Answer:
(C) It evaluates two mutually exclusive statements about a population to determine which statement is best supported by the sample data.
Explanation:
A hypothesis is a statement that has been formulated based on previous knowledge. The process of testing if that statement is true is called hypothesis testing. To test a formulated hypothesis ( alternative hypothesis), it must be statistically analyzed if the data collected from a population supports this alternative hypothesis, or if, on the contrary, a mutually exclusive statement (null hypothesis) is supported.