Self-study
Recently discovered prehistoric rock paintings on small islands off the northern coast of Norway have archaeologists puzzled. ███ ███████████ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████ █ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ █████████████ ██████ ████ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that prehistoric rock paintings on small islands off the coast of Norway do not represent a description of the painters’ diets. This is because the author believes the painters needed to eat the sea animals in the waters around Norway in order to travel to the islands, and no paintings clearly show those sea animals.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the paintings don’t depict sea creatures. (Just because they don’t unambiguously depict sea creatures doesn’t imply that they don’t show sea creatures.) The author also assumes that the painters needed to cross the waters to get to the islands. (Maybe the painters originated on the islands?) The author also assumes that the painters needed to eat sea creatures.
20.
Each of the following, if █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ █████████ ███████
a
Once on these ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ████████
This shows that the painters’ current diets did not need to include sea creatures. So the lack of sea creatures in paintings does not prove that the paintings don’t represent the painters’ current diets.
b
Parts of the ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████
This raises the possibility that sea creatures might have appeared in paintings that are no longer around. So, the cave paintings could have been a description of the current diets of the painters, even if the paintings that remain no longer depict sea creatures.
c
The cave paintings ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ████ ████ ████████
The author never denied that the paintings could show land animals. The author’s position is that we’d expect to see sea creatures, too. So, the presence of land animals in the paintings doesn’t undermine the author’s argument.
d
Those who did ███ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████
This raises the possibility that the painters did not need to eat sea creatures, contrary to the author’s assumption. The painters might have been able to travel to the islands while eating preserved meat from land animals.
e
The cave paintings ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████ ████████
This shows that the author’s assumption that the painters needed to cross the islands and eat sea creatures is wrong. The painters could have been done by inhabitants of the islands who may not have needed to eat sea creatures.