QUESTION 1

"Do you believe in life after death?" the boss asked one of his employees.

"Yes, sir," the new employee replied.

"Well, then, that makes everything just fine . . ." the boss went on. "After you left work early yesterday to go to your grandmother's funeral, she stopped in to see you."

a. The dead grandmother's ghost came to the office looking for her grandson.

b. The boss has a wild imagination.

c. The employee had lied about going to his grandmother's funeral.

QUESTION 2

Thousands of fans are leaving a football stadium in silence, and a worker removes a championship banner with the home team's name on it.

a. The home team probably lost an important football game.

b. The home team probably won an important victory.

c. The football game was cancelled due to poor attendance.

QUESTION 3

Research has shown that the average mother cradles her baby in her left arm. The position allows the infant's head to be near the comforting sound of the mother's heartbeat. Interestingly, this form of cradling has been noted worldwide among women in modern societies, in traditional villages, and in art depicting motherhood in centuries past.

a. Only mothers who are taught to cradle the baby on the left know they should do so.

b. Mothers instinctively know how to cradle their babies in a comforting way.

c. Fathers possess no instinctive skills to take care of children.

QUESTION 4

Having finished his lunch, Chuck got up from his table in the student center. Then he noticed the new girl from his calculus class walking toward him with a lunch tray in her hands. "Maybe she's coming over to sit with me," he thought, quickly sitting back down.

a. Chuck is afraid he is going to be late for his next class.

b. Chuck decides that he is still hungry and wants to get more food.

c. Chuck is interested in the girl and wants to talk to her.

QUESTION 6

A study of ninth-graders showed that 25 percent of girls are currently on diets, while 75 percent have been on a diet at some point in their lives. Many girls in the study regularly skip breakfast and eat only salads as their main meal. Of the boys surveyed, 80 percent said they had never considered trying to lose weight.

a. Many of the boys in the study also skip breakfast.

b. Among twelfth-grade girls, very few diet.

c. Girls are more concerned about their weight than boys are.

QUESTION 6

During the 1700s, toilet paper was a relatively new development in England. A hand-held fan called Madame's Double Utility Fan was created for upper-class women. It contained a secret compartment in the handle to hold sheets of toilet tissue.

a. In the 1700s, carrying toilet tissue openly was considered poor taste among upper-class women.

b. Upper-class women were embarrassed to fan themselves publicly.

c. Fans were unpopular among upper-class women during the 1700s.

QUESTION 7

Security cameras were installed at an intersection known to be the site of many traffic accidents. At first the accident rate remained high. But when the police informed the public about the cameras, the accident rates dropped sharply.

a. Drivers behave more carefully because they wish to avoid an accident.

b. Drivers behave more carefully because they are afraid of being caught breaking traffic laws.

c. Drivers behave more carefully because they believe in the police's effort to make roads safer.

QUESTION 8

During World War II, a shortage of male workers in the United States led to a mass hiring of women in factories. But just a few years later, most of the women who successfully held jobs as welders, builders, and manufacturers were unemployed. When male workers returned from war, women suddenly became "unfit for men's work." Women were forced to return to what "suited" them-being wives and mothers.

a. Before World War II, it was commonly believed that women were inferior workers.

b. Once the war was over, women were relieved to return to their traditional roles as wives and mothers.

c. Compared to the men they replaced in World War II, women were inferior workers.

QUESTION 9

Two decades ago, the typical baseball fan was a kid, but today's average fan is a 39-year-old male. Baseball, once the most popular sport among 12- to 18-year-olds, is now third-behind basketball and football. The number of people who watch baseball on TV has steadily declined in recent years along with the sales of baseball equipment.

a. If current trends continue, baseball may not survive as a sport.

b. Current trends show that baseball will soon outrank other sports in teen popularity.

c. It takes more skill to play basketball than it does to play baseball.

QUESTION 10

On average, today's women outlive men by 6.9 years due to an array of reasons. Though more males are born, boys are more likely to die in infancy, childhood, and adolescence from accidents and diseases. During adulthood, women are much less likely to develop heart disease early on. In addition, since men tend to drink and smoke more than women, they are more likely to develop lung cancer and related respiratory illnesses. And men are more likely to have hazardous jobs.

a. Elderly women outnumber elderly men.

b. Elderly men outnumber elderly women.

c. Parents care more about their sons than their daughters.