Parent 1: Ten years ago, children in communities like ours did not dat

Parent 1: Ten years ago, children in communities like ours did not date until they were thirteen to fifteen years old. Now our nine to eleven year olds are dating. Obviously, children in communities like ours are becoming romantically interested in members of the opposite sex at an earlier age today than they did ten years ago.

Parent 2: I disagree. Our nine to eleven year olds do not want to date, but they feel intense peer pressure to act grown up by dating.

Parent 2, in responding to Parent 1, does which one of the following?


(A) draws a conclusion about a new phenomenon by comparing it to a phenomenon that is known and understood

(B) refutes a generalization about nine- to eleven-year-old children by means of an exceptional case overlooked by Parent 1

(C) assumes that nine- to eleven-year-old children are as interested in dating as thirteen- to fifteen-year-old children

(D) provides an alternative explanation for the changes in children’s dating described by Parent 1

(E) criticizes Parent 1 as a proponent of a claim rather than criticizing the claim itself