Questions 130-131 are based on the following.

Bank depositors in the United States are all financially protected against bank failure because the government insures all individuals' bank deposits. An economist argues that this insurance is partly responsible for the high rate of bank failures, since it removes from depositors any financial incentive to find out whether the bank that holds their money is secure against failure. If depositors were more selective, then banks would need to be secure in order to compete for depositors' money.

131.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the economist's argument?

(A) Before the government started to insure depositors against bank failure, there was a lower rate of bank failure than there is now.

(B) When the government did not insure deposits, frequent bank failures occurred as a result of depositors' fears of losing money in bank failures.

(C) Surveys show that a significant proportion of depositors are aware that their deposits are insured by the government.

(D) There is an upper limit on the amount of an individual's deposit that the government will insure, but very few individuals' deposits exceed thislimit.

(E) The security of a bank against failure depends on the percentage of its assets that are loaned out and also on how much risk its loans involve.

131.

The argument that deposit insurance, because of its impact on depositors’ choices of banks, is partially responsible for the high rate of bank failures would be weakened if deposit insurance also prevented certain bank failures. Choice B suggests that deposit insurance does prevent certain bank failures, and is thus the best answer.

Choice A weakly supports the view that insuring deposits contributes to bank failures. Choice C supports the economist’s position that depositors take the safety of deposits into account. Choice D supports the argument’s relevance by indicating that virtually all depositors can afford to be nonselective. It follows that none of these three choices is correct. Choice E is incorrect because it fails to establish any connection between deposit insurance and the factors controlling bank failures.

我虽然选的是B，但是

我可能说的都不清楚，谁对这题理解的很透，麻烦能说一说啊！

我觉得你前面说的对,但是经济学家认为正是人们不会去挑选银行, 才导致了银行的失败.If depositors were more selective, then banks would need to be secure in order to compete for depositors' money.所以D是对经济学家的支持.人们不需要考虑安全问题，不去挑选其他银行.

而不是象你说的 "不会去挑选其他银行，这样银行也不会要为安全问题而导致失败，是weaken了原文".

不知你怎么看?

I think the explanation is quite clear: nearly every deposit is affected by the insurance. The problem states that the failure comes from depositor's indifference in their selection of banks because of the security provided by the insurance. If D is incorrect, and most depositors are not affected by the insurance, the argument will be weakened as the premises do not hold. D proves that the premises hold.

B can only be a "weaken" answer as it deos not refute anything. Personally I do not like this problem.