Explain

Could you go through each answer choice and explain why is D correct?

@Alex and @Shiyi-Zhang, Happy to help. The paragraph that gives us information on the 'continuous change' hypothesis is the second paragraph, which goes from lines 12 to 25. In this paragraph, we're told that proponents of the 'continuous change' hypothesis don't think that federal law had much of an impact at all on the economic progress made by black people in America between 1940 and 1975. Rather, proponents of this hypothesis argue that slowly evolving historical forces, like long-term trends in education that improved segregated schools for blacks, led to the earning potential of blacks increasing relative to the earning potential of those attending white schools. From this, we know that the proponents of the 'continuous change' hypothesis are basically saying the government didn't do anything to improve blacks' situations; rather, evolving historical forces did. The question asks, "The 'continuous change' hypothesis, as it is presented in the passage, can best be applied to which one of the following situations?" We want an answer that says that something about the government not doing anything to improve something and historical forces being the main cause of the improvement. (A), (B), (C), and (E) can all be quickly eliminated because they all mention the government playing a role in improving the situation they're describing. (A) is incorrect because it says that the government funding a project to build subsidized housing helps low-income families find homes. We know that the proponents of the 'continuous change' theory think that the government didn't do anything to improve the situation. (B) is incorrect because it says that the government provides special grants; again, the correct answer needs to either not mention government or say that the government didn't help. (C) is incorrect because it mentions tax incentives being given to private contractors. Who gives out tax incentives? The government. Therefore, we know this isn't the right answer. (E) is incorrect because it mentions the neighborhood organization lobbying for government assistance. If the government is assisting, this doesn't match up with the 'continuous change' hypothesis, so we can get rid of this choice. That leaves us with (D), which says, "A housing shortage is remedied because the changing state of the economy permits private investors to finance construction in a depressed area." This is correct because the government is not cited as a helping factor, but the changing state of the economy is, which matches up well with 'evolving historical forces,' which is what was used in the 'continuous change' hypothesis proponents' explanation. Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any questions!