GMAT Question of the Day

June 10, 2014

 

 

Every weekday, GMAT Hacks publishes a realistic GMAT practice question. In general, you'll see Quant problems on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Verbal questions on Tuesday and Thursday. You'll always be able to find them at www.gmathacks.com/daily.

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Today's Practice GMAT Question:

Jonathan: Have you heard about this new proposed development project? They want to build a 950-unit apartment complex along the waterfront. That means that over 1,000 additional vehicles will be passing through the main downtown intersection each day, which will increase fumes and congestion to unacceptable levels.
 
Daria: Is that really such a large increase? When I'm sitting at the downtown coffee shop, I see at least 50 vehicles go through that intersection every time the light changes. Assuming the light changes every three minutes, that's 1,000 vehicles passing through every hour.
 
Daria's argument relies on the assumption that
(A) changes in the traffic light patterns could mitigate the effect of the development
(B) the traffic at the time of day Daria sits at the coffee shop represents a typical level
(C) residents of apartment complexes usually own at least one car per apartment
(D) Jonathan's understanding of the impact of fumes and congestion on the quality of life downtown is reasonably accurate
(E) large numbers are useful talking points for political opponents of development because they are easily misinterpreted


 

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Need more work in this area? In Total GMAT Verbal, there is an entire chapter, including practice problems, that covers Assumption.

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About the author: Jeff Sackmann has written many GMAT preparation books, including the popular Total GMAT Math, Total GMAT Verbal, and GMAT 111. He has also created explanations for problems in The Official Guide, as well as 1,800 practice GMAT math questions.

Total GMAT Verbal

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