The earliest known records of wartime activities detail the history of

The passage says that carrier pigeons are still being used today IN SPITE of the availability of modern communication and often in preference to such. Hence, C is not a conclusion that makes sense. (C night be true in fact, but it is not best supported by the passage).

However, the stimulus states that pigeon are valuable when there is a need to avoid the interception of signals, which electronic systems are prone to allow. Hence, it is implied that communications via pigeons are more secure that electronic communications. It follows that A is a valid conclusion, because it stands to reason that if pigeons are more secure, they would be preferrable for transmitting classified messages.

B is too strong. Nowhere is it implied that pigeons cannot be intercepted at all.

IMO, E is tempting, but not correct because while the passage implies that there are uses for the pigeons (such as sending classified information), it does not tell us whether such use is "extensive" or "occasional".

anand--

You lost me there. Are you saying that I should explain myself? Or that I should change my answer? Or that I provided the correct answer to a stupid question?

a. The use of carrier pigeons is usually preferable to the use of portable
electronic devices when a military unit needs a way to send classified
military information.

There's no reason to believe that this is true in the strong form in which it is stated.

From the argument: use of portable electronic devices whose signals can be intercepted.

It's a little nuanced, but the argument does not state:
use of portable electronic devices, whose signals can be intercepted.

In other words, the argument does not claim that all portable electronic device signals can be intercepted. It states that some can be intercepted.
And it sates that pigeons can be "valuable". Not that they're preferable.

b. The messages that carrier pigeons carry cannot be intercepted.

Too strong of an inference, though not a terribly bad choice, IMO.

c. The use of carrier pigeons decreased once portable electronic devices
became practical in warfare.

We know that pigeons showed up in the earliest records. We know that they were used "extensively" in WWI and WWII. Today, they're merely "valuable" as an alternative. That seems like declining use to me.

d. Carrier pigeons were used in warfare prior to the date of the earliest
known record of wartime activity.

The argument did not state this! No reason to assume this. They were used at the date of first record, but it could be (for example) that only when literacy began to become widely held that people recorded of wars, and that you can only send written messages if you know how to write...

e. Carrier pigeons are still used extensively by modern military units.
We all know that this is wrong.

I think this is a good question.

Hard MBT-Inference arguments usually follow this pattern:

Passage provides with a lot of information. In this case:
- About the history of the use of carrier pigeons
- The pigeons in wars during the 20th century
- Modern military units
- Portable electronic devices.

But the answer will focus on just one portion of all this stuff. In this case, the first element. All the other stuff is just put there to pollute our minds.

In this type of questions you should ask yourself: "If all the elements in the passage are true, then which answer should be true a- regardless of how duh it sounds and b- regardless whether it refers to an important part of the passage or to a minor detail of the passage."

Answer choices are tricky as well. But D does the work.

The earliest known records of wartime activities detail the history of the use of carrier pigeons to communicate classified military information

So let´s say the earliest known records of wartime activities were in the year 1000 AD (just making this up... I have no idea). And the records discuss the history (some time in the past, before 1,000 AD: maybe 900 AD) of the use of carrier pigeons.

Answer choice D fairly rephrases this: Carrier pigeons were used in warfare prior to the date of the earliest known record of wartime activity.

Yes, it sounds pretty duh, but that´s how Inference questions work. Fair enough for me. Click and move on.

Kudos if it helped!

Responding to a pm:

You need to find the conclusion i.e. something which MUST BE TRUE according to the given argument.

Here is why (D) MUST BE TRUE:

(D) Carrier pigeons were used in warfare prior to the date of the earliest known record of wartime activity.

The earliest known records of wartime activities detail the history of the use of carrier pigeons to communicate classified military information.

The earliest know records tell about the "history" of the use of carrier pigeons. So carrier pigeons were used prior to the date of the "earliest known records". These records actually tell us about the history of the use of carrier pigeons for military information.

Here is why both (B) and (C) are incorrect.

(B) The messages that carrier pigeons carry cannot be intercepted.

