UCAT Verbal Reasoning 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A passage states: 'All mammals are warm-blooded. Whales are mammals.' Which conclusion is definitely true?
- Whales are warm-blooded (Correct answer)
- Whales live in cold water
- All warm-blooded animals are mammals
- Whales breathe air like land mammals
Correct answer: Whales are warm-blooded
The two premises form a valid syllogism: all mammals are warm-blooded, whales are mammals, therefore whales are warm-blooded. This follows deductively.
Question 2: A passage describes a hospital that increased nursing staff by 20% and saw patient complaints fall by 15%. Which statement is best supported?
- More nursing staff was associated with fewer complaints (Correct answer)
- More nursing staff caused fewer complaints
- Complaints will continue to fall
- Patients preferred the new nurses
Correct answer: More nursing staff was associated with fewer complaints
The passage shows association between two changes, not causation. 'Associated with' is the accurate, evidence-based interpretation without overreaching.
Question 3: 'Some students who passed the exam had not studied. All students who studied passed.' A student did not study. What can we infer?
- The student may or may not have passed (Correct answer)
- The student definitely failed
- The student definitely passed
- The student studied in secret
Correct answer: The student may or may not have passed
Knowing all who studied passed tells us nothing definitive about those who did not study — some of them also passed. The outcome is uncertain.
Question 4: A passage argues that urban green spaces reduce stress. It cites one study of 50 people. Which is the strongest criticism?
- The sample size is too small to generalise (Correct answer)
- Green spaces are expensive to maintain
- Stress is hard to define
- Urban areas have other stressors
Correct answer: The sample size is too small to generalise
A sample of 50 is small; drawing broad generalisations from it is methodologically weak. This directly undermines the passage's conclusion.
Question 5: Passage: 'Organic food sales rose 30% last year. Supermarkets expanded organic ranges.' Which assumption underlies the conclusion that supermarkets caused the sales rise?
- Consumers bought organic food because it was more available (Correct answer)
- Organic food is healthier than non-organic
- Supermarkets set prices too high
- Sales rose in non-supermarket stores too
Correct answer: Consumers bought organic food because it was more available
The argument assumes that increased availability in supermarkets drove the rise. Without this assumption, the causal link between supermarket range expansion and sales rise does not hold.
Question 6: A text says: 'No evidence of harm does not mean something is safe.' This statement most closely means:
- Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence (Correct answer)
- Everything is potentially dangerous
- Scientists have failed to look hard enough
- We should ban untested substances
Correct answer: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
The phrase is a classic epistemological statement: just because we have not found evidence of harm does not logically prove safety. This is 'absence of evidence ≠evidence of absence'.
UCAT Verbal Reasoning 1
A passage states: 'All mammals are warm-blooded.
Whales are mammals.' Which conclusion is definitely true?