Admission Tests GMAT Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

Admission Tests GMAT Online Questions & Answers

• Question 331:

  It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following has been the effect of the increasing involvement of managers in informal networks?

  A. Managers have had to rely less on established sources of authority.
  B. Managers have played a reduced role in shaping company strategy.
  C. Managers have sacrificed access to company resources.
  D. Managers have fewer ways of obtaining backing for projects.
  E. Managers have fewer ways of gaining access to information.
  A. Managers have had to rely less on established sources of authority.

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  Explanation/Reference:

  Managerial work is undergoing enormous and rapid change. With little precedent to guide them, managers are coping with the fading away of hierarchy and the blurring of clear distinctions of title, task, department, even corporation. Traditional sources of power are being eroded as levels of complexity and interdependence increase. Competitive pressures from recent business downturns are forcing corporations to adopt flexible strategies and structures, including reductions In management staff and increased use of performance-based (rather than longevity-based) rewards. In a more profound change, in a growing number of companies horizontal ties between peers are replacing vertical ties as channels of activity and communication. Companies are asking departmental staff to play a more strategic role, with greater cross-departmental collaboration. Some organizations are forming strategic alliances with customers and outside suppliers that bring external relationships inside, where they can influence company policy. Fundamentally, the new managerial work involves new ways of obtaining and using power. Position, title, and authority are no longer adequate tools when managers have to work cooperatively with other departments and even other companies. The ability of managers to get things done depends more on the number of networks in which they are included than on their rank in a hierarchy. In the past, formal structures and the emphasis on rank were more limiting. For example, access to information and the ability to get informal backing were often confined to the few officially sanctioned contact points between departments or between the company and Its suppliers or customers. Today, official barriers between departments and between companies are disappearing while Informal networks grow in importance. The new corporation has many more channels for action, strategic pathways that ignore the chain of command. These strategic pathways also serve to diffuse power. As the number of ways to combine resources Increases, the ability to command diminishes. Alternative paths of communication and resource access erode the authority of those in the nominal chain of command. In other words, greater speed and flexibility undermine hierarchy. As more and more of the strategic action takes place in these informal networks, the Jobs that focus inward on particular departments decline In power.

• Question 332:

  When placed on the floor of a room, a rectangular rug that is 5 feet wide and 7 feet long covers all of the floor except for a uniformly 2-foot-wide strip on each side of the rug. What percent of the area of the floor is not covered by the rug?

  A. Less than 20%
  B. More than 20% but less than 40%
  C. More than 40% but less than 60%
  D. More than 60% but less than 80%
  E. More than 80%
  C. More than 40% but less than 60%

• Question 333:

  I It is said of parasitic forms of life that, although they burden their hosts, they do not kill them, since a parasite cannot survive unless its host does. Mr. Craig's prize-winning lilies, however, were invaded by dodder, a parasitic plant, and every one of the lilies died soon after. Plainly, therefore, a parasite can be deadly.

  The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

  A. Mr. Craig did nothing to control the dodder that was invading his lilies.
  B. Mr. Craig's lilies were not infected with a virus deadly to lilies before being invaded by................
  C. Dodder is not usually a parasite of lilies.
  D. Lilies are especially susceptible to being weakened by invading parasites.
  E. Mr. Craig's lilies were invaded by an unusually vigorous strain of dodder.
  B. Mr. Craig's lilies were not infected with a virus deadly to lilies before being invaded by................

• Question 334:

  The passage suggests that one reason that the "conditions of captivity" (see bolded text) were significant was that

  A. food and water were readily available to all members of a group
  B. researchers were unable to observe animals from an unobtrusive distance
  C. climatic conditions seldom matched those of the animals' natural habitat
  D. animals were unable to distance themselves from each other physically
  E. animals lacked opportunities to interact with members of other species
  D. animals were unable to distance themselves from each other physically

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  Explanation/Reference:

  Members of many primate species approach an opponent shortly after conflict and initiate behaviors such as embracing, grooming, or huddling--a phenomenon researchers call postconflict reconciliation. Existing research, however, suffers from several shortcomings. The variability between groups of the same species is rarely addressed; the majority of studies investigate only a small fraction of the pairings that exist in a given group; and almost all reports are restricted to animals in captivity. In an attempt to address some of these shortcomings, Sommer et al. recently conducted a study of postconflict reconciliation in wild Hanuman langurs, a species of colobine monkey. They observed rates of postconflict reconciliation much lower than would be expected based on previous research, and found that over 80 percent of all pairings exhibited no postconflict affinity whatsoever. The rarity of friendly postconflict reunion in wild langurs draws attention to the possibility that conflicts are modulated through avoidance. The option of temporarily avoiding contact with opponents is not easily available to captive primates, and certainly not to the extent present in the wild. Still, studies of postconflict behavior of primates in captivity remain valuable: above all, they demonstrate the flexibility of nonhuman primates in various environments. It is likely, however, that the reported frequency of reconciliation among primates is artificially inflated by the conditions of captivity.

• Question 335:

  The sum of the first n positive odd integers is n2 . What is the sum of the of the odd integers from 25 to 79, inclusive?

