GRE - English (Sourced)

GRE – English (Sourced)

Reading Comprehension

The function of capital markets is to facilitate an exchange of funds among all participants, and yet in practice we find that certain participants are not on a par with others. Members of society have varying degrees of market strength in terms of information they bring to a transaction, as well as of purchasing power and creditworthiness, as defined by lenders.

For example, within minority communities, capital markets do not properly fulfill their functions; they do not provide access to the aggregate flow of funds in the United States. The financial system does not generate the credit or investment vehicles needed for underwriting economic development in minority areas. The problem underlying this dysfunction is found in a rationing mechanism affecting both the available alternatives for investment and the amount of financial resources. This creates a distributive mechanism penalizing members of minority groups because of their socio economic differences from others. The existing system expresses definite socially based investment preferences that result from the previous allocation of income and that influence the allocation of resources for the present and future. The system tends to increase the inequality of income distribution. And, in the United States economy, a greater inequality of income distribution leads to a greater concentration of capital in certain types of investment.

Most traditional financial-market analysis studies ignore financial markets "deficiencies in allocation because of analysts" inherent preferences for the simple model of perfect competition. Conventional financial analysis pays limited attention to issues of market structure and dynamics, relative costs of information, and problems of income distribution. Market participants are viewed as acting as entirely independent and homogeneous individuals with perfect foresight about capital-market behavior. Also, it is assumed that each individual in the community at large has the same access to the market and the same opportunity to transact and to express the preference appropriate to his or her individual interest. Moreover, it is assumed that transaction costs for various types of financial instruments (stocks, bonds, etc.) are equally known and equally divided among all community members.

1. The main point made by the passage is that 
(a) financial markets provide for an optimum allocation of resources among all competing participants by balancing supply and demand
(b) the allocation of financial resources takes place among separate individual participants, each of whom has access to the market
(c) the existence of certain factors adversely affecting members of minority groups shows that financial markets do not function as conventional theory says they function
(d) investments in minority communities can be made by the use of various alternative financial instruments, such as stocks and bonds
(e) since transaction costs for stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments are not equally apportioned among all minority-group members, the financial market is subject to criticism

Ans: (c)

2. The passage states that traditional studies of the financial market overlook imbalances in the allocation of financial resources because
(a) an optimum allocation of resources is the final result of competition among participants
(b) those performing the studies choose an oversimplified description of the influences on competition
(c) such imbalances do not appear in the statistics usually compiled to measure the market’s behavior
(d) the analysts who study the market are unwilling to accept criticism of their methods as biased
(e) socioeconomic difference form the basis of a rationing mechanism that puts minority groups at a disadvantage

Ans: (b)

3. The author’s main point is argued by
(a) giving examples that support a conventional generalization
(b) showing that the view opposite to the author’s is self-contradictory
(c) criticizing the presuppositions of a proposed plan
(d) showing that omissions in a theoretical description make it inapplicable in certain cases
(e) demonstrating that an alternative hypothesis more closely fits the data

Ans: (d)

4. A difference in which of the following would be an example of inequality in transaction costs as alluded to in lines 20-23?
(a) Maximum amounts of loans extended by a bank to businesses in different areas.
(b) Fees charged to large and small investors for purchasing stocks
(c) Prices of similar goods offered in large and small stores in an area
(d) Stipends paid to different attorneys for preparing legal suits for damages
(e) Exchange rates in dollars for currencies of different countries

Ans: (b)

5. Which of the following can be inferred about minority communities on the basis of the passage?
(a) They provide a significant portion of the funds that become available for investment in the financial market.
(b) They are penalized by the tax system, which increases the inequality of the distribution of income between investors and wage earners.
(c) They do not receive the share of the amount of funds available for investment that would be expected according to traditional financial-market analysis.
(d) They are not granted governmental subsidies to assist in underwriting the cost of economic development.
(e) They provide the same access to alternative sources of credit to finance businesses as do majority communities.

