请教GWD-8-10的A选项~~搜过了！没有人问过……

The system of patent-
granting, which confers
temporary monopolies for
Line the exploitation of new tech-
(5) nologies, was originally
established as an incentive
to the pursuit of risky new
ideas. Yet studies of the
most patent-conscious
(10) business of all—the semi-
conductor industry—suggest
that firms do not necessarily
become more innovative as
they increase their patenting
(15) activity. Ziedonis and Hall,
for example, found that
investment in research and
development (a reasonable
proxy for innovation) did
(20) not substantially increase
between 1982 and 1992,
the industry’s most feverish
period of patenting. Instead,
semiconductor firms simply
(25) squeezed more patents out
of existing research and
development expenditures.

Moreover, Ziedonis and
Hall found that as patenting
activity at semiconductor
firms increased in the

1980’s, the consensus
among industry employees
was that the average quality
of their firms’ patents
declined. Though patent
quality is a difficult notion
to measure, the number of
times a patent is cited in
the technical literature is
a reasonable yardstick, and
citations per semiconductor
patent did decline during
the 1980’s. This decline in
quality may be related to
changes in the way semi-
conductor firms managed
their patenting process:
rather than patenting to win
exclusive rights to a valuable
new technology, patents
were filed more for strategic
purposes, to be used as
bargaining chips to ward
off infringement suites or

as a means to block
competitors’ products.

Q10:
Which of the following, if true, would most clearly serve to weaken the author’s claim
about what constitutes a reasonable yardstick for measuring patent quality?

A. It is more difficult to have an article accepted for publication in the technical
literature of the semiconductor industry than it is in the technical literature of
most other industries.
B. Many of the highest-quality semiconductor patents are cited numerous times in
the technical literature.
C. It is difficult for someone not familiar with the technical literature to recognize
what constitutes an innovative semiconductor patent.
D. There were more citations made per semiconductor patent in the technical
literature in the 1970’s than in the 1980’s.
E. Low-quality patents tend to be discussed in the technical literature as frequently
as high-quality patents.
    

这题选E，我也明白，但是A为什么不行？文章中说patent quality下降,所以被引用的次数也变少，那么A不是提出了导致该结果的另外的原因吗？这样不也可以weaken吗？

哎~~看来我这逻辑和阅读还真是纠得够呛~

希望NN能给我点提点啦！！！