Self-study
Archaeologist: Support After the last ice age, groups of paleohumans left Siberia and crossed the Bering land bridge, which no longer exists, into North America. ██████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █ █████ ██ ██████ ████████████ ███████████ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ████████████ ████ █████ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The archaeologist concludes that the Clovis point wasn’t invented in North America. This is because Clovis points have been found in Siberia, from which paleohumans came to North America on a land bridge that no longer exists.
Notable Assumptions
The archaeologist assumes that paleohumans only went one way across the land bridge. If they ever went back from North America to Siberia, then the Clovis point could have been invented in North America and transported back to Siberia. The archaeologist also assumes that the cache of Clovis points didn't arrive in Siberia at a later time period, perhaps as a result of trade.
22.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████████████ █████████
a
The Clovis points █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ████████
This strengthens the argument. If the Siberian Clovis points predate any Clovis points found in North America, and we know people went from Siberia to North America, then it seems more plausible that the Clovis point was invented in Siberia before being brought over to North America.
b
The Bering land ██████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ████ █████
This doesn't strengthen the argument. All this answer choice does for us is give us some kind of a date for the Clovis points found in Siberia: after the land bridge had disappeared. Without additional information--notice that the stimulus doesn't even tell us whether Clovis points have been discovered in North America--this neither strengthens nor weakens the author's main point that the Clovis point was not invented in North America.
c
Clovis points were ████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████ ███ █████
Irrelevant. We don’t care how effective Clovis points were. We’re talking about whether they originated in Siberia or North America.
d
Archaeologists have discovered ██ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████
Irrelevant. We’re talking about paleohuman artifacts, not about what happened after paleohumans left. Those artifacts were likely created by different groups.
e
Some paleohuman groups ████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████████
If anything, this weakens the argument. It provides a possible alternative explanation for how the Clovis points ended up in Siberia, consistent with the belief that the Clovis point was invented in North America: paleohumans brought the Clovis point back to Siberia from North America across the land bridge.