hard · Gre Verbal

WEAKEN THE ARGUMENT. A coastal town banned the sale of single-use plastic bags, and in the following year the amount of plastic-bag litter collected on its public beaches fell by half. The town council concluded that the ban was responsible for the decline and cited the result as proof that such bans reduce beach litter. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the council's conclusion? (A) A few merchants continued to distribute single-use plastic bags in violation of the ban. (B) In the same year the ban took effect, the town doubled the number of covered trash bins on its beaches and tripled the frequency of beach-cleaning patrols. (C) Neighboring towns without such bans saw no change in their beach-litter levels that year. (D) The ban was popular with a majority of the town's residents. (E) Reusable cloth bags sold in the town are more durable than the plastic bags they replaced.

1. A small number of local merchants quietly kept handing single-use plastic bags to their shoppers in open violation of the town's newly enacted ban.
2. In the same year the ban took effect, the town doubled the number of covered trash bins on its beaches and tripled the frequency of beach-cleaning patrols.
3. Neighboring towns that never enacted any comparable plastic-bag ban of their own saw essentially no change in their own measured beach-litter levels that year.
4. The bag ban turned out to be quite popular with a clear majority of the town's residents, who voiced broad support for the council's new environmental policy.
5. The reusable cloth bags that shops around the town now sell are noticeably more durable and longer-lasting than the flimsy single-use plastic bags they replaced.

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