One of the intriguing questions considered by anthropologists concerns the purpose our early ancestors had in first creating images of the world around them. █████ █████ ██████ ███ ███████████████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████████ █ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ █████ ████████ ██ ████████████████ ████ ███
Phenomenon ·Aurignacian cave paintings
Question: What was the purpose of the cave paintings?
OP Hypothesis 1 ·It was art; it was luxury meant for enjoyment
Evidence: paintings are astonishingly well-executed; suggests creators were professional artists; suggests that Aurignacian culture was wealthy enough to support an artistic class.
Argument for Hypothesis 2 ·Superstitious beliefs were common; paintings outline vital organs in red; evidence of ceremonies around the paintings
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
5.
The passage suggests that the ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ █████ ███ █████████████
Question Type
Author’s perspective
Implied
It’s difficult to predict the correct answer just based on the question stem, so let’s use process of elimination.
a
They were technologically ██ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████████
Not supported. The author never compares the technology levels of Neanderthals and Aurignacians.
b
They were the █████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████████
Not supported. Although we know that there’s evidence Aurignacian shamans wore costumes, we have no evidence they were the “first” humans known to have done so.
c
They had established ████ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ██████
Supported by these twoparts. It’s fair to characterize religious leaders as people with a highly specialized social role (the role of being a religious leader). And, although the author doesn’t explicitly agree with the claim that Aurignacian artists were a distinct group of highly skilled people, there’s evidence of implicit agreement with it.
d
They occupied a ████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████
Not supported. There’s no comparison of the level of hostility in the environments of Neanderthals and Aurignacians. Although Aurignacians might have had a “more secure life” than Neanderthals, this doesn’t imply that the environment was less hostile. The Aurignacians may simply have had better ways to deal with an equally hostile environment.
Not supported. There’s no evidence the Aurignacians carved anything on their weapons. P3 refers to paintings of animals and lines representing arrows, but we have no reason to think these images are carved on weapons.
Difficulty
69% of people who answer get this correct
This is a difficult question.
It is significantly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%146
155
75%164
Analysis
Author’s perspective
Implied
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
4%
157
b
1%
157
c
69%
165
d
13%
159
e
13%
158
Question history
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