MeritTrac Critical Reasoning Questions and Answers Quiz-1

In order to determine automobile insurance premiums for a driver,

insurance companies calculate various risk factors; as the risk 

factors increase, so does the premium. Certain factors, such as 

the driver’s age and past accident history, play an important 

role in these calculations. Yet, these premiums should also 

increase the number of miles that the driver drives. 

After all, a person’s chance of being involved in a mishap 

increases in proportion to the number of times that person drives.



Which one of the following, if true, most undermines the argument?

The claim that insurance premiums should increase as the 

frequency with which a driver drives increases plays which 

one of the following roles in the argument?

A law requiring companies to offer employees unpaid time off 

to care for their children will harm the economic 

competitiveness of our nation’s businesses. Companies must be 

free to set their own employment policies without mandated 

parental-leave regulations. Which of the following, if true, 

would most seriously weaken the conclusion of the argument above?

Studies of fatal automobile accidents reveal that, in the 

majority of cases in which one occupant of an automobile is 

killed while another survives, it is the passenger, 

not the driver, who is killed. It is ironic that the innocent

passenger should suffer for the driver’s carelessness, 

while the driver often suffers only minor injuries or none at all.

Which of the following is an assumption underlying the reasoning

in the passage above?

Are you still reading the other newspaper in town? Did you 

know that the Daily Bugle is owned by an out-of-town business

syndicate that couldn’t care less about the people of Gotham 

City? Read the Daily Clarion, the only real voice of the 

people of Gotham City!

Which of the following most directly refutes the argument 

raised in the advertisement above?

Anthropologist: Climate and geology determine where human 

industry can be established. Drastic shifts in climate always

result in migrations, and migrations bring about the 

intermingling of ideas necessary for rapid advances in civilization.

The anthropologist's statements, if true, most strongly 

support which one of the following?

The earth’s resources are being depleted much too fast. To 

correct this, the United States must keep its resource 

consumption at present levels for many years to come. 

The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

Alba: I don’t intend to vote for Senator Frank in the next 

election. She is not a strong supporter of the war against crime.

Tam: But Senator Frank sponsored the latest anti-crime law 

passed by the Senate.

Alba: If Senator Frank sponsored it, it can’t be a very strong 

anti-crime law.

Which of the following identifies the most serious logical flaw

in Alba’s reasoning?

As an experienced labour organizer and the former head of 

one of the nation’s most powerful labour unions, Grayson is 

an excellent choice to chair the new council on business-labour

relations.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the 

conclusion above?

Ronald: According to my analysis of the national economy, 

housing prices should not increase during the next six 

months unless interest rates drop significantly.

Mark: I disagree. One year ago, when interest rates last 

fell significantly, housing prices did not increase at all.

It can be inferred from the conversation above that Mark 

has interpreted Ronald’s statement to mean that