Self-study
A scientific team compared gold samples from several ancient artifacts with gold samples from an ancient mine in western Asia. ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███████ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the gold in the ancient artifacts was likely dug from a certain ancient mine. This is based on the fact that ratios of trace elements in the gold in the artifacts is very similar to the ratios of those elements in gold from the mine, and no other known mine has those same ratios.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the gold in the artifacts is likely to have come from a source that shares the same ratios of trace elements. The author also assumes that there are no other potential sources for the gold besides a mine.
15.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
The ancient mine ██████ ████ █ █████ ███████████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ █████
This provides a potential alternate source of the gold in the artifacts. The gold might have come, not from the ancient mine, but from nearby riverbeds. These riverbeds likely have the same element ratios as that of the ancient mine, because the gold is from the same deposit.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
b
The ancient mine ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████
If anything, this might strengthen the argument by making the connection between the artifacts and the mine more plausible.
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
The ancient mine ███ █████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████████████
This might strengthen the argument by eliminating the possibility that the ancient mine wasn’t in existence when the artifacts were made.
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).
d
Ancient gold artifacts ████ █████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ██████████
This suggests the gold in the artifacts might have been taken from earlier artifacts. But this doesn’t affect the original source of the gold; it could have been dug from the ancient mine and simply used in various artifacts over the years.
Failed alternate explanation
Failed alternate explanation
Weaken Qs: Answers that try to introduce an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to explain a different phenomenon.
Strengthen Qs: Answers that try to eliminate an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to eliminate an explanation for a different phenomenon.
e
Much of the ████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████████
If anything this might strengthen the argument by suggesting the gold in the mine could have spread far and been used to make various items, potentially including the artifacts that we’re talking about.