GMAT® Focus Verbal Practice Questions

Question 1

Critical Reasoning – Basic Argumentation

Consultant: Palmer Corporation has historically contracted with external vendors to execute special projects as an alternative to increasing its full-time workforce to complete these tasks. Last year, Alliance International went bankrupt largely because it overspent on outside vendors. Palmer Corporation would be advised to limit expenses paid to outside vendors, because in the long run it costs less to add full-time workers than to outsource work to another entity.

Which of the following is an assumption made by the consultant in providing her recommendation to Palmer Corporation?

Question 2

Critical Reasoning – Common Arguments

Student reporter: Awaiting results of the university council election, I noticed that the chairman of the board of electors repeatedly glanced at one of the candidates. Another observer posited that the attention paid to this candidate over the others indicated an advantage in the results tally and determined that this candidate had likely won. This deduction might be incorrect, however, as the chairman could have also been focused on inaccurate statements made in that candidate’s speech.

The student reporter’s argument is flawed in that it fails to consider that:

Question 3

Reading Comprehension – Detail Purpose

In 2002, Jada Harris received a call from a student at East Carolina University, who was returning panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt that had been temporarily displayed at his school. Harris, director of programs at the NAMES Project Foundation, which manages the Quilt, vividly recalls the conversation. The young man, who represented an African-American student group, nervously asked whether next time, the organization could send over panels that didn’t just represent “old white guys,” as he had phrased it.

Later, as Harris looked through the Quilt’s database, she realized that there were less than 300 individual panels made for African Americans who had died from HIV/AIDS. “I was just flabbergasted,” she said.

Like the disease, the Quilt had emerged within the white, gay, male community, which suffered the overwhelming majority of AIDS deaths during the early years of the epidemic. The first panels were sewn in San Francisco in 1987, each one bearing the name of a life lost to AIDS. The Quilt had been developed as a way to memorialize loved ones, and to salvage some sense of creation and beauty from the devastating loss.

But the demographics of the disease had shifted by the 21st century. By 2000, African-American and Hispanic gay and bisexual men were diagnosed at higher rates than their white counterparts, and African Americans made up 57 percent of all new infections in the United States. Infection rates had also begun to skyrocket within the female community: by 2004, HIV would become the leading cause of death for African-American women between 25–34 years old, and the third leading cause of death for African-American women between 35–44 years old.

And yet, new quilt panels continued to predominantly reflect the disease’s original demographics. “We as a nation weren’t necessarily recognizing that HIV and AIDS were impacting every sector of society,” said Julie Rhoad, executive director of the NAMES Project, which moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Atlanta in 2002. “And the Quilt was a reflection of that.”

In response, the NAMES Project launched Call My Name in 2003, which was later funded by the NEA. Although the Names Project has always hosted panel-making workshops, Call My Name workshops specifically target the African-American community, bringing people together to collectively grieve while creating a tribute for a loved one. While the workshops raise awareness in and of themselves, the panels they produce help ensure the Quilt remains a relevant and effective public health tool.

“It’s important that people see people that look like themselves, so they will understand that this disease doesn’t have any respect of person,” said Harris. “Everybody is represented on the Quilt, but unless the Quilt tells your story, it’s hard for people to see that there is a possibility that they could be at risk.”

Question 9.1: Which of the following best describes the trajectory of the passage?