PrepTest 108 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 21

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Darwin's conception of early prehistoric humans as confident, clever hunter-gatherers has long dominated anthropology. ███

Traditional perspective · Early prehistoric humans were hunter-gatherers

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Why this perspective persists · Most recent ancestors were discovered first

People confuse modern hunter-gatherer lifestyles with the lifestyle of our ancestors.

Author's criticism · Traditional perspective overlooks important differences

Modern hunter-gatherers are very advanced, and their environments are very different from our ancestors'.

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New methodology and new perspective · Taphonomy questions perspective that ancesetors were hunters

Taphonomy involves studying bones. Example: pattern of bone pile deposits and the nature of markigns on bones.

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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.)

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New hypothesis · Ancestors were scavengers, not hunters

Additional evidence · Ancestors' teeth show diet primarily of fruit, only occasionally meat

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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 (RC)

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.

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“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.

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(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.

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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).

94%

Anthropologists' mistaken conception ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████

(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.

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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.

PrepTest 108 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 21

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