Self-study
Historians of North American architecture who have studied early nineteenth-century houses with wooden floors have observed that Support the boards used on the floors of bigger houses were generally much narrower than those used on the floors of smaller houses. █████ ██████████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ █ ██████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that in the early 19th century, floors made out of narrow floorboards were likely a status symbol designed to convey a homeowner’s wealth. This is based on the fact that bigger houses tended to use narrower floorboards than smaller houses, and that bigger houses tended to be built for people who were richer than those for whom smaller houses were built.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there’s no more likely explanation for the use of narrower floorboards in the bigger houses besides the idea that the floorboards were status symbols. This overlooks the possibility that there may have been other reasonable explanations, such as stylistic trends associated with bigger houses, or perhaps narrower floor boards were more functional for bigger houses or were cheaper to use in bigger houses.
23.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
More original floorboards ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████████████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██████████████████ ███████
The comparative number of surviving floorboards has no clear impact. We have no reason to think that having more floor boards survive helps show that the narrower floorboards were used as a status symbol.
b
In the early ██████████ ████████ █ █████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████████████ ████ █████████ ████ █ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████
This eliminates an alternate explanation that narrower boards were used because they were much cheaper. In theory, homeowners might have been trying to save by using boards that were much cheaper. (B) says that’s not true, which makes the status symbol hypothesis more plausible.
c
In the early ██████████ ████████ ███████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████
The number of rooms doesn’t have a clear impact on the purpose of the narrower floorboards. (C) helps show that narrower floorboards, which were used in bigger houses, tended to be used for a greater number of rooms. That doesn’t signify anything about the boards’ purpose.
d
Some early nineteenth-century ██████ ███ ████ ███████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ █████████
If anything, (D) might weaken by suggesting owners wanted to hide the use of narrower floorboards, but wanted to show off wider boards. This goes against the theory that owners used narrower boards as status symbols.
e
Many of the ███████ █████ ██████████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ████████████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███████
So, some owners of bigger houses used materials that were more expensive than wood. But that doesn’t suggest anything about the purpose of narrower wooden floorboards. Perhaps other materials were used a status symbol; narrower boards may or may not also be a status symbol.