PT23.S1.Q8

PrepTest 23 - Section 1 - Question 8

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Measurements of the extent of amino-acid decomposition in fragments of eggshell found at archaeological sites in such places as southern Africa can be used to obtain accurate dates for sites up to 200,000 years old. ███████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ █ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ████████

The Stimulus' Claims Distilled

In MSS questions, we can just treat the stimulus as a big ol’ list of rules – 10 commandments style – any one of which could hold the key to the correct answer. Here’s the list:

  1. We can look at decomposing amino acids in eggshells to determine the age of archaeological sites.
  2. Decomposition is slower in colder climates.
  3. In some relatively warm climates (like southern Africa), 200,000 years old is the limit.
  4. In some relatively cool climates, we can almost hit a million years.

The answer really could come from anywhere – there are no obvious “link this up with that” inferences, but at the same time there’s like a million random valid statements we could draw from these rules. In situations like this, process of elimination is the way.

User Avatar Analysis by MichaelWright
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8.

The information above provides the ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████

a

The oldest archaeological █████ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████

b

The amino-acid decomposition ████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████████ ██████

c

If the site █████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████████ ████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████

d

After 200,000 years ██ █ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████

e

Fragments of eggshell ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ████████

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