if true, about last year, helps explain the rise in
profits EXCEPT:
A. Many sugar factories that are large consumers of sugarcane increase their
production of sugarcane-based ethanol, yet their overall consumption of
sugarcane decreased.
B. Rainfall in sugarcane-growing regions was higher than it had been during
previous year, allowing the growers to save money on expensive artificial
irrigation.
C. Sugarcane growers have saved money on wages by switching from
paying labourers a daily wage to paying them by the amount harvested.
D. Many small sugarcane growers joined together to form an association of
sugarcane producers and began to buy supplies at low group rates.
Question: 7
Studies last year concluded coffee drinking had little, if any, effect on the risk of
pancreatic or kidney cancer. A study of 59,000 women in Sweden found no link
between caffeine and kidney cancer. Another review suggested that those who
drink coffee have half the risk of pancreatic cancer.
Which of the following statements, if true, would weaken the conclusion drawn
above?
A. The study is done in cold countries only, countries in arid and semiarid regions are not considered under this study.
B. Indians drink more coffee than the Swedish do.
C. The caffeine content is different in different varieties of coffee.
D. Intake of 15 ml to 30 mi of milk per day offsets the negative effects
of caffeine. The study did not consider the milk intake.
E. None of these
3
Question: 8
The cause of corruption in medical education is shortage of seats, and fewer
doctors than required for the population and even fewer specialists.
Which of the following can be inferred from the above?
A. Students pay bribes to the management of institutions to avail seats.
B. The criteria to select students to fill medical seats are flexible.
C. There is a set standard regarding the doctors to population ratio.
D. Most of the doctors are general physicians.
E. None of these
Question- 9
India’s baffling array of state and national labour laws date to the 1940s: one
provides for the type and number of spittoons in a factory. Another says an
enterprise with more than 100 workers needs government permission to scale
back or close. Many Indian businesses stay small in order to remain beyond the
reach of the laws. Big firms use temporary workers to avoid them. Less than
15% of Indian workers have legal job security. The new government can
sidestep the difficult politics of curbing privileges by establishing a new,
simpler labour contract that gives basic protection to workers but makes lay-offs
less costly to firms. It would apply only to new hires; the small proportion of
existing workers with gold-star protections would keep them.
Which of the following options best summarizes the main idea of the
paragraph?
A. More Indian workers can get permanent jobs and legal job security if
existing labour laws are reformed.
B. Effective labour law reform can encourage many Indian businesses to
grow to more than 100 workers.
C. Outdated Indian labour laws need to be simplified to provide basic
protection to workers and curb privileges.
D. The difficult politics of curbing privileges can be avoided if the changes
in the labour law only apply to the new hires.
4
Question: 10
Many scientific studies have found links between genius and mental illness,
particularly bipolar disorder in which patients have violent mood swings
between elation and depression. In one interesting Swedish study, 700,000
Swedes had intelligence tests at age 16 and again 10 years later. Those who
scored well were four times more likely than the others to have developed
bipolar disorder. The US neurologist James Fallon came up with a convincing
argument based on his own findings in the field: the brain area involved in
mood swings is the same area where creativity is born. This may explain why
some people can draw previously unseen connections among ideas, images,
shapes and the like.
Which of the following is inferred from the above?
A. Those with bipolar disorder are likely to be highly intelligent.
B. Most people who excel in creativity are likely suffering from a mental
problem.
C. Often there is a correlation between mental illness and genius.
D. Mental disorders give birth to genius.
5