Commemorative plaques cast from brass are a characteristic art form of

GMATNinja

You know,

When I saw the word "derived", I thought "something you learn from someone" kind of stuff.
In our case,
"Benin's knowledge of brass casting derived from the Portuguese" means "Portuguese LITERALLY taught them brass casting" to me.

But according to the argument, neighbour Ife TAUGHT Benin how to use brass casting.

So, I thought, (B) is not relevant because it does not matter whether Ife learnt brass casting from Portuguese (or someone else). What matters is, Ife TAUGHT Benin about brass casting (i.e. brass casting was derived from Ife, not from Portuguese). So, (B) does not provide any additional strengthening info.

I personally chose (C), as I thought "did not use brass casting" kind of means "did not know it".
At least (C) sounded more strengthener than (B) to me.

Any opinions?

The author concludes that "it is unlikely that Benin’s knowledge of brass casting derived from the Portuguese." Since we need to strengthen the argument, let's make sure we understand the author's logic:

• "Commemorative plaques cast from brass are a characteristic art form of the Benin culture of West Africa." - This background information tells us that cast-brass plaques are a typical form of art in Benin culture.
• "The oldest surviving plaques date to the 1400s." - These plaques have been a part of Benin culture since at least the 1400s (maybe earlier).
• "Some scholars hypothesize that brass-casting techniques were introduced by the Portuguese, who came to Benin in 1485 A.D." - How did the people of Benin learn brass-casting techniques? Perhaps from the Portuguese. This hypothesis is consistent with the date evidence (the earliest known plaques date to the 1400s, and the Portuguese came to Benin in the 1400s).
• However, "Portuguese records of that expedition mention cast-brass jewelry sent to Benin’s king from neighboring Ife." - When the Portuguese first showed up, Benin already had cast-brass jewelry from Ife. This means that Benin had already been introduced to cast-brass prior to the arrival of the Portugal. This evidence seems to hurt the hypothesis of some scholars. The author thus concludes that Benin's knowledge of brass casting probably did not derive from (or "originate from") the Portuguese.

We need something that strengthens the author's argument (not the scholar's hypothesis):


Notice that (A) does NOT say, "Portuguese records indicate that the expedition did not include metalworkers." (A) says that the records don't indicate either way. So perhaps the expedition included metalworkers and perhaps it did not. Although this leaves open the possibility that the expedition did not include metalworkers, the evidence in (A) is not very strong. Let's look for something better.

The passage doesn't say or imply that the Portuguese ever went to Ife.

The Portuguese went to Benin in 1485, and wrote records about that trip. In the records, they mention that Ife sent brass-cast jewelry to Benin's king. The Portugues weren't involved in the transaction at all -- they just noted in the records that Ife sent jewelry to Benin. They could make this observation this without ever setting foot in Ife.

So, the passage doesn't conflict with (B).

I hope that helps!

Commemorative plaques cast from brass are a characteristic art form of the Benin culture of West Africa. Some scholars, noting that the oldest surviving plaques date to the 1400s, hypothesize that brass-casting techniques were introduced by the Portuguese, who came to Benin in 1485 A.D. But Portuguese records of that expedition mention cast-brass jewelry sent to Benin’s king from neighboring Ife. So it is unlikely that Benin’s knowledge of brass casting derived from the Portuguese.

(i) Records later than 1485 indicate that the portuguese first met the IFE in 1450. I think this is a weakeness but is too easy to spot on the GMAT

(ii) EARLIER records of Portuguese voyages to the Africa's have been lost

(iii) OTHER records indicate that the portuguese exported Commemorative plaques as a source of revenue. I think this is a weakener because perhaps Benins imported the plaques

(iv) Just because gifts from IFE were sent to the Benins, doenst mean the IFE's transferred knowledge of Brass casting to the Benins

(v) The French knew about Brass casting 50 years earlier compared to the Portuguese == I think this DOES NOT WEAKEN as its doesnt touch on the link between the premise and the conclusion specifically

Hi ReedArnoldMPREP - Do you think these are "weakenesses". I know the argument is talking about 'strengths' but i think the strategy is eliminating weakenesses in order to strengthen. So i was just try to come up with weakenesses to the argument as an exercise so I can intuitively think of these next time



Do you think these are all legitimate perhaps. Can you think of any other tougher weakeners perhaps ?

