Assessment Test 45

An employee earns £7.29 per hour for their contracted hours. The employee is also paid 1.5 times standard pay when working overtime. Similarly, employees are offered a £30 cash bonus every time they meet or exceed their weekly sales targets. If in one week, an employee works 37.5 contracted hours, 9 hours of overtime and meets their weekly target, how much can the employee expect to be paid?

A travel agent sells Euros (€) at an exchange rate of 1.12 Euros (€) to the British Pound Sterling (£). However, the official exchange rate is 1.17 Euros to the British pound (£), making a profit on the difference. If a customer exchanges £1,300 for Euros at the travel agent, how much profit does the travel agent gain from this transaction?

A coins-to-cash machine converts unwanted small change into banknotes for a fee. On the first £5, a 10% fee is charged, on the next £5, a 7.5% fee is charged and on all change afterwards, a 5% fee is charged. If a customer cashes in £30 worth of change, how much money will the coins-to-cash gain from this transaction?

A company pays an annual dividend of 3.56% of the value of the shares held. If the dividends are re-invested after each dividend payment, how much dividend income would have been received on an initial investment £3,500 over three annual dividend payments?

The common cold is a viral infection in which 70% of all cases are mainly due to Rhinovirus, 15% are mainly due to Coronavirus, 10% mainly due to influenza and 5% mainly due to other viruses. Often, more than one virus is present. If 90% of the world population (7,000,000,000) suffers from the common cold at least once a year, how many individuals are infected with the Rhinovirus?

Southwark Borough is in Inner London. What percentage of births in Southwark Borough represent those of the Inner London births for 2014?

Written as a percentage of the dog population, how many more  cats were there in Italy than dogs?

Tokyo and Osaka are Japanese cities. In 2017, what was  Japan’s GDP excluding Tokyo and Osaka?

If everyone aged 25-54 formed part of the urban population of  China, how many people from the other age brackets would  also live with them (millions)?

Given an average sale of £10, what was the total market share  of 2015 (rounded to the nearest whole £)?

Which set does the Figure belong to?

What comes next in the sequence?

Which set does the Figure belong to?

What comes next in the sequence?

Which set does the Figure belong to?

What comes next in the sequence? 

Which set does the Figure belong to? 

What comes next in the sequence? 

Which set does the Figure belong to?

What comes next in the sequence? 

“The Pareto principle, also known as the 80-20 rule states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. For example in a business setting, it is suggested that 80% of a company’s sales will likely come from 20% of their client base. This phenomenon was first identified when it was found that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population. Similar results have been found in the USA, France and the UK. The theory was further supported by its founder when he discovered that 20% of the peapods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.” 

What country did the identifier of the Pareto principle first identified this phenomenon?

“The democracy index, devised by the Economist intelligence unit measures the state of democracy in 167 countries around the world, 166 of which are sovereign states and 165 are members of the United Nations. In this index there are 4 different groupings which denote a countries level of democracy, at the top is a full democracy, of which many North American and western European countries belong. Next is a flawed democracy, of which many South American and Latin American countries belong. Next are hybrid regimes, of which many Asian and eastern European countries belong. Last, and therefore the least democratic counties are authoritarian regimes, which many north African and middle eastern countries belong.” 

According to the passage, which countries tend to contain hybrid regimes?

“The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest species of penguin, and is native to Antarctica. Both males and females of the species are of similar height (122cm) and weight (22-45kg). Its diet primarily of fish but also includes crustaceans such as krill and cephalopods such as squid. When hunting, the species can remained submerged for up to 18 minutes, diving to a depth of 535m (1755ft). To allow it to function at low oxygen levels, it has evolved solid bones to reduce barotrauma and the ability to reduce its metabolism.” 

According to the passage, how deep can the emperor penguin submerge when hunting?

“Crowdsourcing is a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people. This process can occur both online and offline. Crowdsourcing differs from ordinary outsourcing by outsourcing to an undefined public, rather than a specific company or formal employment. Participants are either paid financially, with prizes or in recognition. Because of the use of amateurs or volunteers, crowdsourcing is an inexpensive and large numbers of people can be gathered. However, the tasks which crowdsourcing can be use has to be an enjoyable/important activity to rally volunteers, as mundane and tedious activities may not draw in crowds.” 

Based on the passage, how aren’t crowdsourced people definitely paid?

“Qatar is a sovereign Arab nation, located in western Asia occupying the small Qatar peninsular. Qatar’s only land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. Qatar has been rules as an absolute monarchy since the mid-19th century, and was formerly a British protectorate noted mainly for pearling. Since its independence from the British in 1971 Qatar has become one of the regions richest states, due to vast oil and gas reserves. Qatar is ranked first in the world for highest gross domestic product per capita, has the second highest human development index in the Middle East and fifth largest export market in the Middle East.” 

According to the passage, what human development index ranking does Qatar have in the middle east?

“Is the social media another dotcom bubble? In After the recent fall in value of Facebook post its initial public offering brings back memories, is the interest in social media simple a repeat of the dotcom bubble of 2000-2002? The parallels are striking, both cases investors aggressively purchased stock, euphorically expecting a high return, however in the subsequent months following the IPO it was clear that a sizeable loss was found instead. Facebook’s shares had fallen forty percent since they started trading in May and seem to be continuing onward down. Group-on has also seen its shares plummet, losing two thirds of its initial value. Similarly shares for Zynga have dropped seventy percent since trading. Only time will tell is this period shall go down in history as the second dotcom bubble.” 

According to the passage, by what amount has Facebook shares dropped since its initial public offering?

“The decline in China’s housing and construction market has had a profound knock-on effect on China’s steel industry. Due to decreased demand for steel from construction, as huge construction projects around China are reduced to ghost towns by decreased investment, Chinese state-owned steel companies have seen their profits drop by almost 96%. The drop in steel prices may be an indicator of things to come; lower steel prices suggest lower predicted economic growth, and may spell disaster for China’s hopes of continued rapid growth.” 

Based on the passage, what is not an effect of China’s construction market decline?

“Consumer cooperatives are enterprises owned by consumers and managed democratically, with the goal of fulfilling the needs of its members. These cooperatives differ from privately or publicly owned companies as they do not have shareholders in the traditional sense, instead every member of the cooperative has one vote, and they can utilise this vote for electing a board of directors and/or management. Cooperatives also pursue social goals, such as economic democracy, transparency, financial benefits for the consumer.” 

Based on the passage, what statement is not a suggested goal of a consumer cooperative?

“Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on an atomic or molecular scale. Generally speaking, nanotechnology work with materials, devices and other structure with at least one dimension sized from one to one hundred nanometres. Through the national nanotechnology initiative, the USA has invested 3.7 billion dollars, the European Union 1.2 billion dollars and japan 750 million dollars. Scientists debate the future implication of nanotechnology, suggesting that the technology could have profound effects on the global economy and even cause doomsday scenarios.” 

Based on the passage, how much has japan invested into the national nanotechnology initiative?

“The Aral Sea, located between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was once the fourth largest lake in the world. Two port cities were located on it and 22 different varieties of fish could be found in the Aral. However, when the Soviet Union decided to boost cotton farming by constructing dams on the two large rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea, soil erosion and evaporation took its effect. By the 1970s twenty percent of the sea had diminished, by 1980 thirty percent had diminished, forty percent by 1990 and today ninety percent of the Aral Sea has disappeared. However, the Kazakh government pledges to reverse this effect, and return the sea to its former glory.”

According to the passage, by which year had thirty percent of the Aral sea disappeared?