LSAT Question Explanation
PT 105, Section 1, Question 16
WeakenArgument structure
Visitors were illicitly selling or sharing their passes.
Restaurant and hotel revenues went up more than did revenues for passes to a tourist attraction.
Explanation
This is a weaken question with the word "except," so immediately I'm thinking "four of the answer choices will weaken, while one (the correct answer) will either strengthen or do nothing."
Because it's a weaken question, I'm treating the hypothesis like a conclusion and looking for flaws. The big one here is that this hypothesis is only one potential explanation for the situation in the evidence, and we haven't ruled out viable alternatives. Maybe the restaurants and hotels raised prices while the attraction did not, maybe the attraction is getting less popular, because the passes are valid for a full year maybe the attraction isn't charging people every time they visit while the hotels and restaurants are charging more frequently, maybe people are sneaking into the attraction without ever buying a pass legitimately or illicitly, etc. There are many possible explanations here.
Answer choices
This would definitely undermine the hypothesis by providing a viable alternative explanation. The restaurants and hotels would likely benefit from more tourist attractions, while the current attraction may now be facing more competition.
This is another alternative explanation to the hypothesis. The passes are good for a year, so people visiting more frequently wouldn't increase revenue for the attraction, but may increase revenues for the restaurants and hotels.
This would also provide an alternative explanation as to why hotel and restaurant revenues have increased more.
This doesn't undermine the hypothesis because it eliminates an alternative explanation to the hypothesis. If people were staying longer that could explain why the hotels and restaurants are increasingly making more money relative to the attraction (which only charges once while the hotels and restaurants presumably charge nightly/per meal), but (D) tells us that tourists are not staying longer. So the hypothesis is somewhat strengthened by this answer choice, because we've eliminated a possible alternate explanation.
This undermines the hypothesis by telling us that it would be quite difficult to share or resell a pass.