Self-study
Support In northern Europe, archaeologists have discovered 400,000-year-old sharpened wooden poles alongside flint cutting implements and the remains of horses. █████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ███ ███ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the discovery of 400,000-year-old sharpened wooden poles, flint tools, and horse remains in northern Europe shows that humanlike precursors of Homo sapiens hunted, rather than just gathering and scavenging. She supports this by pointing out that it's believed Homo sapiens didn’t live in Europe before 200,000 years ago.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the tools and remains are evidence of hunting, without considering that they may have had other uses. She also assumes that the 400,000-year-old tools belonged to the humanlike precursors of Homo sapiens, without considering that the tools may have been moved to northern Europe more recently.
13.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Sharpened wooden poles ████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██ ███ ██ █████████ █████████ ██████████
This strengthens the argument by reducing the possibility that the tools were used for something other than hunting. If the sharpened wooden poles weren’t for self-defense or cutting and scavenging carcasses, they’re more likely to have been used for hunting.
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
Humanlike inhabitants of ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ████
We know that the humanlike inhabitants of northern Europe likely used these tools, but we’re still unsure how they were used. We don’t know if they were really for hunting or for something else.
c
Homo sapiens evolved ████ █████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ████████
Even if Homo sapiens did evolve from humanlike precursors 200,000 years earlier than is normally assumed, we don’t know that they then inhabited northern Europe. Regardless, (C) doesn’t strengthen the author’s hypothesis that the humanlike precursors were hunters.
d
The humanlike precursors ██ ████ ███████ █████████ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ██████████
Irrelevant— this doesn’t address the tools found in northern Europe or support the hypothesis that those tools were used by humanlike precursors for hunting.
e
Prehistoric Homo sapiens ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████████
The argument is addressing the humanlike precursors of Homo sapiens, not prehistoric Homo sapiens. Either way, just because these prehistoric Homo sapiens didn’t abandon scavenging and gathering doesn’t mean that they didn’t also hunt with sharpened wooden sticks.