a note for myself: In this question, we are not asked to validate the author's argument, no matter how weird it is. Instead, we have to support the argument, not a singular premise. Remember to address all parts of the argument, checking for holes. The answer that will help the MOST will be the one that fills the most holes, again no matter how crazy bad the structure of the argument is.

@AshlynMiller Yeah I think the wording on this one is a little stupid lol. But using the premise/conclusion test, the conclusion of: "almost all of this surge can be attributed..." cannot be made without the premise. It refers to "this surge" and as small as it is, it is essential part of the argument that cannot be made without a premise. Even though the support that it gives is bad and there are multiple assumptions between the premise and the conclusion, meaning that it is a bad argument, the connection still exists for the argument chain.