Verbal Ability Questions With Answers: Directions for next 5 Verbal Ability Questions: For each of the verbal ability questions given below select the best option from the answers given.
1. In 1988, 50 people with emotional disturbances underwent hypnosis to be cured of their mood swings. A follow up survey in 1993 revealed that five had fairly stable emotional conditions at the time of the survey. These five subjects can therefore serve as models of the types of people for whom hypnosis is likely to be successful. Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the suitability of those five subjects as models in the sense described?
(A) The five subjects have very different personalities and backgrounds.
(B) Since 1988, the five subjects have experienced dramatic mood swings interspersed with periods of relative stability.
(C) Those people who were still suffering from unstable emotional conditions at the time
of the 1993 survey had shown no improvement since 1988.
(D) Many psychologists are less concerned about a patient’s mood swings than about the patient’s willingness to express his or her problems and fears.
(E) The emotional condition of most of the 45 subjects who were still unstable at the time of the 1993 survey had actually worsened since 1988.
Answer. B
Explanation: The Conclusion: These five people can serve as models for the type of person who can be helped by hypnosis. The Evidence: A study showed that these five previously disturbed hypnosis subjects had stable emotional conditions. The survey only found that at the time of the study the five seemed to be doing OK. Remember, these people were originally suffering from mood swings; maybe the study just caught them on a good day. If that’s the case—if since 1988 these people have been experiencing dramatic mood swings and occasional periods of health—then hypnosis hasn’t really helped them and they’re not good models. The author presented the people as models of different types of people who can be helped, not as a single model of a single personality type, so they needn’t be similar (A). It doesn’t matter that the other 45 people who underwent hypnosis didn’t get better (C); the argument is based on and concerns only the five who were stable. (E) fails to weaken the argument for the same reason. The concern of many psychologists (D) is well outside the scope. We need a statement that speaks about hypnosis and these five subjects.
2. The cause of the peculiar columnar growth pattern displayed by junipers growing near burning underground veins of lignite coal has never been convincingly explained. Until recently, the accepted theory posited that the abundance of carbon monoxide in the local atmosphere caused the columnar growth. However, a new theory holds that the cause is the persistent heat present near these underground fires which, while not intense enough to inflame the trees, can nonetheless change their normal growth pattern.
The existence of which of the following would provide the strongest support for the new
theory?
(A) A columnar juniper growing in an atmosphere of intense heat and an absence of carbon monoxide
(B) A normal juniper growing in an atmosphere of intense heat and an absence of carbon
monoxide
(C) A columnar juniper growing in an atmosphere of normal heat and a high concentration of carbon monoxide
(D) A normal juniper growing in an atmosphere of intense heat and a high concentration
of carbon monoxide
(E) A columnar juniper growing in an atmosphere of intense heat and a high
concentration of carbon monoxide
Answer. A
Explanation: The New Theory’s Conclusion: Heat (from the burning coal) causes columnar growth in junipers near burning underground coal veins. The New Theory’s Evidence: None really, except the correlation of columnar growth with these areas with underground fires. The Old Theory’s Conclusion: The abundance of carbon monoxide causes columnar growth.
The Old Theory’s Evidence: None really, except the correlation of columnar growth with these areas with high carbon monoxide. When you scan the choices, you see that each presents a case of the cause with or without the effect or the effect with or without the cause. Since the two theories are in opposition, weakening the old theory is a way of strengthening the new one. Bearing in mind from the lesson the key issues in a causal argument, we recognize that a case of columnar growth where the cause claimed by the new theory (heat) is present, but the cause claimed by the old theory (carbon monoxide) is absent strengthens the new theory at the expense of the old. A case (B) where we get the new theory’s alleged cause (intense heat), without the alleged effect (columnar junipers) is of no help at all. A columnar juniper in an atmosphere with high carbon monoxide but no extra heat (C) strengthens the old theory. A case with both alleged causes without the expected effect (D) weakens both theories. Like wise columnar growth in the presence of both causes (E) does nothing to promote one theory over the other.
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