Self-paced
The only fossilized bones of large prey found in and around settlements of early humans bear teeth marks of nonhuman predators on areas of the skeleton that had the most meat, and cut marks made by humans on the areas that had the least meat. ███ █████████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ███████
Analysis: Most Strongly Supported
There's no conclusion in this stimulus. We're just told two facts: the only fossilized bones from large prey found around early human settlements have marks from the teeth of nonhuman predators on the meatiest parts of the skeleton, and marks from humans on areas with less meat. We're then told predators hunting large prey "invariably" ate the meatiest parts and left the rest behind.
It seems like a strong inference from these two facts would be that early humans generally scavenged the remains of large prey from what was left behind by nonhuman predators, rather than hunting the large prey themselves.
24.
If the information above is █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Early humans were █████████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ██ █████ █████
Incorrect. Nothing in the stimulus suggests that humans were definitely predators of small prey. And we know that cut marks from humans were found on the bones of large prey, which suggests that humans did eat large prey, even if they didn't directly hunt it.
b
Early humans ate ██████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██ █████
Incorrect. Nothing in the stimulus tells us that early humans definitely ate fruits and edible roots in addition to meat.
c
Early humans would ████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████████████
Incorrect. (C) implies that early humans actually did hunt large prey individually. But nothing in the stimulus suggests that early humans hunted large prey at all, let alone specifically implying that they hunted individually versus in large groups.
d
Early humans were ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████████
Correct. This is the inference we discussed in our analysis.
e
Early humans were ████████ ███ █████ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ █████
Incorrect. If you picked (E), you might have thought that (E) implies the inference we discussed in our analysis: that early humans scavenged from predators of large prey. But notice that (E), unlike (D), never explicitly states that inference, and instead talks about "nomadism." But nothing in the stimulus suggests that early humans were either nomadic or sedentary.