The argument doesn't say that the pigeon msgs cannot be intercepted. It just says that pigeons are useful when electronic messages can be intercepted. Perhaps there is a much lower probability of pigeon messages getting intercepted. Perhaps, people do not try to intercept because they don't know that pigeons are still used and hence the pigeons are useful etc. The argument doesn't say that "messages CANNOT be intercepted". It just says that pigeons are useful when electronic messages can be intercepted.

(C) The use of carrier pigeons decreased once portable electronic devices became practical in warfare.

Again, we don't have enough information in the argument to say that. Perhaps the use of carrier pigeons stayed the same but portable electronic devices started getting used as well. Perhaps for a very long time after portable electronic devices became practical, they were not used because people were not comfortable with them and they till used pigeons. We don't know.

Answer is a very tricky D
First of all the question being asked is kind of incorrect. It is a - "most supported/inference question"
So the correct question should have been "The statements above, if true, best support which of the following conclusions? (remove conclusion)


The first line says - The "earliest known records" of wartime activities detail the "history" of the use of carrier pigeons to communicate classified military information.

So the earliest or the very first report is talking about "history" of use of pigeons in communications. History means something that has a past; something that happend a long time back. So this clearly shows that even before the first report about wartime activity was written, pigeons were used long before that. Thats why the act of using pigeon as courier has a HISTORY. This the only inference that matches with our options.

The use of carrier pigeons is usually preferable to the use of portable electronic devices when a military unit needs a way to send classified military information.
WRONG:-This is mentioned right in the passage. Something that is mentioned cannot be an inference.

The messages that carrier pigeons carry cannot be intercepted.
WRONG:- The passage says that message send by portable devices can be intercepted. It says nothing about message carried by pigeon. Also common sense dictates against using such a strong language. A pigeon if shot can be captured and messages can be intercepted.

The use of carrier pigeons decreased once portable electronic devices became practical in warfare.
WRONG :- This cannot be inferred from the info in the passage.

Carrier pigeons were used in warfare prior to the date of the earliest known record of wartime activity.
CORRECT:- The earliest or the very first report is talking about "history" of use of pigeons in communications. History means something that has a past; something that happend a long time back. So this clearly shows that even before the first report about wartime activity was written, pigeons were used long before that. Thats why the act of using pigeon as courier has a HISTORY. This the only inference that matches with our options.

Carrier pigeons are still used extensively by modern military units.
WRONG:- Cannot be inferred from the info in the passage.









The earliest known records of wartime activities detail the history of the use of carrier pigeons to communicate classified military information. Many people are not aware that the birds were also used extensively in the world wars of the twentieth century. Even today, their uncanny ability to fly home over great distances makes them valuable even to modern military units that need a way to deliver messages without the use of portable electronic devices whose signals can be intercepted.

The statements above, if true, best support which of the following conclusions?


The use of carrier pigeons is usually preferable to the use of portable electronic devices when a military unit needs a way to send classified military information.

The messages that carrier pigeons carry cannot be intercepted.

The use of carrier pigeons decreased once portable electronic devices became practical in warfare.

Carrier pigeons were used in warfare prior to the date of the earliest known record of wartime activity.

Carrier pigeons are still used extensively by modern military units.

A. The use of carrier pigeons is usually preferable to the use of portable electronic devices when a military unit needs a way to send classified military information.
It cannot be infered from the given it's just stated as valuable from the same we cannot infer whether it was preferd it's oversimplified assumption -Hence out

B. The messages that carrier pigeons carry cannot be intercepted.
This was never stated only that electronic can be intercepted doesn't close the loop that pigeons can never be intercepted -Hence Out

C. The use of carrier pigeons decreased once portable electronic devices became practical in warfare.
This too is an over the top assumption and we cannot on the same with the given premise -Hnece out

D. Carrier pigeons were used in warfare prior to the date of the earliest known record of wartime activity.
Since the dated there can be data before the recorded data it's a clue that pigeons were used as a form of carries-Hence in

E. Carrier pigeons are still used extensively by modern military units.
Similar reasonig as C
Hence IMO D

"Even today, their uncanny ability to fly home over great distances makes them valuable even to modern military units that need a way to deliver messages without the use of portable electronic devices whose signals can be intercepted."

Does this not support answer choice E?

D) is the answer it says details of history
B) isn't the answer because it is made clear that there are no signals to intercept but the message still can be.