In a town containing a tourist attraction, Support hotel and restaurant revenues each increased more rapidly over the past year than did revenue from the sale of passes to the attraction, which are valid for a full year. ████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████
People in charge of a tourist attraction hypothesize that visitors illegally sold or shared passes to the attraction in the past year. This is because hotel and restaurant revenues increased more than did revenue from the attraction itself.
The people in charge of the tourist attraction assume that the only reason anyone would use the nearby hotels and restaurants is to go to the tourist attraction. They also assume that visitors to the attraction are not making longer or more frequent trips this year.
Each of the following, if █████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███████
During the past ████ █████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ █████
If other tourist attractions opened up in the area, then they’re probably attracting new visitors. This weakens the hypothesis in the stimulus by presenting an alternative cause for the revenue changes.
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Those possessing passes ████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████
Since the pass is valid for a year, repeat visitors spent money on hotels and restaurants each trip, but not on a tourist attraction pass. This explains the difference in revenue and undermines the hypothesis.
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
While the cost ██ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██████
This explains why revenue for hotels and restaurants increased more rapidly than revenue for the attraction, without any need for illicit behavior. That weakens the hypothesis in the stimulus.
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
The local board ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ █████
If anything, this strengthens the hypothesis by showing that one important factor has in fact stayed the same this year. By eliminating an alternative explanation, this makes the hypothesis more attractive, not less.
Each pass contains █ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████
This suggests that selling or sharing the passes wouldn’t work, which undermines the hypothesis. This suggests that there must be some other reason for the unexpected revenue changes.
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.