3.2 Verbal Sample Questions Line 6) ao) 45) (20) (25) (30) Reading Comprehen: n 3.2 Diagnostic Test Verbal Sample Questions Each of the reading comprehension questions is based on the content of a passage. After reading the passage, answer all questions pertaining to it on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. For ‘each question, select the best answer of the choices given. According to economic signaling theory, consumers may perceive the frequency with which an unfamiliar brand is advertised as a cue that the brand is of high quality. The notion that highly advertised brands are associated with high-quality products does have some empirical support, Marquardt and McGann found that heavily advertised products did indeed rank high on certain measures of product quality. Because large advertising expencitures represent a significant investment on the part of a manufacturer, only companies that expect to recoup these costs in the long run, through consumers’ repeat purchases of the product, can afford to spend such amounts. However, two studies by Kirmani have found that although consumers initialy perceive expensive advertising as a signal of high brand quality, at some level of spending the manufacturer's advertising effort may be perceved as unreasonably high, implying low manufacturer confidence in product quality. I consumers perceive excessive advertising effort as a sign of a manufacturer's desperation, the result may be less favorable brand perceptions. In addition, a thied study by kirmani, of print advertisements, found that the use of color affected consumer perception of brand quality. Because consumers recognize that color advertisements are more expensive than black and white, the point at which repetition of an advertisement is perceived as excessive comes sooner for a color advertisement than for a black- and-uhite advertisement, Which of the following best describes the ourpose of the sentence in lines 10-15? (A) To show that economic signaling theory fails to explain a finding (8) Tointroduce a distinction not accounted for by economic signaling theory (©) To account for an exception to a generalization suggested by Marquardt and McGann (0) To explain why Marquardt and McGann’s research was conducted (6) Tooffer an explanation for an observation reported by Marquardt and McGann The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) _ present findings that contradict one explanation for the effects of a particular advertising practice (8) argue that theoretical explanations about the effects of a particular advertising practice are of limited value without empirical evidence (©) discuss how and why particular advertising practices may affect consumers perceptions. (0) contrast the research methods used in two different studies of a particular advertising practice (E) explain why a finding about consumer responses. to a particular advertising practice was unexpected 2‘The Official Guide for GMAT® Review 12th Edition 28 kirmani’s research, as described in the passage, suggests which of the following regarding consumers’ expectations about the quality of advertised products? (A) Those expectations are likely to be highest if 2 manufacturer runs both black-and-white and color advertisements for the same product. (8) Those expectations can be shaped by the presence of color in an advertisement as well as by the frequency with which an advertisement appears, (©) Those expectations are usually high for frequently advertised new brands but not for frequently advertised familar brands. (0) Those expectations are likely to be higher for products whose black-andavhite advertisements are often repeated than for those whose color advertisements are less often repeated. (E) Those expectations are less definitively shaped by the manufacturer's advertisements than by information that consumers gather from other sources. kirmani’s third study, as described in the passage, suggests which ofthe following conclusions about a black-and-white advertisement? (A) —Itcan be repeated more frequently than 2 comparable color advertisement could before consumers begin to suspect low manufacturer confidence in the quality of the advertised product. (8) twill hve the greatest impact on consumers’ perceptions of the quality of the advertised product it appears during periods when a color version of the same advertisement is also being used {C)_ twill attract more attention from readers of the print publication in which it appears if it is used only a few times. (0) Itmay be perceived by some consumers as ‘more expensive than a comparable color advertisement, (E) {tis fikely to be perceived by consumers as a sign of higher manufacturer confidence in the quality of the advertised product than a comparable color advertisement would be. ‘The passage suggests that Kimani would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about consumers' perceptions of the relationship between the frequency with which a product is advertised and the product’s quality? (A) Consumers’ perceptions about the frequency with which an advertisement appears are their primary consideration when evaluating an advertisement's claims about product quality. (8) Because most consumers do nat notice the frequency of advertisement, it has little impact ‘on most consumers’ expectations regarding product quality (©) Consumers perceive frequency of