WillGetIt wrote:
Archaeologist: Researchers excavating a burial site in Cyprus found a feline skeleton lying near a human skeleton. Both skeletons were in the same sediment at the same depth and equally well-preserved, suggesting that the feline and human were buried together about 9,500 years ago. This shows that felines were domesticated around the time farming began, when they would have been useful in protecting stores of grain from mice.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the archaeologist’s argument?
(A) Archaeologists have not found any remains of stores of grain in the immediate vicinity of the burial site.
(B) The burial site in Cyprus is substantially older than any other known burial site in which a feline skeleton and a human skeleton appear to have been buried together.
(C) Paintings found near the burial site seem to show people keeping felines as domestic companions, but do not show felines hunting mice.
(D) In Cyprus, there are many burial sites dating from around 9,500 years ago in which the remains of wild animals appear to have been buried alongside human remains.
(E) Before felines were domesticated, early farmers had no effective way to protect stores of grain from mice.
ID - CR07304
Passage analysis Archaeologist: Researchers excavating a burial site in Cyprus found a feline skeleton lying near a human skeleton.As per an archaeologist:
Researchers digging up a burial site in Cyprus, discovered a skeleton belonging to a catlike animal near a skeleton of a human.
Both skeletons were in the same sediment at the same depth and equally well-preserved, suggesting that the feline and human were buried together about 9,500 years ago.Both skeletons were found lying at the same level under the ground.
Both were in the same state of preservation.
This indicated that the catlike animal and the human were buried together around 9,500 years ago.
This shows that felines were domesticated around the time farming began, when they would have been useful in protecting stores of grain from mice.All this indicates that catlike animals were kept as domestic pets roughly around the same time when humans started farming.
These felines would have proved useful in guarding the grain stores from mice.
ConclusionFelines were domesticated around the time farming began, as they would have been useful in protecting stores of grain from mice.
Pre-thinkingWeaken FrameworkNow per our understanding of the passage, let’s first write down the weaken framework:
What new information will make us believe less in the conclusion
Felines were domesticated around the time farming began, as they would have been useful in protecting stores of grain from mice.
Given that
Researchers found a feline skeleton lying beside a human skeleton in a burial site in Cyprus.
They were buried in the same sediment depth
They were in the same state of preservation.
These two facts led the researchers to believe that the two had been buried together 9,500 years ago.
Thought processThe researchers most likely have reason to believe that farming began around 9,500 years ago.
They have linked this belief to the discovery of the feline buried beside the human skeleton.
The felines are natural enemies of mice. Using this universal truth, the researchers came to the conclusion that felines must have been domesticated by the humans to destroy mice that harm stores of grain.
As per the researchers, the presence of the felines can only mean domestication of the animals.
What if the presence could be explained away in another way?
Weakener 1What if the felines ran wild thousands of years ago and man hunted them? The skeletons could be that of a hunter and the prey.
So, if any option shows that felines were considered wild animals often hunted down by
humans, that would weaken the conclusion.
Weakener 2What if it was a ritual to bury wild animals with the dead body of humans thousands of years ago?
If an option gives evidence to indicate the above, it will weaken the conclusion.
Answer Choice AnalysisOption AThe grain stores may have existed elsewhere in the ancient city. This option does not prove that farming had not begun at the time.
Thus, this is not the correct choice.
Option BThis option just indicates the age of this site with this discovery being the first of its kind among others. But it does not weaken the link drawn by the researchers between feline domestication and farming.
Thus, this is not the correct choice.
Option C This option seems to support the domestication of felines, even though the felines are not shown hunting mice.
Thus, this is not the correct choice.
Option DThis is in line with our pre-thinking weakener 2.
Thus, this is the correct choice.
Option EThis option assumes that the conclusion is true. And builds on that to further state that no other way of protecting grain stores existed before the felines were domesticated.
This in a remote way validates the conclusion.
Thus, this is not the correct choice.
I do not understand how the argument implicitly assumes that farming in Cyprus began around 9,500 years ago. The author is first saying that basically the feline and human were buried 9,500 years ago. Then the following sentence says, "This shows that felines were domesticated around the time farming began". The farming comes out of left field in my view. Perhaps I am reading this too literally. Is the author explicitly telling us that it was 9,500 years ago when farming began when they say "this shows that"... providing additional context for what happened 9,500 years ago = when farming began? I am just very confused
My second question... the
says for the correct choice that "If many wild animals were buried alongside humans in Cyprus around 9,500 years ago, then the feline skeleton is just as likely to be that of a wild animal than that of a domesticated cat." To confirm my understanding, the correct answer is basically saying although it is a cat, it could be a WILD cat and not necessarily a DOMESTICATED cat?
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22 Feb 2022, 18:48
