Evidence against traditional view ·Grooves on animal bone fossils
Markings made by stone tools on animal bone fossils are different from those made by carnivores' teeth or sedimentary abrasion. Animal bone fossils had carnivore markings underneath markings made by tools, and the tool markings were not systematically at joints. (The implication is that if our ancestors were hunters, we'd expect to see tool markings at joints and we wouldn't see carnivore marking underneath the tool markings.)
Develop new hypothesis ·Ancestors may have used trees to spot animal carcasses
Fossil record suggests our ancestors climbed trees and foraged or scavenged for food, rather than hunted live prey.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
21.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████
Question Type
Main point
In a Phenomenon-Hypothesis passage, the main point is typically the hypothesis the passage focuses on. Here, the author focuses on the hypothesis that early hominids were scavengers rather than hunters of live prey. Let’s look for an answer that captures this hypothesis.
a
With the aid ██ ███ ████████ ████████ █ █████ ██ ███████████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ███████████████ ██████████
“Refute” is too strong; the author doesn’t claim that researchers have been able to prove Darwin’s theories about early hominids wrong. Rather, the author merely tells us that researchers hypothesize a different view about early hominids.
b
The recent development ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████████ █████████████ ████ ██ ████████████████
(B) is too focused on methodologies. But the author’s point relates to early hominids and a hypothesis about how they obtained meat. (B) doesn’t even mention early hominids or hypotheses about them.
This best captures the main point. New research techniques (taphonomy) are providing support for an alternative view of early hominids (they were scavengers, not hunters).
(D) relates only to the point of P1. But it doesn’t capture the overall point of the passage, which is about the new hypothesis concerning early hominids and how they obtained meat.
Unsupported, because the passage doesn’t discuss recent discoveries about the environment in which prehistoric humans lived. The passage focuses on taphonomy as a new method that provides support for a hypothesis about early hominids.
Difficulty
94% of people who answer get this correct
This is a slightly challenging question.
It is significantly easier than other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%130
139
75%149
Analysis
Main point
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
2%
156
b
1%
151
c
94%
167
d
1%
154
e
1%
164
Question history
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