Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenville Times reorganized its advertising sales force two years ago. Before the reorganization, the sales force was organized geographically, with some sales representatives concentrating on city-center businesses and others concentrating on different outlying regions. The reorganization attempted to increase the sales representatives’ knowledge of clients’ businesses by having each sales representative deal with only one type of industry or of retailing. After the reorganization, advertising sales increased.In assessing whether the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization, it would be helpful to find out each of the following EXCEPT:
Editor: Articles in Gardening Magazine often spur sales of the plants they describe, particularly among people new to gardening. Accordingly, we will no longer publish articles or accept advertisements praising the beauty of rare wildflowers. Most such plants sold to gardeners have been difficult to propagate under cultivation, so plant sellers often collect them in the wild. Our new policy is part of our efforts to halt this yearly plundering of our native plant populations.Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the wisdom of the magazine's new policy as a way of pursuing the intended effect?
In preparation for a large-scale tree-planting project, Thomasville has recorded the location, species, and condition of every tree in its downtown area. The results will be compared with results of the last such tree census, taken 20 years ago. Planting trees primarily from the species that turns out to have the best record of survival will assure downtown Thomasville of an abundant tree population 20 years from now.Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the claim that the tree-planting proposal will assure an abundant tree population?
In the late 1980s, the population of sea otters in the North Pacific Ocean began to decline. Of the two plausible explanations for the decline— increased predation by killer whales or disease—disease is the more likely. After all, a concurrent sharp decline in the populations of seals and sea lions was almost certainly caused by a pollution-related disease, which could have spread to sea otters, whereas the population of killer whales did not change noticeably.Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the reasoning?