A prominent investor who holds a large stake in the Burton Tool Company has recently claimed that the company is mismanaged, citing as evidence the company's failure to slow production in response to a recent rise in its inventory of fi nished products. It is doubtful whether an investor's sniping at management can ever be anything other than counterproductive, but in this case it is clearly not justified. It is true that an increased inventory of fi nished products often indicates that production is outstripping demand, but in Burton's case it indicates no such thing. Rather, the increase in inventory is entirely attributable to products that have already been assigned to orders received from customers.

In the argument given, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?

• AThe first states the position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second provides evidence to undermine the support for the position being opposed.  
• BThe first states the position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second is evidence that has been used to support the position being opposed.  
• CThe first states the position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second states the conclusion of the argument as a whole.  
• DThe first is evidence that has been used to support a position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second provides information to undermine the force of that evidence.  
• EThe first is evidence that has been used to support a position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second states the conclusion of the argument as a whole.