Economist: One year ago, 64% of consumers said that their spending and

I am not convinced with the OA provided. It is very much possible that the stimulus provided by the government has led to the change in opinion of the people.Hence C cannot be the answer.
Experts pls reply.

IMO C.
Each of the other situations are weakening the author's point. Only C talks about the stimulus. So, its sort of that people do not really know about recession and the choices pertaining to recession.

There are lesser number of people as compared to last year who agreed on the recession questionnaire, although they had said their choices had been "altered forever".

It's a difficult question. Looking at the conclusion: people don't understand the meaning of 'forever'. Now in C, govt gave stimulus to people for one year and that made them change in percent.
Also , as pointed earlier, it is good approach to think of Not questions to be of the opposite type or neutral or out of scope answer. here answer c actually strengthens the conclusions which is = Not weaken.

Hence C.

Can someone help explain how below options are incorrect?

a)There were different recessions before last year’s poll and this year’s.
b)One may further alter one’s views without compromising an initial alteration.

Isn't A similar to C in that both of them provide evidence that there was a second event that changed some people's mind.

C says there was a stimulus because of which people changed their mind. So their assertion that 'saving and spending habits are forever changed' is broken. So they probably don't know what 'Forever' means - hence the conclusion still holds and the choice doesn't weaken.

Similarly, A states there was another recession between the two surveys. For arguments sake, lets say the second recession made some people change their mind, people who earlier thought that their spending and saving habits had changed forever. For this choice to weaken the conclusion, it must be true that after the second recession thy now feel their habits might not have changed 'Forever'. Why? It sounds weird. Worst case it should make more people believe that they should change their spending and saving habits - hence the conclusion that 'they don't know what Forever means', is not weakened

Choice B is also fuzzy for me. One may further alter one's vies without compromising and initial alteration. Ok, you earlier said that your spending/savings habits have changed forever. Now you are saying they haven't. But hey, I am not judging that you don't know the meaning of the word 'Forever', only because you may change/alter your position without compromising your initial statement. Well while writing, I am thinking maybe this one is possible. It does weaken.

A good question, but I still hope I don't see too many of these on test day.

thank you Karishma - it makes sense now. I think I was reading too much into it. A is clearly a weakener and comparing with E did help. thanks.

Hi Karishma,

If you could say that an event(Govt stimulus) has changed the view of few people, then why we could not consider that an event(this year's recession) has changed the view of few people. Because let us say last year's recession was worse. Also even if the recessions were different, the people participated were same right?

almost got tricked with NOT weaken
E and D are clearly weakening the argument..so out right away
A - if different recessions, then different results might be.. so out
Between B and C...if b is true, then the argument is weakened...
C is neutral, though...

boiled down to B and C
B is incorrect because B claims that consumers do not have poor understanding of "forever", but have different views on "forever alteration"

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Solution: D

Questions in which only one of the five answer choices does NOT weaken an argument are difficult because students often assume that the correct answer must strengthen the conclusion. In general, however, on these sort of questions the best answer is just off-topic, out of scope, or otherwise irrelevant.

In this case, choice D is the irrelevant (and therefore correct) choice. For those surveyed to have so quickly changed their opinion of whether their habits had changed shows, consistent with the argument, that they did not mean (or understand) the absolute term "forever." One small change in their economic fortunes completely changed their absolute "forever" opinion.

For the other choices:

Choice A weakens the argument because it shows that the statistics provided do not connect. For the argument to hold, that 13% gap between the 64% who agreed with the statement last year and the only 51% who agreed this year needs to reflect at least some people who changed their minds.

Choice B weakens the argument because it changes which "recent" recession the respondents were referring to, again suggesting that there is no one in that 13% who simply changed their mind from "forever altered."

Choice C weakens the argument because it allows for people to change their minds without conflicting with their previous statement - those 13% for whom the opinion changed could have been fully understanding and fully truthful about "forever" and simply changed things later.

And choice E, like choices A and B, shows that the survey results themselves are invalid because the information wasn't properly collected.

Responding to a pm:


"Not weaken" means exactly that - not weaken. It may be neutral or it may strengthen. Just that it will NOT weaken.

(C) weakens the conclusion.

It says: "C. One may further alter one’s views without compromising an initial alteration."

This is what it means - One can alter one's view. Altering view does not mean that you compromised your initial view. So if you first say that it has changed your habits forever, you can later say that it hasn't without compromising the integrity of your initial view. At that time, you did think that it has changed your habits forever (and you knew what forever means) but now you have changed your view. It doesn't compromise the truth of your previous statement.

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