Self-study
Conclusion One good clue as to which geographical regions an ancient relic was moved through in the past involves the analysis of pollen that clings to the surface of the relic. █ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █ ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ █████
Summarize Argument
The author argues that pollen analysis is useful to help determine which geographical regions ancient relics moved through. This is because relics can be linked to certain regions due to having pollen traces from plants unique to those regions.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that if pollen on the surface of a relic is unique to a certain geographical region, then the relic in question must have passed through that region at some point. In other words, there’s no other way for a relic to collect regionally-unique pollen samples than by passing through that region.
8.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████
a
Pollens are often ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██ █████ █████████
This explains how a relic could come into contact with pollen without ever passing through the region in question. This weakens the claim that pollen is a useful clue for tracking relics.
b
There are several ████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███████
Even if the pollen method is complicated, it may still be useful. This doesn't undermine the idea that pollen can be a useful clue, because it doesn't address the quality of the clue at all.
c
Many types of ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████
The stimulus deals with pollen types unique to certain regions. Any types of pollen that were common to several geographical regions are irrelevant.
d
Data are scarce ██ ██ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ███████
The stimulus is restricted to pollen types that are known to have been unique to one region. The fact that some pollen types aren't pinned down doesn't change the usefulness of the ones that are.
e
Pollen analysis is █ ███████████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ████████
Like with (B), it doesn't matter if the method is expensive or difficult, just whether it's useful. This doesn't offer us any information on usefulness, so it's irrelevant.