This is an EXCEPT strengthening question, indicated by the question stem asking: Each of the following, if true, would support the conclusion above EXCEPT:
The stimulus tells us about the findings of some state researchers. They discovered that in the period following the oil price increases of the ‘70s, home energy consumption has declined. So people are using less power since oil got more expensive, that makes sense. The researchers hypothesized that almost all, so a strong majority, of the reduction was achieved through (I) reduced standards of living, and (II) changes in the way people spend their time. So people don’t live as well, and have been spending their time differently. Since this is an EXCEPT question, we know four of the answer choices are going to add support to the researcher’s conclusion. The correct answer will be the one that either weakens the conclusion, or just fails to support it. Let’s see what we get:
Answer Choice (A) This supports the researchers conclusion, as its seems people are changing the way they spend their time (concentrating their winter activities) and reducing their living standard (heating individual rooms instead of the whole house).
Answer Choice (B) So people are spending more time when it is cold in free communal spaces. This supports our researcher’s conclusion, as we are explicitly told they are spending their time differently, and in a way suggesting a reduced standard of living (spending time in a public building instead of heating a home).
Correct Answer Choice (C) When we compare this answer to A and C, it should be clear that it doesn’t do what they do. A and B support our researchers’ hypothesis: the way people reduced their energy consumption was by changing their lifestyle. But what we get in this answer is an alternative hypothesis (which will always weaken a hypothesis): people didn’t change the way they lived, they just changed the efficiency of their heating systems!
Answer Choice (D) Anyone who had a frugal family member that liked to save on heating costs can probably relate to this, and I think it is safe to say that keeping your house cold is a reduction in living standards, and the answer choice even specifies that this was not something they were accustomed to (therefore it was a change in the way they lived!).
Answer Choice (E) This is practically the same in substance to D, and wrong for the same reason.