A, C, D, and E

@heidiz, Happy to help. Let’s take a look at (A), (C). (D), and (E). (A) says, "Residents of area L typically value aspects of living conditions different from the aspects of living conditions that are valued by residents of adjacent areas." With (A), we know that residents of area L currently do care about things that their neighbors do not care about. However, (A) still doesn't help us explain the first survey's results from ten years ago, and explaining those results is necessary in order to resolve the conflict. Thus, (A) is out. (C) says, "Optimal living conditions were established in the survey by taking into account governmental policies and public demands on three continents." (C) introducing us to a new standard of living conditions doesn't help us to resolve the results of the survey because we don't know any information about optimal living conditions. What we're concerned with is how the residents of area L viewed their living conditions; we don't care whether they were optimal or not. Thus, (C) is out. (D) says, "Living conditions in an area generally improve only if residents perceive their situation as somehow in need of improvement." The problem with (D) is that we know from the stimulus that the perceived living conditions in area L declined, which is the opposite of improving. Additionally, even if we were to argue that the residents of area L would not have believed there to be a need for improvement (since they were happy), this would simply mean that they did not improve (they could've stayed the same and not necessarily gotten any worse). Thus, (D) is out. (E) says, "Ten years ago the residents of area L were not aware that their living conditions were below the national average." (E) describes the ignorance of area L residents tent years ago, but in order to help resolve the conflict in the survey, it must explain the current survey's results of why the residents are dissatisfied now, and it fails to do this. Thus, (E) is out. Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other questions!

How do you know that (A) only applies to the recent study and not the one from 10 years ago?

Hi @bcross, Thanks for the question! So we actually don’t know that (A) only applies to the recent study and not the one from 10 years ago. (A) could apply to the residents of area L in both time periods. But again, the main question we have here is, does (A) help us resolve the paradox? Does it explain why living conditions are relatively more similar but members of residents L went from satisfied to dissastisfied? No, not necessarily. It certainly opens up the possibility but it doesn’t definitively explain it like (B) does. And that’s why (A) has to be incorrect. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.