A group of college students in a sociology course theorized

Official Explanation

Conclusion: An occurrence at factory X is an exception to [the] theory [that] unrest in the workplace is a result of outside agitators, news stories, and other societal factors.

Premise: The workers there recently went on strike only to protest the poor quality of the seats they use while working at the conveyor belt, rather than because of any external factor.

Assumption:

(1) It's not a coincidence. It’s not a coincidence that the workers are striking and stating that the reason for the strike is the poor quality of the seats they use. Any correlation which may exist between the strike and outside agitators, news stories, [or] other societal factors is only a coincidence.

(2) There's no other cause. Nothing other than the poor quality of the seats they use caused the workers to strike.

This is a weaken question, as indicated by the phrase casts the most doubt. The passage contains a causality pattern. This is evidenced by the statement that workers there...went on strike only to protest the poor quality of the seats they use while working at the conveyor belt, indicating that the quality of the seats caused the workers to strike. The argument presents a theory about another cause, which is that outside agitators, news stories, [or] other societal factors cause unrest in the workplace. The argument then concludes that this theory has an exception, because a particular strike is a counterexample caused only by the poor quality of the seats [the workers] use.

The standard assumption of a causality pattern is that it’s not a coincidence and that there’s no other cause. Because this is a weaken question, the correct answer will provide a reason that the counterexample of the quality of the seats is not a counterexample because one of the factors in the theory may be the cause of the worker’s strike. Additionally, since the argument concludes about an exception to [the] theory, the correct answer must show that some combination of one or more outside agitators, news stories, [or] other societal factors presents some other possible cause for the strike. Evaluate the answer choices.

Choice A: Correct. The passage's claim that the workers at factory X are an exception to the college students' theory is undermined by the statement that The workers at factory X chose to strike in response to a report...that was televised on a national news program. Such a report is an example of a news story, and agrees with the students' theory.

Choice B: No. It would be extreme language to say that the lack of a possible societal cause weakens the argument, since outside agitators and news stories may still have caused the strike.

Choice C: No. Many factories other than factory X is out of scope. Whether workers strike at other factories under similar conditions may seem tempting, but does not provide any information about the cause of this particular strike.

Choice D: No. Worker dissatisfaction is out of scope. If this particular strike is one of some cases, the source of the worker dissatisfaction is unspecified, and it could be due to the quality of the seats.

Choice E: No. It would be extreme language to conclude that no single problem with…the seating weakens the argument. While this choice may be tempting, as it may seem to indicate some other cause of the strike, a combination of multiple factors regarding the quality of the seats may still be the cause of the strike.

The correct answer is choice A.