The author concludes that "it is unlikely that Benin’s knowledge of brass casting derived from the Portuguese." Since we need to strengthen the argument, let's make sure we understand the author's logic:

• "Commemorative plaques cast from brass are a characteristic art form of the Benin culture of West Africa." - This background information tells us that cast-brass plaques are a typical form of art in Benin culture.
• "The oldest surviving plaques date to the 1400s." - These plaques have been a part of Benin culture since at least the 1400s (maybe earlier).
• "Some scholars hypothesize that brass-casting techniques were introduced by the Portuguese, who came to Benin in 1485 A.D." - How did the people of Benin learn brass-casting techniques? Perhaps from the Portuguese. This hypothesis is consistent with the date evidence (the earliest known plaques date to the 1400s, and the Portuguese came to Benin in the 1400s).
• However, "Portuguese records of that expedition mention cast-brass jewelry sent to Benin’s king from neighboring Ife." - When the Portuguese first showed up, Benin already had cast-brass jewelry from Ife. This means that Benin had already been introduced to cast-brass prior to the arrival of the Portugal. This evidence seems to hurt the hypothesis of some scholars. The author thus concludes that Benin's knowledge of brass casting probably did not derive from (or "originate from") the Portuguese.

We need something that strengthens the author's argument (not the scholar's hypothesis):


Notice that (A) does NOT say, "Portuguese records indicate that the expedition did not include metalworkers." (A) says that the records don't indicate either way. So perhaps the expedition included metalworkers and perhaps it did not. Although this leaves open the possibility that the expedition did not include metalworkers, the evidence in (A) is not very strong. Let's look for something better.


The evidence tells us that Benin had cast-brass objects from Ife before they encountered the Portuguese. This suggests that the people of Benin may have learned about cast-brass from Ife, not from the Portuguese.

But what if the people of Ife learned about brass casting from the Portuguese? In that case, any knowledge about brass casting transferred from Ife to Benin actually originated (or derived) from the Portuguese. In other words, if the Portuguese taught the people of Ife about brass casting and then the people of Ife taught the people of Benin about brass casting, then Benin's knowledge of brass casting derived from the Portuguese (even though it was not transferred directly from the Portuguese to Benin).

This would obviously hurt the argument. Choice (B) eliminates this possibility and thus strengthens the argument. Hang on to (B).


All that matters is that the Portuguese knew how to cast brass. We don't care how the Portuguese used cast brass. Even if the Portuguese did not make cast brass commemorative plaques, they still could have taught the people of Benin how to cast brass. Thus, (C) does not strengthen the argument and can be eliminated.


This statement doesn't tell us anything about the origin of the artists' knowledge of brass casting. This statement could be true whether their knowledge derived from the Portuguese or from the people of Ife. Thus, (D) can be eliminated.


This simply tells us that Benin had one of the materials needed to make brass. As with (D), this doesn't tell us anything about the origin of the artists' knowledge of brass casting. Eliminate (E).

(B) is the best answer.

Hi GMATNinja, I got this question correct, but I took way too long on it (spent around 5 minutes on it) because I had to work from wrong to right. When I eventually did get it correct (via elimination), I still wasn't too happy with my understanding of why B was correct.

I understand that the question asks us to find a piece of info that makes it "unlikely" that Benin's knowledge derived from Portugal, but am I correct in saying that B does NOT bulletproof this? Is it not possible that Portugal taught another country, let's say Ghana, and then Ghana taught Ife, and then Ife taught Benin, in this case, even if B were true, then it is still the case that the knowledge derived from Portugal at the end of the day. Would you say that I overthought this and that thinking of this was not necessary?