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After the Brightwood library system cut its Sunday hours, the total number of items borrowed each week was the same as it had been before the cut. The system's administrators concluded that the patrons who had previously borrowed items on Sundays did not simply stop borrowing items, because ___
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Correct answer
C
Complete-the-passage. The connector "because" signals that the blank must supply the reason that makes the administrators' conclusion follow from the evidence. Evidence: total weekly borrowing held steady after Sunday hours were cut. Conclusion: the former Sunday borrowers did not simply stop borrowing. The gap: a steady total is consistent with the Sunday borrowers dropping out if some other group increased its borrowing by exactly enough to offset the loss. To force the conclusion, the completion must rule out that offsetting increase.
Think of the total as two parts: borrowing by patrons who used to borrow on Sundays, plus borrowing by patrons who never did. The total is unchanged. (C) tells us the second part, the never-on-Sunday patrons, did not change. If that part is flat and the whole is flat, then the first part, the former Sunday borrowers, must also be flat, so they did not stop borrowing. (C) is exactly what closes the gap, and the stem forces it: no other completion makes the conclusion follow.
Why each wrong choice is a plausible error: (A) brings in a same-direction fact about other towns that matches the word "circulation," but it is about libraries in other towns, not Brightwood's own patrons; a rise elsewhere does not show that Brightwood's Sunday borrowers kept borrowing. (B) is the most tempting trap because it echoes "borrowed on Sundays" and seems to explain how borrowing could move to other days. But it only shows the shift was possible; it does not establish that the former Sunday patrons actually continued to borrow. Possibility is not actuality, so it does not force the conclusion. (D) feels supportive but runs the wrong direction: if patrons strongly preferred weekend visits, removing Sunday hours would more likely drive those patrons away, which works against the conclusion rather than grounding it. (E) adds an authoritative-sounding detail about internal staffing plans, but when the staffing cut was decided says nothing about whether the Sunday borrowers kept borrowing items. It addresses the wrong link.
The correct answer is (C).
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