Question Most geologists believe oil results from chemical transformations of hydrocarbons derived from organisms buried under ancient seas. Suppose, instead, that oil actually results from bacterial action on other complex hydrocarbons that are trapped within the Earth. As is well known, the volume of these hydrocarbons exceeds that of buried organisms. Therefore, our oil reserves …
Category Archives: Critical Reasoning Solutions
CR45650.01 – Suriland
Question Suriland cannot both export wheat and keep bread plentiful and affordable in Suriland. Accordingly, Suriland’s wheat farmers are required to sell their crop to the government, which pays them a dollar per bushel less than the price on the world market. Therefore, if the farmers could sell their wheat on the world market, they …
CR47931.01 – Researchers conditioned a group of flies
Question Researchers conditioned a group of flies to associate a particular odor with a weak electric shock. Twenty-four and forty-eight hours later the researchers conducted tests on the flies, both individually and in groups, to determine whether the flies retained the conditioning. When tested individually, the flies were significantly less likely to avoid areas marked …
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CR36441.01 – Consumer advocate
Question Consumer advocate: In our nation, food packages must list the number of calories per food serving. But most of the serving sizes used are misleadingly small and should be updated. The serving sizes were set decades ago, when our nation’s people typically ate smaller portions than they do today, and, as a result, people …
CR20661.01 – Clearbell Telephone
Question Clearbell Telephone provides slow-dialing (SD) service to customers for a low fee, and fast-dialing (FD) service to other customers who pay a somewhat higher fee. FD technology, however, is so efficient that it costs Clearbell substantially less per average call to provide than does SD. Nonetheless, accountants have calculated that Clearbell’s profits would drop …
CR09090.01 – Beets and carrots
Question Beets and carrots are higher in sugar than many other vegetables. They are also high on the glycemic index, a scale that measures the rate at which a food increases blood sugar levels. But while nutritionists usually advise people to avoid high-sugar and high-glycemic-index foods, despite any nutritional benefits they may confer, they are …
CR70870.01 – Some theorists and critics
Question Some theorists and critics insist that no aesthetic evaluation of a work of art is sound if it is based even in part on data about the cultural background of the artist. This opinion is clearly false. The only sound aesthetic evaluations of artists’ works are those that take into account factors such as …
CR97561.01 – Under the agricultural policies
Question Under the agricultural policies of Country R, farmers can sell any grain not sold on the open market to a grain board at guaranteed prices. It seems inevitable that, in order to curb the resultant escalating overproduction, the grain board will in just a few years have to impose quotas on grain production, limiting …
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CR00661.01 – There are fundamentally two possible changes
Question There are fundamentally two possible changes in an economy that will each cause inflation unless other compensating changes also occur. These changes are either reductions in the supply of goods and services or increases in demand. In a pre-banking economy the quantity of money available, and hence the level of demand, is equivalent to …
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CR30461.01 – Mashika
Question Mashika: We already know from polling data that some segments of the electorate provide significant support to Ms. Puerta. If those segments also provide significant support to Mr. Quintana, then no segment of the electorate that provides significant support to Mr. Quintana provides significant support to Mr. Ramirez. Salim: But actually, as the latest …