In the years following an eight-cent increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes, sales of cigarettes fell ten percent. In contrast, in the year prior to the tax increase, sales had fallen one percent. The volume of cigarette sales is ttherefore strongly related to the after-tax price of a pack of cigarettes. The argument above requires which of the following assumptions?
A: As the after-tax price of a pack of cigarettes rises, the pretax price also rises.
B: The pretax price of a pack of cigarettes gradually decreased throughout the year before and the year after the tax increase.
C: During the year following the tax increase, the pretax price of a pack of cigarettes did not increase by as much as it had during the year prior to the tax increase.
D: For the year following the tax increase, the pretax price of a pack of cigarettes was not eight or more cents lower than it had been the previous year.
Choose A, B, C or D as your solution.
D