OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


The correct answer to this question will be the choice that breaks the connection between the number of barking-dog nuisance complaints and the more frequent deliveries to homes that make dogs bark more often, louder, and longer. (D) provides such a situation: there is another reason people complain about barking dogs. If the real source of such complaints is a tendency to overreact to "common disturbances," then the frequency and intensity of the dog's barking are not the determining factors; there will likely be the same number of calls to the police whether the dog woofs softly and occasionally or loudly several times a day. This answer choice doesn't prove that the increase in deliveries won't result in an increase in complaints, but it weakens this prediction, and that is enough. (A) and (E) are strengtheners. Strengtheners are common trap answers to Weaken questions because a strengthener matches the terms of the argument precisely, but has the opposite effect on the argument. Both an increase in the number of homes visited by each truck daily (A) and lower shipping costs (E) indicate that there will be more deliveries and, therefore, more occasions for loud barking. (B) makes an irrelevant comparison. The argument does not mention, and is not affected by, the days of the week deliveries occur. (C) has no effect on the argument. Even if some people appreciate dogs barking at deliveries, these presumably would not be the neighbors who would call in a nuisance-barking complaint in any case. It is the people who don't like to hear dogs barking who will be more disturbed by an increased incidence of barking at deliveries.