Critical Reasoning

Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Historian: In the Drindian Empire, censuses were conducted annually to determine the
population of each village. Village census records for the last half of the 1600's are
remarkably complete. This very completeness makes one point stand out; in five different
years, villages overwhelmingly reported significant population declines. Tellingly, each of those
five years immediately followed an increase in a certain Drindian tax. This tax, which was
assessed on villages, was computed by the central government using the annual census
figures. Obviously, whenever the tax went up, villages had an especially powerful economic
incentive to minimize the number of people they recorded; and concealing the size of a
village's population from government census takers would have been easy. Therefore, it is
reasonable to think that the reported declines did not happen.
In the historian's argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

A. The first supplies a context for the historian's argument; the second acknowledges a
consideration that has been used to argue against the position the historian seeks to establish.
B. The first presents evidence to support the position that the historian seeks to establish; the
second acknowledges a consideration that has been used to argue against that position.
C. The first provides a context for certain evidence that supports the position that the historian
seeks to establish; the second is that position.
D. The first is a position for which the historian argues; the second is an assumption that serves
as the basis of that argument.
E. The first is an assumption that the historian explicitly makes in arguing for a certain position;
the second acknowledges a consideration that calls that assumption into question.


Please help.

OA after some discussions.

My choice was option E

Regards
Deano.

IMO C. If it's correct. I will post my reasoning

+1 for C.

clearly second bold statement is conclusion or position. Luckily this statement eliminates all other choices leaving us with option C
And also first bold statement is used as evidence.

user132321

The answer must be C.

The first bold statement just provides context that the records were complete. Then the historian goes on to explain why the villages had an incentive to minimize the size of the population. Finally the historian states his conclusion in the second statement.

1st -- evidence
2nd -- conclusion

Let's simplify the answer choices.

A: context/consideration against
B: evidence/consideration against
C: context for evidence/historian's position
D: historian's position/assumption
E: assumption/consideration questioning assumption

Since neither 1st nor 2nd is as assumption, we can quickly eliminate D and E. The 2nd part is the historian's conclusion, so it is not "against" therefore A and B are out.

IMO: C