Self-study
A traditional view of Neanderthals is that they lacked the ability to think symbolically. ████████ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ███████████ ████ █ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ██ █ ████████████
Summary
The author concludes that recent evidence suggests Neanderthals had the ability to think symbolically.
This is based on the intermediate conclusion that it’s likely a particular cave painting in northern Spain was made by a Neanderthal.
That intermediate conclusion is based on the premise that researchers have established that the cave painting was created at least 40,800 years ago.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that if a Neanderthal can make a cave painting, that is evidence the Neanderthal can think symbolically.
The author also assumes that if the painting in northern Spain was created at least 40,800 years ago, it’s likely to have been made by a Neanderthal.
10.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Neanderthals are known ██ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ██████
Not necessary, because even if Neanderthals are NOT “known” to have possessed the dexterity required to create paintings like the one discovered, that doesn’t imply that they did not have the requisite dexterity.
b
No species of ███████ █████ ████ ████████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ████
Not necessary, because even if SOME species of hominid other than Neanderthals inhabited some part of Europe 40,800 years ago, Neanderthals still could have been the only hominids in northern Spain. Other hominids could have existed elsewhere in Europe; that doesn’t undermine the belief that Neanderthals likely made the painting found in northern Spain. Notice also that the author’s intermediate conclusion just says that Neanderthals “likely” made the painting; so the author could acknowledge another hominid might have made the paintings.
c
The ability to ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ████████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████████
Necessary, because if this were not true — if the ability to create cave paintings like the one found does NOT indicate the ability to think symbolically — then we have no reason to think that the painting suggests Neanderthals could think symbolically.
d
The recent evidence █████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████████
Not necessary, because the negation of (D) doesn’t undermine the author’s reasoning. If there was other evidence besides the painting that suggests Neanderthals could think symbolically, that, if anything, would strengthen the author’s view.
e
Any species of ███████ ████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████████
Not necessary, because the argument tries to use evidence to reach the conclusion that Neanderthals could think symbolically. That doesn’t require any assumption about what would show that hominid could NOT think symbolically.