advertisement as a signal about product quality only when the advertisement is for a product that is newly on the market, (0) The frequency of advertisement is not always perceived by consumers to indicate that manufacturers are higily confident about their products’ quality (©) Consumers who try a new product that has been frequently advertised are likely to perceive the advertisement's frequency as having been an accutate indicator of the product's quality.Line 6) ao) 5) (20) (25) 30) (35) (40) ‘The idea of the brain as an information processor—a machine manipulating Dips of energy according to fathomablerules—nas come to dominate neuroscience. However, one enemy of the brair-as-computer metanhor is John R. Searle, a philosopher who argues tht since computers, simply follow algorithms, they cannot deal wth important aspects of human thought such as meaning and content. Computers are syntactic, rather than semantic, creatures. People, on the other hand, understand meaning because they have something Searle obscurely cals the causal powers of the brain Yet how would a brain work if not by reducing hat it learns about the world to information—some kind of code that can be transmitted from neuron to neuron? What else could meaning and content be? Ifthe code can be cracked, a computer should be able to simulate it, at least in principle, But evenif a computer could simulate the workings of the mind, Searle would claim thatthe machine would not realy be thinking; it would just be acting as iit were, His argument proceeds thus: if a computer were used to simulate a stomach, wth the stomach’s churings faitfuly reproduced on a video screen, the machine would not be digesting real food. t would just be blincly manipulating the symbols that generate the visual display. Suppose, though, that a stomach were simulated using plastic tubes, a motor to do the churning, a supply of digestive juices, and a timing mechanism. If food went in one end of the device, what came out the other end would surely be digested food. Brains, untkce stomachs, ae information processors, andif one information processor were made to simulate another information processor, itis hard to see how one and not the other could be said to think Simulated thoughts and real thoughts are made of the same element: information, The representations of the world that humans carry around in their heads are already sivulations. To accept Seark’s argument, one would have to deny the most fundamental notion in psychology and neuroscience: that brains work by processing information 3.2 Diagnostic Test Verbal Sample Questions ‘The main purpose of the passage is to (A) propose an experiment (8) analyze a function (©) refute an argument (0) explain a contradiction (E) simulate a process Which of the following is most consistent with Searle's, reasoning as presented in the passage? (A) Meaning and content cannot be reduced to algorithms. (8) The process of digestion can be simulated mechanically, but not on a computer. (©) Simulated thoughts and real thoughts are essentially similar because they are composed primarily of information (0) Accomputer can use “causal powers” similar to those of the human brain when processing information, (E) Computer simulations of the world can achieve the complexity of the brain's representations of the world ‘The author of the passage would be most ikely to agree with which of the following statements about the simulation of organ functions? (A) An attificil device that achieves the functions of the stomach could be considered a valid model of the stomach, (8) Computer simulations of the brain are best used to crack the brain's codes of meaning and content (©) Computer simulations of the brain challenge ideas that are fundamental to psychology and neuroscience. (0) Because the brain and the stomach both act as processors, they can best be simulated by mechanical devices. (E) The computer's limitations in simulating digestion suggest equal limitations in computer simulated thinking, 2‘The Official Guide for GMAT® Review 12th Edition 9. Itean be inferred that the author of the passage believes that Searle's argument is flawed by its failure to (A) distinguish between syntactic and semantic operations (8) explain adequately how people, unlike computers, are able to understand meaning (©) provide concrete examples ilustrating its claims. about thinking (0) understand how computers use algorithms to process information (€) decipher the code that is transmitted from neuron to neuron in the brain 10, From the passage, it can be inferred that the author would agree with Searle on which of the following points? (A) Computers operate by following algorithms. (8) The human brain can never fully understand its own functions. (C)_ The comparison of the brain to a machine is overly simplistic. {D) The most accurate models of physical processes are computer simulations. (©) Human thought and computer-simulated thought involve similar processes of representation, 11, Which of the following most accurately represents Searle's criticism of the brain-as-computer metaphor, as that criticism is described in the passage? (A) The metaphor is not experimentally verifiable, {B) The metaphor does not take into account the Unique powers of the brain. (C)_ The metaphor suggests that a brains functions can be simulated as easily as those of a stomach. (D) The metaphor