题目选项分析

A prominent investor who holds a large stake in the Burton Tool Company has recently claimed that the company is mismanaged, citing as evidence the company`s failure to slow down production in response to a recent rise in its inventory of finished products. It is doubtful whether an investors sniping at management can ever be an thing other than counterproductive, but in this case it is clearly not justified. It is true that an increased inventory of finished products often indicates that production is outstripping demand, but in Burton's case it indicates no such thing. Rather, the increase in inventory is entirely attributable to products that have already been assigned to orders received from customers.

In the argument given, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?

【选项】The first provides evidence to support the conclusion of the argument as a whole the second states that conclusion