GMAT GMAT SECTION 3: VERBAL ABILITY Exam
GMAT Section 3: Verbal Ability (Page 44 )

Updated On: 30-Jan-2026

A researcher discovered that people who have low levels of immune-system activity tend to score much lower on tests of mental health than do people with normal or high immune-system activity. The researcher concluded from this experiment that the immune system protects against mental illness as well as against physical disease.
The researcher’s conclusion would be most seriously weakened if it were true that

  1. there was a one-year delay between the completion of a pilot study for the experiment and the initiation of the experiment itself
  2. people’s levels of immune-system activity are not affected by their use of medications
  3. a few people with high immune-system activity had scores on the test of mental health that were similar to the scores of people who had normal immune-system activity
  4. people who have low immune-system activity tend to contract more viral infections than do people with normal or high immune-system activity
  5. high levels of stress first cause mental illness and then cause decreased immune-system activity in normal individuals

Answer(s): E



The value of a product is determined by the ratio of its quality to its price. The higher the value of a product, the better will be its competitive position. Therefore, either increasing the quality or lowering the price of a given product will increase the likelihood that consumer will select that product rather than a competing one.
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion drawn above?

  1. It is possible to increase both the quality and the price of a product without changing its competitive position.
  2. For certain segments of the population of consumers, higher-priced brands of some product lines are preferred to the lower-priced brands.
  3. Competing products often try to appeal to different segments of the population of consumers.
  4. The competitive position of a product can be affected by such factors as advertising and brand loyalty.
  5. Consumers’ perceptions of the quality of a product are based on the actual quality of the product.

Answer(s): E



In January there was a large drop in the number of new houses sold, because interest rates for mortgages were falling and many consumers were waiting to see how low the rates would go. This large sales drop was accompanied by a sharp rise in the average price of new houses sold.
Which of the following, if true, best explains the sharp rise in the average price of new houses?

  1. Sales of higher-priced houses were unaffected by the sales drop because their purchasers have fewer constraints limiting the total amount they pay.
  2. Labor agreements of builders with construction unions are not due to expire until the next January.
  3. The prices of new houses have been rising slowly over the past three years because there is an increasing shortage of housing.
  4. There was a greater amount of moderate-priced housing available for resale by owners during January than in the preceding three months.
  5. Interest rates for home mortgages are expected to rise sharply later in the year if predictions of increased business activity in general prove to be accurate.

Answer(s): A



Some communities in Florida are populated almost exclusively by retired people and contain few, if any, families with small children. Yet these communities are home to thriving businesses specializing in the rental of furniture for infants and small children.
Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the seeming discrepancy described above?

  1. The businesses specializing in the rental of children’s furniture buy their furniture from distributors outside of Florida.
  2. The few children who do reside in these communities all know each other and often make overnight visits to one another’s houses.
  3. Many residents of these communities who move frequently prefer renting their furniture to buying it outright.
  4. Many residents of these communities must provide for the needs of visiting grandchildren several weeks a year.
  5. Children’s furniture available for rental is of the same quality as that available for sale in the stores.

Answer(s): D



Large national budget deficits do not cause large trade deficits. If they did, countries with the largest budget deficits would also have the largest trade deficits. In fact, when deficit figures are adjusted so that different countries are reliably comparable to each other, there is no such correlation.
If the statements above are all true, which of the following can properly be inferred on the basis of them?

  1. Countries with large national budget deficits tend to restrict foreign trade.
  2. Reliable comparisons of the deficit figures of one country with those of another are impossible.
  3. Reducing a country’s national budget deficit will not necessarily result in a lowering of any trade deficit that country may have.
  4. When countries are ordered from largest to smallest in terms of population, the smallest countries generally have the smallest budget and trade deficits.
  5. Countries with the largest trade deficits never have similarly large national budget deficits.

Answer(s): C



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