suggests that a comauter can simulate the workings of the mind by using the codes of neural transmission {€) The metaphor is unhelpful because both the brain and the computer process information, 30Line 6) ao) 5) (20) (25) 30) Women’s grassroots activism and their vision of a new civic consciousness lay at the heart of social reform in the United States throughout the Progressive Era, the period between the depression cof 1893 and America's entry into the Second World War. Though largely disenfranchised except for school elections, white middle-class women reformers won a variety of victories, notably in the improvement of working concitions, especially for women and children. Ironically, though, child labor legislation pitted women of diferent classes against one another. To the reformers, child labor and industrial home work were equally inhumane practices that should be outlawed, but, as a number of women historians have recently observed, working-class mothers did not always share this view. Given the precarious finances of working-class families and the necessity of pooling the wages of as many family members as possible, working-class families viewed the passage and enforcement of stringent child labor statutes as a personal economic disaster and made strenuous efforts to circumvent child labor laws, Yet reformers rarely understood this resistance in terms of the desperate economic situation of working: class families, interpreting it instead as evidence of poor parenting. This is nat to dispute women reformers’ perception of child labor as a terribly exploitative practice, but their understanding of child labor and their legislative solutions for ending itfaled to take account of the economic needs of working-class families, 12, 13 M4, 3.2 Diagnostic Test Verbal Sample Questions ‘The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) explain why women reformers of the Progressive Era failed to achieve their goals (B) discuss the origins of child labor laws in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (©) compare the lving concitions of working-class and middle-class women in the Progressive Era (0) _ ciscuss an oversight on the part of women reformers of the Progressive Era (€) revise a traditional view of the role played by women reformers in enacting Progressive Era reforms ‘The view mentioned inline 17 of the passage refers to which of the folowing? (A) Some working-class mothers’ resistance to the enforcement of child labor laws (B) Reformers’ belief that child labor and industrial homme work should be abolished (©) Reformers’ opinions about how working-class families raised their children (0) Certain women historians’ observation that there was a lack of consensus between women of different classes on the issue of child labor and industrial home work (€) Working:class families’ fears about the adverse consequences that child labor laws would have on their ability to earn an adequate ving ‘The author of the passage mentions the observations cof women historians (ines 15-17) most arobably in order to (A) provide support for an assertion made in the preceding sentence (lines 10-12) (B) raise a question that is answered in the last sentence of the passage (lines 27-32) (C) introduce an opinion that challenges a statement made in the frst sentence of the passage (0) _ offer an alternative view to the one attributed in the passage to working-class mothers. (E) point out a contradiction inherent in the traditional view of child labor reform as itis presented in the passage 3”‘The Official Guide for GMAT® Review 12th Edition 16. 2 ‘The passage suggests that which of the following was. ‘reason for the difference of opinion between ‘working-class mothers and women reformers on the issue of child labor? (A) Reformers’ belie that industrial home work was, preferable to child labor outside the home (8) Reformers’ belie that child labor laws should pertain to working conditions but not to pay (©) Working-class mothers’ resentment at reformers’ attempts to interfere with their parenting (0) Working-class mothers’ belie that child labor ‘was an inhumane practice (©) Working-class families’ need for every employable member of their families to earn money ‘The author of the passage asserts which of the following about women reformers who tried to abolish child labor? (A) They alienated working-class mothers by attempting to enlist them in agitating for progressive causes. (B) They underestimated the prevalence of child labor among the working classes. (C)_ They were correct in their conviction that chilé labor was deplorable but shortsighted about the impact of child labor legislation on working-class families. (D) They were aggressive in their attempts to enforce child labor legislation, but were unable to prevent working-class families from circumventing them. (€) They were prevented by their nearly total disenfranchisement from making significant progress in child labor reform. V. ‘According to the passage, one of the mast striking achievements of white middle-class women reformers during the Progressive Era was (A) gaining the right to vote in school elections. (8) mobilizing working-class women in the fight against child labor (C) uniting women of different classes in grassroots. activism (0) improving the economic conditions of working class families (E) improving women's and children’s working conditions