Self-study
New evidence suggests that Conclusion the collapse of Egypt's old kingdom some 4,000 years ago was caused by environmental catastrophe rather than internal social upheaval. █████ █████████ ██████ █ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █ █████████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ █████████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ █ ██████ ███ ██████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author argues that Egypt’s old kingdom collapsed because of climate catastrophe, not internal social upheaval. This is because ocean sediments show that global cooling caused a dry spell at the time of the collapse, which was the ultimate cause of the social problems that also existed.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that even though climate catastrophe caused social problems in Egypt, it was climate catastrophe, and not these social problems, that was the "real" cause of the old kingdom's collapse. This seems to rule out the possibility that social problems were a secondary or more direct cause of the collapse, or assume that only the first cause of an event is the "real" cause.
24.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████
a
Historically, most civilizations ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████
This wouldn't strengthen the argument. The argument is about Egypt, not about most historical civilizations. All this tells us is that the author would consider Egypt’s old kingdom to be an exception to the general pattern.
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).
b
The social problems ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ █████████
We need to strengthen the claim that the drought, and not the social problems themselves, is really to blame for Egypt’s old kingdom collapsing. This doesn't help us do that.
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).
c
At the time ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████████████████ █████████████ ████ █████ █████████ ██████ █████████
This strengthens the argument. Several other civilizations in the same area independently declined at the same time. This suggests there was a common factor, like a climate catastrophe, behind all these declines, rather than social problems specific to Egypt causing the collapse.
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.
d
Egyptian records recovered ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████
This doesn't strengthen the argument. We already know there were social problems, so this doesn't give us new information.
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
Shortly after the ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ █ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██████████
What happened after the collapse isn't relevant to the argument about drought causing the collapse.