Self-study
Support Skeletal remains of early humans indicate clearly that our ancestors had fewer dental problems than we have. ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes early humans had different diets than us. The evidence is that skeletal remains of early humans show fewer dental problems than we have.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that virtually the only thing that could’ve caused fewer dental problems in early humans is different diets.
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
A healthy diet █████ ██ ███████ ██████
This says that healthy diets are a sufficient factor for healthy teeth, but they may not be necessary. So early humans might have had the same diet as us, and something else could have protected their teeth. We don't know, so this does nothing.
b
Skeletal remains indicate ████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ █ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████████
Regardless of whether or not early humans had cavities, we already know that early humans had overall fewer dental problems than we do now. We need to strengthen the claim this is because of the difference in diet, so whether they had cavities is irrelevant.
c
The diet of █████ ██████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ███ █████
We don’t know if varied diets necessarily make a difference to dental health. This isn't relevant because it does nothing to differentiate early humans from modern humans.
d
Early humans had █ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ █████
This weakens the author’s argument. Early humans had fewer dental problems because they didn’t live long enough to develop such problems, rather than because of their diets.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
e
Diet is by ███ ███ ████ ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ███████
If two groups have different dental health, it's almost certainly because of their diets. This affirms the author’s assumption that early humans having fewer dental health problems could only have been due to a difference in diet.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.