notrandom wrote:
Over 40,000 lead seals from the early Byzantine Empire remain today. Apart from the rare cases where the seal authenticated a document of special importance, most seals had served their purpose when the document was opened. Lead was not expensive, but it was not free: most lead seals would have been recast once they had served their purpose. Thus the number of early Byzantine documents sealed in such a fashion must have been many times the number of remaining lead seals.
Which one of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the argument?
(A) Most of the lead seals produced during the early Byzantine Empire were affixed to documents that were then opened during that period.
(B) Most of the lead seals produced during that early Byzantine Empire were affixed to documents that have since been destroyed.
(C) The amount of lead available for seals in the early Byzantine Empire was much greater than the amount of lead that remains in the seals today.
(D) During the time of the early Byzantine Empire there were at most 40,000 documents of enough importance to prevent the removing and recycling of the seal.
(E) During the time of the early Byzantine Empire there were fewer than 40,000 seals affixed to documents at any given time.
Could someone please explain why
is wrong?
EXPLANATION FROM POWER SCORE
The argument in the stimulus is structured as follows:
Premise: ..... Over 40,000 lead seals from the early Byzantine Empire remain today.
Premise: Most seals had served their purpose once the document to which they were attached was opened.
Premise: Most seals were recast after they had served their purpose.
Conclusion: The number of early Byzantine documents sealed in such a fashion must have been many times the number of remaining lead seals.
The author argues that since most seals would have been recast once they had served their purpose, we would expect that the number of documents sealed in such a fashion would be far greater than the number of lead seals remaining today (presumably, because most seals would have been “recycled” and used on a number of different documents). The argument assumes, of course, that
at least some of the documents sealed in such a fashion were opened during that period, so that the seals would have been recast once they had served their purpose.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. If most of the lead seals produced during the early Byzantine Empire were affixed to documents that were then opened during that period, this would support the theory that most of the seals would have served their purpose at least once, and therefore recast. As a result, for each recycled seal we would have at least two documents, proving that the number of early Byzantine documents sealed in such a fashion exceeds the number of remaining lead seals.
Answer choice (B): At first glance, this answer choice may seem attractive. Indeed, if most of the lead seals produced during the early Byzantine Empire were affixed to documents that have since been destroyed, this would suggest that there were probably more lead seals than the number of remaining documents would indicate today.
The conclusion we need to strengthen, however, is that the number of documents sealed during the early Byzantine Empire must have been greater than the number of lead seals remaining today. Clearly, this answer choice is a Shell Game that cannot support the exact conclusion of the argument. There is no reason to expect that destroying a document would have the same effect as opening it. Consequently, it would be wrong to assume that any seal affixed to such a document would have been recast and used on new documents after the destruction of the original one.
Furthermore, the word “since” in this answer choice implies that the destruction of the documents took place
after the end of the early Byzantine Empire, when the seal-recycling program may no longer be in effect.
Answer choice (C): The amount of lead available for seals in the early Byzantine Empire has no bearing on the issue at hand. This answer choice is incorrect.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice suggests that at most 40,000 documents sealed during the early Byzantine Empire were important enough that their seals would not have been recast. But if the majority of lead seals remaining today were never recast, this would only weaken the conclusion of the argument as it would suggest that the number of early Byzantine documents sealed in such a fashion was approximately equal to the number of remaining lead seals.
Answer choice (E): Even if there were fewer than 40,000 seals affixed to documents at any given time during the early Byzantine Empire, this would not mean that any of the 40,000 seals remaining today had been recycled and used multiple times. It is entirely possible that each seal was only used once, just not all at the same time.
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