越毒狗 GWD-TN-6 请教

gkast

本月狗里。有一道问题不明白:

The passage makes which of the following claims about patent quality in the semiconductor industry?

A. It was higher in the early 1980's than it was a decade later.
E. It was measured by inappropriate means during the period from 1982 to 1992.

就这两个选项搞不清。其中一个整理说A，可是A怎么想都不对。原文:
... 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.

请NN解答，谢谢!

sdcar2010

A is right, since the average quality of the patents filed by their firm for the semiconductor industry declined in the 1980's when the number of filing increased.