GMAT考试历年全真试题

aANALYSIS OF AN ARGUMENT

Time—30 minutes

Directions: In this section, you will be asked to write a critique of the argument presented below. note that you are not being asked to present your own views on the subject. Instead, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking, what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion, or what sort of evidence could help strengthen or refute the argument.

Read the argument and the instructions that follow it, and then make any notes in your test booklet that will help you plan your response. Begin writing your response on the separate answer document. Make sure that you use the answer document that goes with this writing task.

The following appeared in a memorandum from the directors of a security and safety consulting service.

"Our research indicates that over the past six years no incidents of employee theft have been reported within ten of the comparnies that have been our clients. In analyzing the security practices of these ten companies, we have further learned that each of them requires its employees to wear photo identification badges while at work. In the future, therefore, we should recommend the use of such identification badges to all of our clients."

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. You can also discuss what, if anything, would make the argument more sound and persuasive or would help you to better evaluate its conclusion.

ANALYSIS OF AN ISSUE

Time—30 minutes

Directions: In this section, you will need to analyze the issue presented below and explain your views on it. The question has no "correct" answer. Instead, you should consider various perspectives as you develop your own position on the issue.

Read the statement and the instructions that follow it, and then make any notes in your test bo

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334aoklet that will help you plan your response. Begin writing your response on the separate answer document. Make sure that you use the answer docurmtne that goes with this writing task.

"There are essentially two forces that motivate people: self-interest and fear."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your position with reasons and/or examples from your own experience observations, or reading.

SECTION 1

Time—25 minutes

18 Questions

Traditionally, the first firm to commercialize a new technology has benefited from the unique opportunity to shape product definitions, forcing followers to adapt to a standard or invest in an unproven alternative. Today, however.

(5) the largest payoffs may go to companies that lead in ceveioping integrated approaches for successful mass groduction and distrioution.

Producers of the Beta format for videocassentte recorders (VCR s) for example, were first to develop the VCR com

(10) nearcially in 1975, but producers of the rival VHS (Video Home System) format proved to be more successful at forming strategic alliances with other producers and distributors to manufacture and market their VCR format. Seeking to maintain exclusive control over VCR distri

(15) bution. Beta producers were reluctant to form such alliances and eventually lost ground to VHS in the competition for the global VCR market.

Despite Beta s Substantial technological head start and the fact that VHS was neither technically better nor cheaper

(20) than Beta, deveiopers of VHS quickly turned a slight early lead in sales into a dominant position. Strategic alignments with producers of prerecorded tapes reinforced the VHS advantage. The perception among consumers that prerecorded tapes were more available in VHS format further

(25) expanded VHS s share of the market. By the end of the 1980 s. Beta was no longer in production.

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334a>1.The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following?

(A) Evaluating two competing technologies

(B) Tracing the impact of a new technology by narrating a sequence of events

(C) Reinterpreting an event from contemporary business history

(D) illustrating a business strategy by means of a case history

(E) Proposing an innovative approach to business planning

2. According to the passage, today s successful firms, unlike successful firms in the past, may earn the greatest profits by

(A) investing in research to produce cheaper versions of existing te

GMAT考试历年全真试题

chnolog

(B) being the first to market a competing technology

(C)adapting rapidly to a technological standard previously set by a competing frim

(D) establishing technological leadership in order to shape product definitions in advance of competing firms

(E) emphasizing the development of methods for the mass production and distribution of a new technology

3. According to the passage, consumers began to develop a preference for VCR s in the VHS format because they believed which of the following?

(A) VCR s in the VHS format were technically better than competing-format VCR s.

(B) VCR s in the VHS format were less expensive than competing-format VCR s

(C) VHS was the first standard format for VCR s

(D) VHS prerecorded videotapes were more available than Beta-format tapes.

(E) VCR s in the Beta format would soon cease to be produced.

4. The author implies that one way that VHS producers won control over the VCR market was by

(A) carefully restricting access to VCR technology

(B) giving up a slight early lead in VCR sales in order to improve long-term prospects

(C) retaining a strict monopoly on the production of prerecorded videotapes

(D) sharing control of the marketing of VHS-format VCR s

(E) sacrificing technological superionrity over Betaformat VCR s in order to remain competi

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334ative in price.

5. The alignment of producers of VHS-format VCR s with producers of prerecorded videotapes is most similar to which of the following?

(A) The alignment of an automobile manufacturer with another automobile manufacturer to adopt a standard design for automobile engines

(B) The alignment of an automobile manuracturer with an automotive glass company whereby the manufacturer agrees to purchase automobile windshieids only from that one glass company

(C) The alignment of an automobile manufacturer with a petroleum company to ensure the widespread availability of the fuel required by a new type of engine developed by the manufacturer

(D) The alignment of an automobile manufacturer with its dealers to adopt a plan to improve automobile design

(E) The alignment of an automobile dealer with an automobile rental chain to adopt a strategy for an advertising campaingn to promote a new type of automobile.

6. Which of the following best describes the relation of the first paragraph to the passage as a whole?

(A) It makes a general observation to be exemplified.

(B) It outlines a process to be analyzed.

(C) It poses a question to be answered.

(D) It advances an argument to be disputed.

(E) It introduces conflicting arguments to be reconciled.

Australian researchers have discovered electroreceptors (sensory organs designed to respond to electrical fields) clustered at the tip of the spiny anteater s snout. The researchers made this discovery by exposing small areas of

(5) the snout to extremely weak electrical fields and recording the transmission of resulting nervous activity to the brain. While it is true that tactile receptors, another kind of sensory organ on the anteater s snout, can also respond to electrical stimuli, such receptors do so only in response to

(10) electrical field strengths about 1,000 times greater than those known to excite electroreceptors.

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334a Having discovered the electroreceptors, researchers are cow investigating how anteaters untilize such a sophisticated sensory system. In one behavioral experiment, researchers

(15) successfully trained an anteater to distinguish between two troughts of water, one with a weak electrical field and the other with none. Such evidence is consistent with researchers electrical signals given off by prey; however,

(20) researchers as yet have been unable to detect electrical agnals emanating from termite mounds, where the favorite food of anteaters live. Still, researchers have observed anteaters breaking into a nest of ants at an oblique angle and quickly locating nesting chambers. This ability quickly

(25) to locate unseen prey suggests according to the researchers, that the anteaters were using their electroreceptors to locate the nesting chambers.

7. Accoraing to the passage, which of the following is a characteristic that distinguishes electroreceptors from tactile receptors?

(A) The manner in which electroreceptors respond to electrical stimuli

(B) The tendency of electroreceptors to be found in clusters

(C) The unusual locations in which electroreceptors are found in most species

(D) The am