A Researcher Designs a Study to Measure Whether Receiving a Free

A researcher designs a study to measure whether receiving a free season pass to a beautiful ski resort near Bountiful, Utah, increases the number of days a subject who has lived in the area for 1 to 3 years skis during the season. An independent samples t-test of correlation is used to measure the effect of receiving a season pass upon number of ski days. If, instead, the researcher decided to measure the subjects' responses by asking them to check one of these four replies on a survey, "Much more often than last year," "More often than last year," "Just about the same as last year," or "Less often than last year," why would the independent samples t-test have to be abandoned for a Mann-Whitney U test instead?

A) The variable of free season pass versus daily pay is measured at the nominal instead of the ratio level.
B) The variable of free season pass versus daily pay is now measured at the ordinal instead of ratio level.
C) The variable amount skied is now measured at the nominal level instead of the ratio level.
D) The variable amount skied is now measured at the ordinal level instead of the ratio level.
E) Both variables' levels have changed.
F) The independent samples t-test used demands ratio-level or interval-level data.
G) The Mann-Whitney U test allows for ordinal level values, but not nominal.