Self-study
Support Standard archaeological techniques make it possible to determine the age of anything containing vegetable matter, but only if the object is free of minerals containing carbon. ███████████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████████ █████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ █ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ██ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████████ █████ ████████ ██████████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that standard archeology cannot measure the ages of ancient paintings on limestone. Why? Because carbon always comes along with vegetable-based paint samples collected from limestone, and anything with carbon and vegetable matter can’t be aged using standard techniques.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that neither vegetable matter nor carbon can be removed from the samples after collection. If either material can be separated out, then the remaining paint would not be restricted by the author’s general rule and standard techniques may be usable.
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
There exist several █████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██ ██████████
The author states that all such techniques involve removing limestone. This does not imply that any method allows paint to be collected without carbon coming along.
b
Laboratory procedures exist ████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ████ █ ██████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ██████████
This disputes the assumption that the samples must retain their carbon. If limestone can be removed, then the carbon-free paint can be isolated and may be measurable using standard techniques.
c
The age of ███ █████████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████████████ ██████
This suggests a method to determine the limestone’s age, not the paint’s age. The author does not say that knowing the limestone’s age allows archaeologists to know the paint's age.
d
Prehistoric artists did ███ ███ ████████ █████ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███████
This does not imply the samples are free of carbon, since the carbon comes from the limestone. It eliminates the possibility that vegetable matter can be separated from the remaining paint, thus strengthening the argument.
e
The proportion of ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████
This implies the amount of carbon in a sample can be known, not that it can be removed. The author states that the presence of carbon, not the variability of carbon, makes standard techniques unusable.