49.4.8 One good clue

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I don't understand how A casts doubt on the reliability of the method. In my mind, you have to make a ton of dubious assumptions to get it to work. First, so what if pollens are transported to different regions by wind or human movement? Do these cases occur in regions where there are ancient relics? You have to assume this. Second, the word "often" is extremely weak/vague. You have to assume that "often" would cast doubt on the reliability, but isn't "often" just a synonym for "some?" Lastly, and probably the most dubious assumption is that the pollens transported by wind/humans matter. What if these pollens don't stick to relics? What if there are ways to distinguish between pollen that had been blowing in the wind? There are a ton of other things you need to assume about the pollens in answer choice A.

I chose D during the exam and during BR (and I think D is an awful answer), but to get D to work, the only assumption (the only assumption I think you need) is to assume that missing data is data about pollen that has stuck to the relics. However, how is this assumption so terrible that it nullifies the ridiculous assumptions you need to get answer choice A to work? I find this question very frustrating...

nye8870

I agree with you a lot about the assumptions. However, I am just thinking of pollen (A) showing up on a relic found in region (B) and the analysts thinking, "Oh this relic must have passed through region (A) ... when the real story is that the wind blew the pollen into region (B) where the relic was found and got some on it. So the test is not reliable.