Admission Tests GMAT Based on Real Exam Environment

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Question 52

Because of the positive correlation across animal species between body size and home range size, researchers suspected that body size of female mallards (a species of duck) may influence their home range size. The researchers also reasoned that younger females may be forced into less suitable habitats by older females competing with them for optimal areas, with the younger females compensating by having larger home ranges. However, their research supported neither suspicion. The failure to detect variation of range size according to body size may be due to other, undetermined mallard attributes (for example, body condition) that may have been a significant factor affecting home range size. The fact that most yearling females can breed may help to explain why the expected age effect was not confirmed, since home range size may be affected by breeding capability.

The researchers did find, however, that home range size of females was Inversely related to the percentage of the study area composed of seasonal or semipermanent wetlands. This may have been because of reduced competition for breeding space within the species when more of the wetlands were present. They also found home range size to decrease somewhat as the percentage of wood-shrub habitat increased, suggesting that reduction in visual contact among mallard pairs may reduce interaction and thus reduce competition among breeding pairs.

Regarding female mallards, which of the following was a finding of the researchers' study described in the passage?

Options:

Female mallards in larger home ranges tend to be those that have had greater success at breeding.

Female mallard body size has relatively little if any effect on home range size.

The bodies of larger female mallards tend to be in better condition.

Younger female mallards tend to be forced into less suitable habitat by older female malar ds.

Female mallard body size sometimes influences the birds' home range size.

Question 53

For a consumer product such as a television, careful pricing is a very important aspect of marketing, since pricing an item even slightly too high or too low can seriously

reduce profits. By contrast, voter approval of government projects that benefit the public does not vary with small differences in estimates of their projected cost.

The statements above, if true, best support which of the following as a conclusion?

Options:

Most people are well informed about the prices of consumer products.

The demand for projects that benefit the public is more closely tied to standard measures of the condition of the national economy than is the demand for consumer products.

Anyone wishing to increase or decrease voter support for projects that benefit the public should not focus on small cost differences.

Many people place higher priority on funding projects that benefit the public than on buying consumer products for their households.

The purchase of consumer products such as televisions can be postponed more easily than can expenditures for projects that benefit the public.

Question 54

Job candidates are prescreened through using administrative plus management skills assessments.