QUESTION: 185

Which of the following best completes the passage below?
the most serious flaw in television’s coverage of election campaigns is its tendency to focus on the horse-race side of politics—that is, to concentrate on the question “Who’s winning?” at the expense of substantive coverage of the issues and the candidates’ positions on them. The endless interviews with campaign managers, discussions of campaign strategies, and, especially, the obsession with opinion polls have surrounded elections with the atmosphere of a football game or a prizefight. To reform this situation, a first step might well be

a shortening of the length of election campaigns to a period of six weeks
a stringent limit on campaign spending
a reduction in the television coverage of opinion polls during election campaigns
the publication and distribution of voter-education literature to inform the public about each candidate’s position on the major issues
a limit on the length and number of political advertisements broadcast on television

Answer(s): C

Reveal Solution Next Question

QUESTION: 186

With Proposition 13, if you bought your house 11 years ago for $75,000, your property tax would be approximately $914 a year (1 percent of $75,000 increased by 2 percent each year for 11 years); and if your neighbor bought an identical house next door to you for $200,000 this year, his tax would be $2,000 (1 percent of $200,000). Without Proposition 13, both you and your neighbor would pay $6,000 a year in property taxes (3 percent of $200,000).

Which of the following is the conclusion for which the author most likely is arguing in the passage above?

Proposition 13 is unconstitutional because it imposes an unequal tax on properties of equal value.
If Proposition 13 is repealed, every homeowner is likely to experience a substantial increase in property taxes.
By preventing inflation from driving up property values, Proposition 13 has saved homeowners thousands of dollars in property taxes.
If Proposition 13 is not repealed, identical properties will continue to be taxed at different rates.
Proposition 13 has benefited some homeowners more than others.

Answer(s): B

Reveal Solution Next Question

QUESTION: 187

At an enormous research cost, a leading chemical company has developed a manufacturing process for converting wood fibers into a plastic. According to the company, this new plastic can be used for, among other things, the hulls of small sailboats. But what does the company think sailboat hulls used to be made of? Surely the mania for high technology can scarcely go further than this.
The author’s opinion of the manufacturing process described in the passage is based primarily on the fact that

plastic is unlikely to be durable enough for high-quality sailboat hulls
the research costs of developing the process outweigh any savings possible from the use of the plastic
a small sailboat is not normally regarded as a high-tech product
hulls for small sailboats can be made from wood without converting it into plastic
many other spheres of human activity are in far greater need of technological research

Answer(s): D

Reveal Solution Next Question

QUESTION: 188

At an enormous research cost, a leading chemical company has developed a manufacturing process for converting wood fibers into a plastic. According to the company, this new plastic can be used for, among other things, the hulls of small sailboats. But what does the company think sailboat hulls used to be made of? Surely the mania for high technology can scarcely go further than this.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the author’s conclusion?

The plastic produced by the process is considerably lighter, stronger, and more watertight than wood.
The wood used in producing the plastic is itself in increasingly short supply.
The cost of the manufacturing process of the plastic increases the cost of producing a sailboat hull by 10 to 15 percent.
Much of the cost of the research that developed the new process will be written off for tax purposes by the chemical company.
The development of the new plastic is expected to help make the chemical company an important supplier of boat-building materials.

Answer(s): A

Reveal Solution Next Question

Free GMAT SECTION 3: VERBAL ABILITY Exam Braindumps (page: 47)

QUESTION: 185

QUESTION: 186

QUESTION: 187

QUESTION: 188