Self-study
Support There is evidence that a certain ancient society burned large areas of land. ████ ███████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ █ ███████████████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that the society was a hunter-gatherer society. She bases this on evidence that they burned large areas of land with little sign of farming afterward, making it unlikely they were agricultural, as some suggest.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that because large areas of land were burned with little evidence of farming afterward, the society must have been hunter-gatherer. She doesn’t consider why a hunter-gatherer society would burn a large area of land, or whether an agricultural society might burn large areas of land for some reason other than farming.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Many ancient cultures ███ ███████████ ██████ ████ █████ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ ██ █████
Irrelevant—the society in the stimulus did use fire to clear large areas of land. Whether some ancient agricultural societies did not do this doesn't matter. Instead, we need an answer that helps us determine if these fires indicate a hunter-gatherer society.
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).
b
Hunter-gatherer societies used ████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████████
Irrelevant— using fire for cooking and heat during the cold is not the same as burning large areas of land. We need to know why burning large areas of land might be evidence of a hunter-gatherer society. Whether this society used fire in other ways doesn’t matter.
c
Many plants and █████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █ █████ █████
Even if we assume that these inedible seeds grow into edible plants and that the best way to release them is to burn a large area of land, (C) weakens the argument because it presents evidence of an agricultural society, not a hunter-gatherer society.
d
Hunter-gatherer societies are █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████████
This strengthens the argument by addressing the assumption that a hunter-gatherer society would have reason to burn a large area of land at all. If hunter-gatherer societies used fire to move animals from one area to another, the author’s conclusion becomes much more plausible.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
e
Few early societies ████ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████
Irrelevant—even if this society didn’t know that burning organic material can enrich soil, (E) only tells us that they probably didn’t plant on the land, which was already stated in the stimulus.