rohitgoel15 wrote:
Between 1971 and 1975, the government office that monitors drug companies issued an average of 60 citations a year for serious violations of drug-promotion laws. Between 1976 and 1980, the annual average for issuance of such citations was only 5. This decrease indicates that the government office was, on average, considerably more lax in enforcing drug-promotion laws between 1976 and 1980 than it was between 1971 and 1975.
The argument assumes which one of the following?
(A) The decrease in the number of citations was not caused by a decrease in drug companies violations of drug-promotion laws.
(B) A change in enforcement of drug-promotion laws did not apply to minor violations.
(C) The enforcement of drug-promotion laws changed in response to political pressure.
(D) The government office should not issue more than an average of 5 citations a year to drug companies for serious violations of drug-promotion laws.
(E) Before 1971 the government office issued more than 60 citations a year to drug companies for serious violations of drug-promotion laws.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
(A) Yes. The argument presupposes that the drug companies have not changed their behavior. That is, they committed the same number of violations from ‘71 through ‘75 as they did from ‘76 through ‘80; but were caught less often from ‘76 through ‘80 because of lax enforcement.
(B) No. The argument only discusses “serious violations of drug-promotion laws.” Besides, this choice uses the argument’s conclusion (that enforcement of drug-promotion laws changed) as its assumption!
(C) No. This answer-choice is an explanation not an assumption of the argument that the government was lax in enforcing drug-promotion laws. In fact, this choice goes beyond the argument and uses the argument’s conclusion as its assumption!
(D) No. In fact, the argument presumes the opposite. The author concludes that the government was lax in enforcing drug-promotion laws between 1976 and 1980 because only 5 citations on average were issued each year. To conclude this, the author must assume that more than 5 violations of the laws occurred on average each year.
(E) No. What happened before or after the given time period is irrelevant.