Archaeologist: There were several sandstone statues of a female figure

Official Explanation

­An assumption would be a proposition that must necessarily be true for the conclusion. Also, negating the assumption should make it impossible for the conclusion to hold.

Let’s evaluate each of the answer choices.

A. The conclusion says that how the next-to-be-recovered statue is modeled will help determine which section sculpted it. So, a statement that says this statue will be one sculpted by the women of that time cannot possibly be an assumption.

B. It is sandstone statues that are discussed in the argument. Whether or not materials other than sandstone were used for sculpting is not really relevant to the argument.

C. Whether "All other artifacts" were statues made from sandstone is not important for the conclusion to be drawn and so cannot be an assumption.

D. The argument presents no distinction of class among the kids. And this is not required to be assumed - its being true or false does not determine whether the conclusion can be drawn.

E. Even if there was no overlap, it would be possible to determine which section sculpted the statue. This does not have to be true so cannot be an assumption.

F. Yes. This has to be true for the argument to hold and thus, qualifies as a fair assumption. Unless the statue is of a female figure made of sandstone, none of the techniques mentioned in the passage can be employed. Also, if we remove this assumption, we are not sure what type of statue the next statue would be and we cannot employ the already learnt knowledge about female statues on sandstone. In that case, the conclusion that we will be able to determine which section of the ancient society sculpted the next statue cannot hold true.

Hence, for the Assumption column, F is the correct answer choice.

Now that we have found the assumption, which of the remaining answer choices is a fact that would provide significant logical support for the required assumption? Clearly, C, All other artifacts recovered from the archaeological site were statues made from sandstone, is a supporting fact.

Hence, for the Possible fact column, C is the correct answer choice.­