Weaken argument question

givemeanid · Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:24 pm Post subject: Weaken argument question

A system-wide county school anti-smoking education program was instituted last year. The program was clearly a success. Last year, the incidence of students smoking on school premises decreased by over 70 percent.

Which of the following if true, would most seriously weaken the argument in the passage?

(A) The author of this statement is a school system official hoping to generate good publicity for the anti-smoking program.

(B) Most student who smoke stopped smoking on school premises last year continued to smoke when away from school.

(C) Last year, another policy change made it much easier for students to leave and return to school grounds during the school day.

(D) The school system spent more on anti-smoking education programs last year than it did in all previous years.

(E) The amount of time students spent in anti-smoking education programs last year resulted in a reduction of in-class hours devoted to academic subjects.

jayhawk2001 · Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:33 pm Post subject:

I believe A, D and E are out of scope.

B seems to concur with the central message in the argument -
it says students did not smoke on premises.

C weakens the argument. If the other policy directly led to a decrease
in the number of students smoking on premises, the anti-smoking
program could not have helped and so could not have been a success.

givemeanid · Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:47 pm Post subject:

OA is C. You are right. I got it. Thanks!

Jhyphi · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:31 am Post subject:

Isn't C an irrelevant point unless you combine it with something about students smoking away from school?

So shouldn't it be B? I'm saying this with the assumption that the "anti-smoking education program.....was clearly a success" is the main argument.

So smoking away from campus is contradictory to anti-smoking.

saurabh_1922@yahoo.co.in · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:08 pm Post subject:

I also think B should be the answer as it says the program was successful.However it was success only inside the school premises .
Please explain how C is the answer as it seems irrevelant

givemeanid · Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:52 pm Post subject: