Question 1

Often, crimes are characterized as either malum in se-inherently evil-or malum prohibitum- criminal because they are declared as offenses by a legislature. Murder is an example of the former. Failing to file a tax return illustrates the latter. Some jurisdictions no longer distinguish between crimes malum in se and malum prohibitum, although many still do

Accepted Answer

This question is concerned with classification of crimes into sets-that is, with the classification of crimes as either malum in se or malum prohibitum. The last phrase in the last sentence tells us that many jurisdictions make the distinction between these two categories of crimes. Response B follows from that sentence, because if many jurisdictions make the distinction, some jurisdictions make the distinction. From the fact that many jurisdictions make the distinction, it cannot be inferred that many do not make the distinction. Therefore, Response A is incorrect.
Responses C, D, and E are based on erroneous definitions of the two classes of crimes. The paragraph tells us that all crimes characterized as malum in se are inherently evil. Response C is false because it cannot be the case that SOME crimes characterized as malum in se are NOT inherently evil. The paragraph also tells us that all crimes characterized as malum prohibitum are declared as offenses by a legislature. Response D is false because it cannot be the case that SOME crimes characterized as malum prohibitum are NOT declared by a legislature to be an offense. In the paragraph, we are told that filing a tax return late is malum prohibitum, rather than malum in se. Response E is incorrect because it cannot be the case that failing to file a tax return is malum in se.

Question 2

A trucking company can act as a common carrier-for hire to the general public at published rates. As a common carrier, it is liable for any cargo damage, unless the company can show that it was not negligent. If the company can demonstrate that it was not negligent, then it is not liable for cargo damage. In contrast, a contract carrier (a trucking company hired by a shipper under a specific contract) is only responsible for cargo damage as spelled out in the contract. A Claus Inc. tractortrailer, acting under common carrier authority, was in a 5-vehicle accident that damaged its cargo. A Nichols Inc. tractor-trailer, acting under contract carrier authority, was involved in the same accident, and its cargo was also damaged.

Accepted Answer

The second sentence states the liability rule for common carriers: all common carriers are liable for cargo damage unless they can show that they are not negligent; if they can show that they are not negligent, then they are not liable for cargo damage. Claus Inc. is a common carrier, and accordingly this rule applies to it. From this rule it follows that if Claus Inc. can show it was not negligent, then it is not liable, Response C. Response A contradicts this rule by claiming that when Claus Inc. is liable it can show that it was not negligent. Response B contradicts this rule by claiming that Claus Inc. is not liable even when it cannot show that it is not negligent. Responses D and E concern Nichols Inc., a contract carrier. However, the terms of the Nichols Inc. contract were not disclosed in the paragraph, so neither response is supported.

Question 3

A rapidly changing technical environment in government is promoting greater reliance on electronic mail (e-mail) systems. As this usage grows, there are increasing chances of conflict between the users? expectations of privacy and public access rights. In some investigations, access to all e-mail, including those messages stored in archival files and messages outside the scope of the investigation, has been sought and granted. In spite of this, some people send messages through e-mail that would never be said face-to-face or written formally.

Accepted Answer

This is an example of a test question with a negative lead-in statement. It asks for the conclusion that is NOT supported by the paragraph. That means that four of the statements are valid conclusions from the paragraph while one is not. Response B (some messages that people would never say face-to-face are sent in e-mail messages) is a valid conclusion because it restates a fact given in the last sentence of the paragraph. Response E (some e-mail messages contain information that would be omitted from formal writing) is valid because it restates the other fact in the last sentence of the paragraph.
The next-to-last sentence in the paragraph is the source of both response C (some e-mail messages have been requested as part of investigations) and response D (e-mail messages have not been exempted from investigations). Both of these choices restate information in that sentence, based on the fact that access to e-mail messages was sought and granted. This leaves only the first option, response A (Some e-mail messages that have been requested as part of investigations have contained messages that would never be said faceto-face). This is the only choice that does NOT represent a valid conclusion, because even though we know from the paragraph that there is a group of e-mail messages that are requested in investigations and also that there is a group of messages that contain information that people would not say face-to-face, there is nothing that says that these groups overlap. We simply do not know.