  A. 392-122
  B. 402-122
  C. 792-222
  D. 802-232
  E. 802-232
  C. 792-222

• Question 336:

  Paleontologist: Scientists have used evidence about bone structure to infer that carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex had genomes-sets of genetic information in their DNA-- much smaller than those of most modern mammals. Modern birds have genomes about the same size as those of these dinosaurs, from which they evolved. Therefore the hypothesis that small genomes in birds were an evolutionary adaptation functioning to conserve energy for flight is probably false.

  Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the paleontologist's argument?

  A. Species of frying animals other than birds typically have genomes no smaller than those of their most recent flightless ancestor species.
  B. Flying mammals such as bats have genomes about the same size as modern bird genomes.
  C. Species with small genomes typically use energy much more efficiently than do dosely related species with larger genomes.
  D. Many animal species that lived in the same period as Tyrannosaurus rev but were not ancestors of modern birds also had relatively small genomes.
  E. At least some flightless species that evolved from carnivorous dinosaurs and were ancestors to modern bird species had much larger genomes than modern birds have.
  A. Species of frying animals other than birds typically have genomes no smaller than those of their most recent flightless ancestor species.

• Question 337:

  HOTSPOT

  For each of the background colors, the graphic shows the average (arithmetic mean) of the maximum prices that the participants who viewed the item with that background reported that they were willing to pay for the item. Results are shown for bath the auction and the negotiation scenarios.

  

  Assuming the researchers' hypothesized link between offers and aggression is correct, for each of the following background colors select More aggressive if, on average, participants in the negotiation group in the study behaved more aggressively when the product was displayed with that background color than the participants did when the product was displayed with a gray background.

  Otherwise, select Not more aggressive.

  Hot Area:

  

  

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  Explanation/Reference:

• Question 338:

  According to the passage, the purpose of eel Junction molecules is to

  A. promote a variation in the molecular structure of plants and animals
  B. provide a conduit for information between eels
  C. supply proteins to a duster of cells
  D. initiate the morphoregulatory process
  E. increase the Interactive capabilities of the two classes of adhesion molecules
  B. provide a conduit for information between eels

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  Explanation/Reference:

  What makes a rhinoceros look like a rhinoceros, or a petunia like a petunia? Understanding the basis of the generation of the forms, patterns, or shapes of complex organisms is a principal subject of biologist Gerald Edelman's stimulating book Topobiology, which explores the links among the development, evolution, form, and function of organisms. In older scientific language, one could say that Edelman has brought a new dimension to morphology, the study of the form and shape of animate and plants, and to histology, the study of the minute structure of tissues. The major thrust of his book te what he calls a morphoregulatory hypothesis, which can be described as the outline of a molecular basis for the formation of pattern, involving three types of genes. In the morphoregulatory sequence, morphoregulatory genes control the production of molecules that cause the formation of clusters of cells. When the cell dusters begin to communicate, they activate another type (selector genes) that then select and switch on a third type of gene (historegulatory genes). In the organisms they have studied, Edelman and his colleagues have found cell adhesion molecules (resulting from morphoregulatory gene action) that are attached to the surface of different cells and link them in clusters. These molecules can appear at different times in the development of a multicellular system, and at various specific sites on the cells. Furthermore, their chemical structure can vary. This tremendous variation allows a great flexibility in the kinds of linkages the molecules effect. A second class of adhesion molecules plays a comparable role In attaching cells to the developing scaffolding of filaments that lie outside cells. Also of particular interest to researchers are what are called cell Junction molecules, composed of clusters of proteins providing small channels from the inside of one cell to the Inside of another. These three types of molecules facilitate a kind of conversation among eels that determines the course of development of organisms. It has been possible to demonstrate how Important these molecules are by treating tissues with agents that block their functions, thus effectively and drastically changing the organism's development.

• Question 339:

  Government regulations in Nation X require that milk products labeled "organic" come from cows that have access to pasture. Many industrial dairies have begun using the organic label on their products even though their cows spend most of their milk-bearing lives confined to feed lots eating grain. Critics charge that industrial dairy cows spend too little time grazing in pastures for their milk to bear the organic label, but the cows' owners insist that the animals are in good health and show no signs of discontent.

  Which of the following would it be most useful to establish in order to determine whether the industrial dairies' use of the organic label complies with government regulations?

  A. The average amount of grass eaten by a cow from an industrial dairy that uses the organic label, as compared to the average amount of grass eaten by a cow from a smaller organic dairy farm
  B. By what criteria a cow is considered to be "in good health," according to government regulation
  C. The nutritional value of the milk labeled organic that is produced by cows from industrial dairies
  D. The effects on milk prices of the wider use of the organic label
  E. The meaning of "access to pasture," as stipulated by government regulation
  E. The meaning of "access to pasture," as stipulated by government regulation

• Question 340:

  That subculture was an enduring fixture In Tsarist times, during the Russian Revolution, the times of the Soviet Union, during the transition to post-soviet society--and it continues to exist in Russian society today.

  A. the times of the Soviet Union, during
  B. and during the times of the Soviet Union,
  C. of the Soviet Union, and
  D. and the times of the Soviet Union, as well as
  E. throughout the history of the Soviet Union, and during
  E. throughout the history of the Soviet Union, and during