Explanation
The question asks which objections the author forestalls.
In the natural course of communication, forestalling objections tends to happen
during the course of making an argument, in little bits, and then in big chunks
after the author has made his point. The last paragraph, for example, can be
thought of as forestalling the possible objection that the trade volume ratio
should not have been calculated in current prices and should have been
calculated in constant prices, for whatever reason. Looking for that, we find
answer choice (C), which is therefore a good candidate for the correct answer.
Choices (B), (D), and (E) present objections to the argument that may be worthy
and which the author has not addressed. Choice (A) sounds like something the
author might have said, so we can go looking for it. At line 45, the author
says, "These increases, nevertheless, are modest given the fact that the world
economy grew roughly twice as quickly in the twentieth century as in the
nineteenth." The author discusses the growth of the world economy, but he is
not addressing the objection stated in (A). The author is saying that, given
the growth, the values are not very big. The objection states that, given the
growth, the smaller values have a greater significance--they count for more, in
a sense. Therefore, the author hasn't addressed (A).
The correct answer is (C).
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