#16 - In a town containing a tourist attraction, hotel and restaurant revenues each

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Weaken, Except. The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[izzy_tingles]

Hello, I chose Answer C. I was thinking that if hotel and meal prices rose, that must mean there was an increase in demand, thereby lending support that there were MORE visitors, despite a lack of corresponding increase in sale of passes. Is this extrapolating too much?

Is Answer D correct because it doesn't do anything to the hypothesis, as in it doesn't strengthen it either? Thank you!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi izzy_tingles!

This question involves a cause and effect relationship, it more specifically involves weakening that causal relationship, and finally it is an except question. That means four answer choices will weaken the causal claim while one--the correct answer--will not do so.

Answer choice (C) provides an alternative cause. Those in charge of the attraction thought that revenues at hotels and restaurants increased more rapidly than sales of passes to the attraction because "visitors were illicitly selling or sharing the passes." Instead of this, answer choice (C), if true, gives a different cause--hotel and restaurant prices have risen over the past year while the cost of passes remained unchanged. By providing this alternative cause, the answer choice thus weakens the causal claim made by those in charge of the attraction.

Regarding answer choice (D), I think your intuition is correct--it doesn't do anything to the causal claim. Since it doesn't weaken that claim, that confirms that it's the correct answer choice.