Critical Reasoning

Over the last year, Make-Well Paper Manufacturing's total expenditures on materials and labor have been larger than the company can sustain. Make-Well cannot reduce its labor costs by changing contracts or making layoffs, so it cannot reduce its expenditures in this way. Therefore, Make-Well has decided to buy materials exclusively from suppliers that recycle materials. Many suppliers will respond to this shift by beginning to recycle materials, since Make-Well's business will pay for the cost of switching to recycled materials within three years. Thus, because recycled materials are less expensive to purchase, Make-Well's plan is likely to reduce its total expenditures.

In the argument above, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?


(A) The first presents a development whose likely outcome is at issue in the argument; the second is a judgment used to support the argument's conclusion about that outcome.

(B) The first is a development that the argument attempts to explain; the second is a prediction made by the argument to support this explanation.

(C) The first exhibits a problem, a response to which the argument evaluates; the second is the judgment reached through that evaluation.

(D) The first is a position the argument seeks to propose; the second is a judgment the argument uses to support this position.

(E) The first and the second are both evidence to support the main conclusion established by the argument.