Various mid-fourteenth-century European writers show an interest in games, but no writer of this period mentions the playing of cards. Nor do any of the mid-fourteenth-century statutes that proscribe or limit the play of games mention cards, though they do mention dice, chess, and other games. It is therefore likely that, contrary to what is sometimes claimed, at that time playing cards was not yet common in Europe.
The pattern of reasoning in which one of the following is most similar to that in the argument above?
(A) Neither today’s newspapers nor this evening’s television news mentioned a huge fire that was rumored to have happened in the port last night. Therefore, there probably was no such fire.
(B) This evening’s television news reported that the cruise ship was only damaged in the fire last night, whereas the newspaper reported that it was destroyed. The television news is based on more recent information, so probably the ship was not destroyed.
(C) Among the buildings that are near the port is the newspaper’s printing plant. Early editions of this morning’s paper were very late. Therefore, the fire at the port probably affected areas beyond the port itself.
(D) The newspaper does not explicitly say that the port reopened after the fire, but in its listing of newly arrived ships it mentions some arrival times after the fire. Therefore, the port was probably not closed for long.
(E) The newspaper is generally more reliable than the television news and the newspaper reported that the damage from last night’s fire in the port was not severe. Therefore, the damage probably was not severe.
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