一道LSAT题，题目和问题的意思看不懂，请指教

alex

At the end of the year, Wilson’s Department Store awards free merchandise to its top salespeople. When presented with the fact that the number of salespeople receiving these awards has declined markedly over the past fifteen years, [U]the newly appointed president of the company responded, “In that case, since our award criterion at present is membership in the top third of our sales force, we can also say that the number of salespeople passed over for these awards has similarly declined.”[/U]

Which of the following is an regard to hiring salespeople have not become more lax over the past fifteen years.

请教哪位大牛能够懂新上任总裁的话意思，并把问题翻译一下？ 谢谢先！