Dragnet Verbal Reasoning Questions and Answers


1)

All German philosophers, except for Marx, are idealists.

From which of the following can the statement above be most properly inferred?

The question stem asks you to pick the choice from which the statement can be derived, and that's (E). If, as (E) says, anyone who is German is an idealist except for Marx, then all Germans except for Marx are idealists. That being the case, it would certainly be true that, as the stimulus says, with the exception of Marx, all German philosopher—being a subset of all Germans—are idealists. While this may sound absurd, we're concerned with strict logic here, not content.
 
2)

Time and again it has been shown that students who attend colleges with low faculty/student ratios get the most well-rounded education. As a result, when my children are ready to attend college, I'll be sure they attend a school with a very small student population.

Which of the following, if true, identifies the greatest flaw in the reasoning above?

The evidence says that students who attend colleges with low faculty/student ratios get well-rounded educations, but the conclusion is that the author will send his kids to colleges with small student populations. Since colleges can have the second without necessarily having the first, (C) is correct.
3)

The increase in the number of newspaper articles exposed as fabrications serves to bolster the contention that publishers are more interested in boosting circulation than in printing the truth. Even minor publications have staffs to check such obvious fraud.

The argument above assumes that

Evidence: more newspaper articles exposed as fabrications.
Conclusion: Publishers want to increase circulation, not print the truth.
This conclusion makes sense only if we assume (E), that the publishers are the ones who decide what to print. If (E) weren't true and this decision was up to someone other than the publisher, the argument would fall apart.
4)

The rate of violent crime in this state is up 30 percent from last year. The fault lies entirely in our court system: Recently our judges' sentences have been so lenient that criminals can now do almost anything without fear of a long prison term.

The argument above would be weakened if it were true that

C is the right option
If we can show that something besides the court system may explain the increase in crime we would weaken the argument. The author assumes that there is no other cause. Tackle the choices, looking for another cause besides the allegedly lenient court sentences.

(A) Does not compare one state to another. The argument's scope is the crime rate increase in this particular state only. In (B), the fact that white collar crime is also on the rise strengthens rather than weakens the argument. (C) presents an alternative
explanation for the increase in crime (reduction in police). As for (D), what if 65 percent of people in the state oppose capital punishment? This provides little insight into why crime has gone up since last year. (E) tells us that numerous judges have been replaced in the last year. It is possible that the new judges are more lenient, but this would only strengthen the author's argument.
5)

In Los Angeles, a political candidate who buys saturation radio advertising will get maximum name recognition.
The statement above logically conveys which of the following?

An L.A. political candidate who buys saturation radio advertising will get maximum name recognition. In other words, such advertising is sufficient for maximum name recognition. If so, then it must be true that, as (D) says, a candidate can get such recognition without spending on other forms of media.

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