Practice Test 1 - GRE Verbal Reasoning

20 questions. Answer them in any order, then submit to see your score and every explanation.

A manager argues that the company must either allow employees to work fully remotely or accept a significant loss of talented staff. The manager notes that two high-performing employees resigned last month after their requests for full-time remote work were denied. Therefore, the manager concludes, any policy that requires employees to be in the office at least two days per week will inevitably lead to widespread resignations. Which of the following identifies a flaw in the argument's reasoning?
A company's HR director concludes that offering a commuter benefit for public transit will reduce employee turnover. Exit interviews from the past year show that a notable share of departing employees cited commuting costs as a significant burden, and payroll records indicate that employees with the longest commutes have resigned at higher rates than those living closer. When a small group in one office received pre-tax transit passes for three months, that office reported fewer late arrivals and a modest increase in employee satisfaction scores. Therefore, the director recommends expanding the commuter benefit to all offices. The author relies on which of the following as a premise?
Select the answer choice that best completes the sentence. The professor urged students to be _____ about sources, reminding them that a confidently written article is not necessarily a reliable one.
In his farewell address, the retiring ambassador thanked his colleagues for their unwavering support and praised the ______ atmosphere that had characterized the embassy's daily operations for over a decade.
In "The essay opens with a concession before pivoting to its rebuttal," how does the concession relate to the rebuttal?
For each blank, choose the word or phrase that best contributes to a clear, logical sentence. Choose one answer for each blank: the choices for the first blank are labeled A–C; the choices for the second blank are labeled D–F. Despite her reputation for being remarkably (i) ______ with journalists, the diplomat's terse refusal to answer even the simplest questions at the press conference struck reporters as uncharacteristically (ii) ______, a stark departure from her usual openness.
Passage: Some conservation campaigns portray invasive species as unequivocal villains that must be eradicated wherever they appear. This framing can motivate rapid action and simplify public messaging: if a species does not "belong," then removing it seems obviously beneficial. The approach also aligns with legal regimes that define invasiveness in terms of origin rather than ecological impact. Ecologists, however, increasingly caution that origin alone is a poor proxy for harm. Certain introduced species integrate with minimal disruption, while some native species can become destructive under altered conditions. Moreover, eradication efforts can have unintended consequences, such as harming non-target organisms or destabilizing food webs that have already reorganized around the newcomer. Accordingly, several researchers advocate an impact-centered framework that evaluates species by measurable effects on ecosystem function and biodiversity. Under this framework, management resources would be concentrated on cases where damage is demonstrable and interventions are likely to succeed. The point is not to deny that introductions can be dangerous, but to replace a moralized category with an empirical triage. Question: The author introduces the first paragraph primarily in order to…
For each blank, choose the word or phrase that best contributes to a clear, logical sentence. Choose one answer for each blank: the choices for the first blank are labeled A–C; the choices for the second blank are labeled D–F. The diplomat's carefully drafted memo, though couched in (i) language designed to avoid causing offense to either party, contained a demand so uncompromising that its recipients found the surrounding courtesies utterly (ii).
A school district introduced a later start time for high school students. In the first year, the average number of student absences per semester decreased from 6.1 to 5.4. The superintendent concludes that later start times reduce absences and recommends adopting the later start time for all middle schools as well. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
For each blank, choose the word or phrase that best contributes to a clear, logical sentence. Choose one answer for each blank: the choices for the first blank are labeled A–C; the choices for the second blank are labeled D–F. The witness's testimony, praised by the prosecution as remarkably (i) ______, unraveled under cross-examination when it emerged that several key details had shifted with each retelling, exposing an account that was, in truth, thoroughly (ii) ______.
Select the answer choice that best completes the sentence. The essay's last paragraph _____ its argument, restating each earlier point in one tidy sentence.
A school district piloted a new mathematics curriculum in five middle schools and observed that, after one year, the average math test score in those schools increased by 6 percentage points. The superintendent concludes that adopting the curriculum in all district middle schools will raise math scores districtwide. The superintendent notes that the pilot schools include a range of socioeconomic backgrounds and that teachers received the same amount of training as usual. Which of the following statements most seriously undermines the conclusion?
In the sentence "The senator's remarks were calculated to soothe, not inform," the word "calculated" most nearly means
Because the museum's new wing was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, visitors often failed to notice how ______ the addition actually was.
Passage: In discussions of scientific replication, a familiar narrative holds that failed replications primarily reveal sloppy original work. According to this view, if a result cannot be reproduced, the most reasonable inference is that the first study was flawed, biased, or even fraudulent. The narrative is appealing because it assigns responsibility cleanly and suggests an obvious remedy: stricter screening of initial findings. Yet replication outcomes are often harder to interpret. Differences in participant populations, measurement instruments, or contextual conditions can legitimately change effect sizes, even when both studies are competently conducted. Moreover, many phenomena are sensitive to seemingly minor procedural details, so a replication that is "close" but not identical may test a subtly different claim than the original. Some methodologists therefore propose shifting attention from the binary question of whether a result "replicates" to a cumulative approach that models variation across studies. Meta-analytic techniques, preregistered multi-lab collaborations, and explicit theorizing about boundary conditions are meant to clarify what, exactly, a finding is expected to do under different circumstances. The aim is not to excuse poor research but to replace moralized rhetoric with a framework that distinguishes error from genuine heterogeneity. Question: The primary function of the second paragraph is to…
In "The final chapter is less a corollary of the book's argument than a capitulation to its critics," what contrast does the sentence draw?
In her review, the critic dismissed the novel's plot as needlessly ______, filled with meandering subplots and characters that seemed to serve no purpose beyond padding the page count.
Passage: In debates about renewable energy, critics sometimes argue that wind power cannot meaningfully reduce carbon emissions because fossil-fuel plants must remain on standby to compensate for wind variability. The argument assumes that every unit of wind generation requires an equal unit of fossil backup operating inefficiently. Grid operators, however, do not manage variability by pairing each wind farm with a dedicated plant. Instead, they pool fluctuations across many generators and use forecasting, demand response, and existing reserves that were already needed for unexpected outages. Empirical studies comparing regions with similar demand but different wind penetration find that higher wind shares are associated with lower overall fuel consumption, even after accounting for additional ramping of gas turbines. None of this means integration is costless. Additional transmission and improved forecasting systems may be required, and the emissions benefit depends on which fossil plants are displaced. But the claim that wind is automatically "canceled out" by standby generation misrepresents how power systems are actually operated. The primary function of the final paragraph is to:
A conservation report claims that reintroducing wolves can reduce overbrowsing by deer. The report cites: (1) in Reserve C, deer density estimates fell from 18 per square kilometer to 11 within four years of wolf reintroduction; (2) sapling survival rates for two tree species increased from 35% to 52% over the same period; and (3) a radio-collar study showing deer spent less time in open valleys after wolves returned. Which statement best characterizes the support for the author's claim?
Select the answer choice that best completes the sentence. The historian's account seems ______ not because it lacks detail, but because it omits the one event that would explain the sudden policy reversal described elsewhere in the archive.

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