新东方材料section4 19题，谁能讲讲吗?

dandan74

XDF section 4-19
Surveys show that every year only 10 percent of cigartee smokers switch brands. yet the manufactureres have been speding an amount equal to 10 percent of their gross receipts on cigarette prootion in magazines. It follows from these figures that inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay, and that cigarette companies would have been no worse off economically if they had dropped their advertising.
19. Of the following, the best criticism of the conclusion that inducing cigarette smokers to switch  brands did not pay is that the conclusion is based on
(A) computing advertising costs as aprecentage of gross receipts, not of overall costs
(B) past patterns of smoking and may not carry over to the future
(C) The assumption that each smoker is loyal to a single brand of cigarettes at any one time
(D) the assuption that each manufacturer procduces only one brand of cigarettes
(E) figures for the cigarettes industry as a whole and may not hold for a particular company.

我选了B，但答案是E。我想不通，因为题中没有对E的任何暗示呀。谁能给好好讲讲吗?还有其它的选项。不胜感谢。

braveMBA

You should know the deductive procedure  of this subject.

Premise : A1=only 10 percent of cigartee smokers switch brands
              A2=the manufactureres have been speding an amount equal to 10 percent of their gross receipts on cigarette promotion in magazines

Conclusion: B=inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay.

Weaken.

Choice B wants to give us a condition that the smoking patterns will change in the future, but this does not weaken the conclusion. It is likely that such changes have no any relationship with the advertisements by manufacturers. Remember, the focus of conclusion is "pay" or "not pay".
Choice E gives us a explanation that figures as a whole can not necessarily conclude that such figures will happen on a particular company. It is likely that maybe in company XXX this action does pay.
This is a tricky subject, regard it as a argument writing in AWA.