Self-study
Support Thousands of fossils from the long-extinct dire wolf have been found in a cluster of natural tar pits in which animals became trapped and were preserved for millennia. ████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that pups under six months old did not accompany adults while hunting and scavenging, on the basis that fossils, found in a cluster of tar pits, do not include any pups under six months old.
Notable Assumptions
One assumption is that these animals became trapped in the tar pits while hunting and scavenging — maybe they were trapped while doing some other activity.
Another assumption is that wolves of all ages were equally likely to become trapped in the tar pits — perhaps wolves under six months old followed behind their parents when hunting, and were thus less likely to become stuck.
7.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Dire wolf pups █████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████
While this might support the conclusion, it’s not a necessary assumption for the argument. The argument is that because the fossils didn’t include wolves under six months old, young wolves were unlikely to have hunted with their parents. (A) isn’t relevant to this argument.
b
If a dire ████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ █ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██████
This would actually undermine the argument, by providing an alternate explanation for why the fossils didn’t include pups under six months old. The opposite of this — that wolves of different ages are similarly capable of pulling themselves free — is a necessary assumption.
c
Before the dire ████ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ████████
It doesn’t matter for the argument how many other animal species got trapped. The argument is only concerned with dire wolves.
d
The entrapment of ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████
This shields the argument from a potential loophole. Otherwise, it could be that adults and young wolves hunted together, but that adults got trapped in the tar pits when they went to do something else themselves. This connects being trapped in tar pits to hunting.
e
For the dire ██████ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ████ █ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████
This explains why wolves got trapped in general — that the tar pits were a popular location for hunting. But it doesn’t explain the differences between adults and young pups.