39. Last year the rate of inflation was 1.2 percent, but during the current year it has been 4 percent. We can conclude that inflation is on an upward trend and the rate will be still higher next year.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

• (A) The inflation figures were computed on the basis of a representative sample of economic data rather than all of the available data.

(B) Last year a dip in oil prices brought inflation temporarily below its recent stable annual level of 4 percent.

(C)         Increases in the pay of some workers are tied to the level of inflation, and at an inflation rate of 4 percent or above, these pay raises constitute a force causing further inflation.

(D)         The 1.2 percent rate of inflation last year represented a 10-year low.

Government intervention cannot affect the rate of inflation to any significant degree.

请问为什么b是对的,没看明白og 解释,谢谢各位啦~~~

The conclusion is that the inflation will be still high base on the upward trend.

If the upward trend is wrong, it will undermine the conclusion.

The answer B shows that the lower inflation is abnormal last year because of oil price drop.

So B is correct.

在B中阐述了去年中特殊事件的发生对于rate of inflation的影响，使其数字低于近年来的平均值。

因此不能用含有特殊性的去年的数字（不具有代表性）结合今年的数字，得到一个对于未来的上升趋势的预测

（呵呵，不知道说清楚没～）