Question 4

Phyllis T. is a former Federal employee who was entitled to benefits under the Federal Employee Compensation Act because of a job-related, disabling injury. When an eligible Federal employee has such an injury, the benefit is determined by this test: If the beneficiary is married or has dependents, benefits are 3/4 of the person?s salary at the time of the injury; otherwise, benefits are set at 2/3 of the salary. Phyllis T.?s benefits were 2/3 of her salary when she was injured.

Accepted Answer

This question concerns an either/or situation. The paragraph states that benefits under the Federal Employees Compensation Act are awarded at one level (3/4 of salary) if a beneficiary is married or has dependents when injured and at another level (2/3 of salary) if this is not true.
Phyllis T. is eligible for benefits under the Act. The paragraph states that Phyllis T.?s benefit level was 2/3 of her salary. Given this benefit level, it is clear that Phyllis T. did not meet either of the conditions for the 3/4 level. Therefore, responses A, C, and D cannot be correct (A states that she was married, C states that she had dependents, and D states that she both was married and had dependents). Response E goes beyond the facts given because prior marriages are not listed as a factor relating to this benefit. The one correct conclusion is that Phyllis T. did not meet either requirement to qualify for the higher benefit level (3/4 of salary), so response B is the correct answer to the question.

Question 5

Some 480,000 immigrants were living in a certain country in 1999. Although most of these immigrants were not employed in professional occupations, many of them were. For instance, many of them were engineers and many of them were nurses. Very few of these immigrants were librarians, another professional occupation.

Accepted Answer

Response E is correct because it restates the third sentence in terms of the overlap between immigrants and engineers in the country described in the paragraph. Response A says that most immigrants are engineers or nurses, which are professional occupations. However, the second sentence says that most immigrants are not employed in professional occupations, so Response A is false. Response B is false because it denies that there is any overlap between immigrants and nurses, even though this overlap is clear from the third sentence of the paragraph. Response C is false because it denies the overlap between immigrants and engineers. Because the paragraph does not give complete information about the non-professionals (immigrant and nonimmigrant) in the country described in the paragraph, Response D is invalid.

Question 6

Despite the fact that HIV is not easily transmitted, its deadly potential requires that law enforcement officers protect themselves from becoming infected by it. At the Callen Precinct, officers use only disposable items for collecting evidence whenever blood is present. While investigating a particular crime scene where blood was present, Detective R.C. of the Callen Precinct used only disposable items for collecting evidence.

Accepted Answer

The second sentence of the paragraph states that whenever blood is present, all officers at the Callen precinct use only disposable items for collecting evidence. This is equivalent in meaning to answer D, that no officers use non-disposable items when collecting evidence in the presence of blood. Response E contradicts the second sentence in the paragraph by stating that some officers do not use disposable items exclusively when blood is present. Responses A, B, and C refer to the evidence gathering procedures of Detective R.C., who is identified in the third sentence of the paragraph as working for the Callen Precinct. Response A contradicts the sense of the second sentence by stating that Detective R.C. does not always use disposable items when blood is present. Responses B and C refer to R.C.?s evidence gathering when blood is not present. However, the paragraph does not give us information about evidence gathering in that case.

Question 7

Impressions made by the ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs are useful means of identification, since no two persons have the same pattern of ridges. If finger patterns from fingerprints are not decipherable, then they cannot be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern type. If they cannot be classified by these characteristics, then it is impossible to identify the person to whom the fingerprints belong.

Accepted Answer

This question asks for the response option that cannot be validly concluded from the information in the paragraph. The only response option that cannot be validly concluded is Response C, so the correct answer to question 7 is Response C. Response C is invalid because the paragraph does not provide enough information to conclude whether or not it would be possible to identify the person to whom the fingerprints belong from the mere fact that the fingerprints are decipherable.
Response A refers to a condition where it is possible to identify the person to whom fingerprints belong. Based on the final sentence in the paragraph, this condition of fingerprints means that the fingerprints could be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern type. Based on the second sentence, the ability to classify the fingerprints means that the fingerprints are decipherable.
Since Response B refers to a condition in which finger patterns from fingerprints are not decipherable, we know from the second sentence that, in that circumstance, they cannot be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern type. From the final sentence in the paragraph, we can infer that since they cannot be classified by these characteristics, then it is impossible to identify the person to whom the fingerprints belong.
According to the second sentence, fingerprints cannot be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern type when they are not decipherable. Therefore, if fingerprints can be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern type, then the fingerprints must be decipherable, Response D. According to the third sentence, it is impossible to identify the owner of a set of fingerprints when the fingerprints cannot be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern type. Therefore, if it is possible to identify the person to whom fingerprints belong, then the fingerprints must be able to be classified by general shape and contour or pattern type, Response E. Notice that Responses D and E are valid based on the same type of reasoning. The first and second statements of the second sentence were made opposite and reversed in Response D, and the first and second statements of the final sentence were made opposite and reversed in Response E.