Ans: (c)

6. According to the passage, a questionable assumption of the conventional theory about the operation of financial markets is that
(a) creditworthiness as determined by lenders is a factor determining market access
(b) market structure and market dynamics depend on income distribution
(c) a scarcity of alternative sources of funds would result from taking socio economic factors into consideration
(d) those who engage in financial-market transactions are perfectly well informed about the market
(e) inequalities in income distribution are increased by the functioning of the financial market

Ans: (d)

7. According to the passage, analysts have conventionally tended to view those who participate in financial market as
(a) judging investment preferences in terms of the good of society as a whole
(b) influencing the allocation of funds through prior ownership of certain kinds of assets
(c) varying in market power with respect to one another
(d) basing judgments about future events mainly on chance
(e) having equal opportunities to engage in transactions

Ans: (e)

(The following is based on material written in 1996.)
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, signed in 1987 by more than 150 nations, has attained its short-term goals: it has decreased the rate of increase in amounts of most ozone-depleting chemicals reaching the atmosphere and has even reduced the atmospheric levels of some of them. The projection that the ozone layer will substantially recover from ozone depletion by 2050 is based on the assumption that the protocol’s regulations will be strictly followed. Yet there is considerable evidence of violations, particularly in the form of the release of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), which are commonly used in the refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning industries. These violations reflect industry attitudes; for example, in the United States, 48 percent of respondents in a recent survey of subscribers to Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration News, and industry trade journal, said that they did not believe that CFC’s damage the ozone layer. Moreover, some in the industry apparently do not want to pay for CFC substitutes, which can run five times the cost of CFC’s. Consequently, a black market in imported illicit CFC’s has grown. Estimates of the contraband CFC trade range from 10,000 to 22,000 tons a year, with most of the CFC’s originating in India and China, whose agreements under the Protocol still allow them to produce CFC’s. In fact, the United States Customs Service reports that CFC-12 is a contraband problem second only to illicit drug.

8. According to the passage, which of the following best describes most ozone-depleting chemicals in 1996 as compared to those in 1987?
(a) The levels of such chemicals in the atmosphere had decreased.
(b) The number of such chemicals that reached the atmosphere had declined.
(c) The amounts of such chemicals released had increased but the amounts that reached the atmosphere had decreased.
(d) The rate of increase in amounts of such chemicals reaching the atmosphere had decreased.
(e) The rate at which such chemicals were being reduced in the atmosphere had slowed.

Ans: (d)

9. The author of the passage compares the smuggling of CFC’s to the illicit drug trade most likely for which of the following reasons?
(a) To qualify a previous claim
(b) To emphasize the extent of a problem
(c) To provide an explanation for an earlier assertion
(d) To suggest that the illicit CFC trade, like the illicit drug trade, will continue to increase
(e) To suggest that the consequences of a relatively little-knows problem are as serious as those of a well-known one

Ans: (b)

10. The passage suggests which of the following about the illicit trade in CFC’s?
(a) It would cease if manufacturers in India and China stopped producing CFC’s.
(b) Most people who participate in such trade do not believe that CFC’s deplete the ozone layer.
(c) It will probably surpass illicit drugs as the largest contraband problem faced by the United States Custom Services.
(d) It is fostered by people who do not want to pay the price of CFC substitutes.
(e) It has grown primarily because of the expansion of the refrigeration, heating, and air-conditioning industries in foreign countries

Ans: (d)

In the following questions choose the right pair of words from among the choices to fill the blanks in the sentences.

11. People seem to recall the brand of an advertised product, considering most favorably the most frequently advertised product; therefore, an advertisement that is----in newspaper advertisement would be expected to be very----, but, actually, it is not. 
(a) dominant.. impressive
(b) frequent.. bad
(c) unusual.. effective
(d) new.. rare
(e) widespread.. ineffective

Ans: (a)

12. Just as human beings who depend on each other, there are no ------- foliage’s. 
(a) neglect able
(b) existing
(c) conventional
(d) dependable
(e) solitary

Ans: (e)

 
13. The blueprints for the new automobile were ----at first glance. But the designer had been basically too conservative to ---- previous standards of beauty.
(a) striking.. flout
(b) impractical.. ignore
(c) impeccable.. dispel
(d) influential ..assess
(e) confusing.. incorporate

Ans: (a)

14. Because its average annual rainfall is only about four inches, one of the major tasks faced by the country has been to find ----sources of water.
(a) Discontinuous
(b) natural
(c) supplementary
(d) pervasive
(e) initial

Ans (c)

15. Because the order in which the parts of speech appear in the sentences of a given language is decided merely by custom, it is---- to maintain that every departure from that order constitutes a ----of a natural law.
(a) traditional.. transformation
(b) conventional.. transgression
(c) necessary.. prototype
(d) unjustifiable.. violation
(e) unreasonable.. formulation

Ans: (d)