Although homelessness is believed to be caused by high unemployment, recent efforts to lower the unemployment rate do not seem to have affected the number of persons who are homeless. Clearly, some other cause for homelessness besides high unemployment must exist.

Which of the following if true would most weaken the conclusion above?

(A) Once a person becomes homeless, it may take that person as long as three years of steady full-time employment to recover from previous unemployment.
(B) Many people become unemployed without ever losing their primary residence.
(C) Many unemployed people report that they became unemployed by choice, having left jobs that paid too little and offended their dignity.
(D) Very few people who become homeless as a result of unemployment ever fully achieve a sense of financial comfort that allows them to save enough to become homeowners.
(E) Homelessness is the most severe result of widespread joblessness that our society has ever encountered.

the conclusion is that some other cause for homelessness besides high unemployment must exist.

we need to prove that unemployment is the only reason, there can be no other cause.

only D does that. so my choice is D.
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hey ya......

Conclusion: Homelessness due to another reason besides unemployment.
Support: Recent effort to lower unemployment rate did not change the # of people homeless


We need to weaken the conlusion:

D does this the best.
C strengthens
E scope

This was a hard one to get my head around. OE would be appreciated.

I choose D though I was really torn between A and D!
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Cheers, Rahul.

A)...will explain in detail if correct...

"recent efforts to lower the unemployment rate do not seem to have affected the number of persons". thats right b/c it takes at least 3 years until an effect results...so it can be the only reason !
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If your mind can conceive it and your heart can believe it, have faith that you can achieve it.

I was on the verge of selecting A with this very same reasoning. D was a little strong for me. But ended up selecting D. What the OA?

OA is A.

OE:

You are alerted to a weaken questions because of the lost weaken the conclusion・phrase. The task in a weaken question is to find the assumptions in order to attack/undermine one of them.

Step 2: Read the Argument and Extract Necessary Information:
The statement that homelessness is caused by high unemployment indicates that this is a Causal argument, which typically assume the cause(s) the author presents is (are) the only possible or relevant cause(s). The specific assumptions here are:
Efforts to lower unemployment affect the homelessness rate.

Step 3: Formulate an Answer to the Question
Lowering unemployment doesn`t affect the homelessness rate despite high unemployment causing it.

Step 4: Eliminate Answer Choices:
(A) Keep, this choice talks about unemployment and homelessness.
(B) Strengthens. This choice talks about how unemployment and homelessness aren`t related, which agrees with the conclusion.
(C) Irrelevant, this choice doesn`t talk about homelessness, eliminate.
(D) Irrelevant. This choice assumes that owning a home and not being homeless are the same.
(E) Irrelevant. This choice doesn`t say anything about unemployment a key part of the passage.
Step 5: Compare the Remaining Choices
Only A is left. A does weaken the conclusion and its the one of the only choices that talks about the key issues in the passage, unemployment and homelessness.