Self-study
Conclusion It is now clear that the ancient Egyptians were the first society to produce alcoholic beverages. ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ █████████ █ ████ ██ █████████ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the Egyptians must have produced alcohol before anyone else. His basis for doing so is that the oldest trace of alcoholic beverages yet discovered is Egyptian.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author’s argument is vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that there could be currently undiscovered traces of alcohol that are older than the recently discovered Egyptian cup. An even older trace of alcohol from a different civilization could be discovered tomorrow, which would falsify his conclusion.
24.
The reasoning above is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It makes a ██████████████ █████ ████████ ███████ █████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██ █████████████████
The author is not making a generalization about Egypt, he’s making an observation. (Namely, that the Egyptians were the first civilization to produce alcohol.) Having a sample representative of Egyptian society in general is irrelevant.
b
It uses the ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █ █████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████
This the cookie-cutter flaw of equivocation; it isn’t applicable here, because the author’s use of “alcohol” is consistent throughout the stimulus.
c
It presumes, without █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ █████████ █ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████
The author does not presume that there was any relationship between the Egyptians’ and Babylonians’ respective development of alcoholic beverages.
d
It ignores the ███████████ ████ ███ █████ █████ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ████ █████
The author fails to consider that our current knowledge could be limited. The oldest trace of alcohol yet discovered is Egyptian, but in the future we might discover an even older trace of alcohol from a different civilization.
e
It provides no ████████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████
This implies that the Babylonians may have produced wine later than the author thinks. Since the author’s argument is that the Egyptians produced wine before the Babylonians, this is irrelevant.