General Knowledge and Logical Reasoning

1 In some countries, prisoners may purchase books with the money they earn by working. Hence
receiving gifts of books may discourage prisoners from undertaking paid work while in prison.
This work is important in building self-esteem and encouraging a work ethic among prisoners. In
any case, prisoners have access to books through the prison library. Therefore prisoners
should not be allowed to receive parcels containing books from friends or relatives while they
are serving their sentence.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the above argument?

A Many parcels of books sent by relatives or friends have been found to contain illegal
drugs.

B Prisoners often read detective stories which may encourage them to glamorise crime.

C The range of books available in prison libraries is limited.

D Many prisoners have difficulty finding work when they are released because of their low
level of literacy.

E Prisoners have to purchase a range of items from their wages, including a television
licence.

2 Thousands of books and blogs – and quite a bit of legitimate science – sing the praises of
positivity. Optimistic, happy people tend to be healthier, more physically active and more
successful. They may even live longer. But as shown by research, positivity, when deployed at
the wrong time or in the wrong amount, can have negative effects. For example, when it comes
to waiting for the results of an exam or a job interview, ‘being prepared for the worst’ is shown to
be a better strategy for protecting ourselves than categorical optimism. When it comes to
health, negative thinking spurs people into seeking information and engaging in healthy
behaviour. Finally, relentlessly positive people may seem dismissive or insensitive to friends
who are having difficulties, seeming to make light of their problems.

Which one of the following best expresses the main conclusion of the above argument?

A Positive thinking is not always helpful.

B Negative thinking about health can be beneficial.

C People who think positively live longer.

D Being overly positive can damage our relationships with friends.

E Research into positivity has so far ignored its potential downsides.

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 3 A piece of paper is laid on a table in landscape orientation (i.e. the longer side running left to right
and the shorter side running top to bottom).

This piece of paper is then folded in half four times, alternately by moving the left hand side
across over the right hand side and folding, and by moving the top half down over the bottom
half and then folding. After each fold a dot is made with a pen in the centre of the face showing
on the table.

After the four folds and four dots, the paper is unfolded in the reverse sequence and is then
turned over so that the four dots are showing.

What is the pattern of the dots on the paper? (Dotted lines represent the fold marks)

A B

C D

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 4 As part of a maths project, a class of 30 children conduct a survey amongst themselves of how
many brothers and sisters they have. They each write their name in the appropriate space on
the chart below. No one in the class has a brother or sister who is also in the class.

How many of the 30 families involved in the survey have a total of 3 or more children?

A 6

B 7

C 11

D 10

E 8

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 5 36% of the contents of a tin of sweets have been eaten. Today, 25% of the remaining sweets will
be eaten. The same number of sweets will be eaten on each of the following 2 days.

What % of its original contents will it then contain?

A 24

B 25

C 16

D 9

E 15

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 6 LoCost sells three different types of washing powder: Zoom, Zap and Ownbrand. Zoom is a
double concentrate brand needing only half the amount of powder used by the other two brands.

Which one of the boxes of powder below represents best value for money?

A B

C D

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 7 In 1938 the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian left Paris to escape the threat of German invasion and
went to live in London, where he painted what are now regarded as his best works. Mondrian
had the option of moving to a more rural area in England, but chose London because of his love
of the diverse and vibrant culture of big cities. This explains why London has more artists living
in it than any other city in England.

Which one of the following is an underlying assumption of the above passage?

A London is a big city because all the artists who live there boost its size and population.

B There is less inspiration for artists in rural areas.

C Artists can only create great works if they are happy and relaxed.

D Other big cities in England have the same attractive features as London.

E Other artists make the same choice as Mondrian for the same reasons.

8 People who take their holidays in Las Vegas love to gamble. Gerry will be going to France for his
holiday so he must not like gambling.

Which one of the following most closely parallels the reasoning used in the above argument?

A People who eat a lot of sweets have rotten teeth. You eat a lot of sweets, so your teeth
must be rotten.

B People who live in the city hate traffic jams. You live in the country so you must like traffic
jams.

C You have to find the password to complete the game. You haven’t finished the game yet
so you can’t have found the password.

D You always walk when you are visiting your sister. You are not visiting your sister so that’s
why you are taking the car.

E In England cars are driven on the left side of the road. We are driving on the left, so we
must be in England.

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 9 Jeff is looking to buy a new car. He will only be using it for commuting to his workplace for 1 year
and will have a total annual mileage of 20 000. He wants to buy the car which would make his
total spend over the year, including the initial cost of the car, the lowest.

Using the table above, which type of car should he buy?

A diesel

B hydrogen

C petrol

D autogas

E electric

10 Although the idea of a driverless vehicle seems like the stuff of science fiction, we are moving
very close to the reality of self-driving cars. But we are so engrossed in the technology that we
are ignoring the legal implications – and legislating for new scenarios takes time. A whole new
set of questions is raised by the development of these machines. One example is the question
of who takes responsibility when an accident happens. Given that the vast majority of crashes
are caused in part at least by human error, self-driving cars should have the capacity to save
lives. But they will not be perfect. So if an accident happens, who is responsible? The owner of
the car, or the manufacturer of the car? The car itself cannot be prosecuted or made to pay
damages.

Which one of the following can be drawn as a conclusion from the above passage?

A The design of driverless cars will continue to improve with time.

B All the technology needed to create a self-driving car is already available.

C New laws are needed to determine liability for accidents involving driverless cars.

D It will be impossible to determine liability for accidents involving driverless cars.

E We should not continue to develop self-driving cars.

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