Question 8

Explosives are substances or devices capable of producing a volume of rapidly expanding gases that exert a sudden pressure on their surroundings. Chemical explosives are the most commonly used, although there are mechanical and nuclear explosives. All mechanical explosives are devices in which a physical reaction is produced, such as that caused by overloading a container with compressed air. While nuclear explosives are by far the most powerful, all nuclear explosives have been restricted to military weapons.

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is E. The third sentence states the overlap between all mechanical explosives and devices in which a physical reaction is produced, such as that caused by overloading a container with compressed air. From this, we can safely conclude that some devices in which a physical reaction is produced, such as that caused by overloading a container with compressed air, are mechanical explosives.
Response A is incorrect because the paragraph does not provide sufficient information to validly conclude that all explosives which have been restricted to military weapons are nuclear weapons. It may be that some types of explosives other than nuclear weapons also have been restricted to military weapons.
Responses B and C are incorrect because they contradict the paragraph. Response B contradicts the third sentence, and Response C contradicts the last sentence.
Response D is incorrect because the paragraph provides no information about whether or not mechanical explosives are restricted to military weapons.

Question 9

The alphanumeric coding of a fingerprint is a systematic description of the main patterns on the print. Within a certain metropolitan district, 90% of the population have fingerprints that can be alphanumerically coded.

Accepted Answer

We know from the second sentence that 90% of the people in this district have fingerprints that can be coded. Therefore, we know that 10% (100%-90%=10%) have fingerprints that cannot be coded. Given this information, the chance of selecting a person from this district with fingerprints that can be coded is 90% and the chance of selecting a person from this district with fingerprints that cannot be coded is 10%. Response A is incorrect because a probability of 10% is an underestimate of the probability that the fingerprints of a person from this district can be coded. Response B is incorrect because, like response A, it is an underestimate. Response D is incorrect because it is an overestimate of the probability that the fingerprints of a person from this district cannot be coded. Response E is incorrect because the probability that the fingerprints can be coded is known to be 90%.

Question 10

Twenty-five percent of the nation?s incoming cargo containers are shipped to the port of Cary, and 10% are shipped to the port of Davidson. Merchandise that arrives at these ports in containers is shipped by truck and rail to its final destination in the United States. Cary is one of the biggest targets for cargo thieves due to the large volume of merchandise shipped there.

Accepted Answer

According to the first sentence, 25% percent of the nation?s incoming cargo containers are shipped to the port of Cary. This means that 75% of the nation?s incoming cargo containers are not shipped to the port of Cary. Therefore, there is a 75% chance that a container taken at random was not shipped to the port of Cary. Responses B and C are incorrect because there is a 10% chance that the container was shipped to the port of Davidson. Response D is incorrect because there is a 90% chance that the container was not shipped to the port of Davidson. Response E is incorrect because there is a 25% chance that the container was shipped to the port of Cary.

Question 11

Staff at a law enforcement training academy purchases badges at $32 each for all the graduates of the academy. The last training class graduated 25 new officers. What is the total amount of money the academy staff will spend for the badges for these new officers, if the badge vendor provided the Academy a 20% discount on each badge?

Accepted Answer

$32 x 25 = 800; 800 x .20 = 160; $800 - 160 = $640. The second way to calculate the problem is, $800 x .80 = $640.

Question 12

The gross weight of merchandise in a container examined by an officer was 108 pounds. According to policy, the officer was required to convert this weight into kilograms. If the formula for conversion is 1.8 pounds for each kilogram, what was the gross weight of the container load in kilograms (rounded to the nearest tenth)?

Accepted Answer

108 ÷ 1.8 = 60.0 kg

Question 13

An Agriculture Specialist and her dog found a total of 1,500 packages wrapped in plain brown paper hidden in a large mail container. Upon inspection, the officer found that some of the packages had legal CBP stickers on them and some had illegal stickers from another country. The ratio of packages with legal stickers to packages with illegal stickers was 2:3. How many packages contained illegal stickers?

Accepted Answer

Legal stickers = 2/5; illegal stickers = 3/5; 3/5 x 1,500 = 900.

Question 14

While working the evening shift, Officer Kay took 8 hours to complete a task at her work station and Officer Ming took 10 hours to complete the same task at his work station. How many hours would it take Officer Kay and Officer Ming to complete the same task working together, each working at their own work station?

Accepted Answer

Let Officer Kay's hours be represented by 1/8 and Officer Ming's hours be represented by 1/10. This reframes the data, indicating that Officer Kay completes 1/8 of the job per hour and Officer Ming completes 1/10 of the job per hour. Together, they work 1/8 + 1/10 = 18/80 of the job per hour, which, when reduced to its lowest terms, is 9/40.
Therefore, if T is the amount of time it takes the two of them to finish the job, then 9/40 of the job x T (expressed in hours) has to equal 1 job. So, (9/40) x T = 1, therefore T= 1/(9/40), or T = 40/9. This means it would take 4 and 4/9 hours (about 4 hours and 27 minutes) for Officers Kay and Ming to complete the task together.

Question 15

There are three dogs in a canine team in charge of inspecting cargo at an international airport for prohibited fruits, vegetables, and meats. Last week, one of these dogs identified 20 cartons of prohibited fruit among 120 total cartons on a flight arriving from overseas. Assuming that the dog selected the first carton to be inspected totally at random, what was the probability that this carton contained a shipment of prohibited fruit?

Accepted Answer

Twenty cartons out of 120 total cartons contained prohibited fruit. Therefore, if you randomly selected one carton from the 120 cartons, the probability of selecting one of the prohibited cartons of fruit is 20 out of 120 or 20/120 = 1/6.

Question 16

One day, Officer Ferong spent 4 hours processing passengers from a flight from Brazil at a rate of 16 passengers every 40 minutes. The next day, she spent 4 hours processing passengers at a rate of 18 every 40 minutes. What was the average number of passengers she processed during these two 4- hour periods?

Accepted Answer

16/40 = .40 (this says Officer Ferong processed passengers at a rate of .40 per minute on the first day); .40 x 60 = 24 passengers per hour; and 24 x 4 = 96 passengers every four hours. For the next day, the calculations are 18/40 = .45 x 60 = 27 x 4 = 108. The average of 108 and 96 is 108 + 96 ? 2 = 102.

Question 17

Once a request to carry firearms into a foreign country are approved, a CBP Officer must notify the Office of Foreign Operations for coordination of the request.

Accepted Answer

A verb must agree with its subject in number. The subject, "request," is singular and, therefore, the verb should be changed from "are" to "is."

Question 18

Supervisor Smith knows that it is important for his CBP Agriculture Specialists to understand each of the fundamental principals that apply to all methods of dog training.

Accepted Answer

The correct use of the word "principles" refers to rules, laws, or standards that are applied to the method of dog training. By contrast, the word "principal" means first or foremost in importance.

Question 19

The geographical area composing much of the border between the United States and Mexico is considered to have a desert climate.

Accepted Answer

No change to the sentence is necessary.

Question 20

When writing a report on a drug smuggling incident, it is important to add all dates, times, names, and quotes associated from the case for future reference.

Accepted Answer

The correct term is "associated with" and not "associated from." Objects are "associated with" one another, which means they are related to each other in some way.

Quiz 1: Customs Officer

The alphanumeric coding of a fingerprint is a systematic description of the main patterns on the print. Within a certain metropolitan district, 90% of the population have fingerprints that can be alphanumerically coded.

Once a request to carry firearms into a foreign country are approved, a CBP Officer must notify the Office of Foreign Operations for coordination of the request.

Supervisor Smith knows that it is important for his CBP Agriculture Specialists to understand each of the fundamental principals that apply to all methods of dog training.

The geographical area composing much of the border between the United States and Mexico is considered to have a desert climate.

When writing a report on a drug smuggling incident, it is important to add all dates, times, names, and quotes associated from the case for future reference.