A recent excavation of a site at the bottom of the Pacific

Question

A recent excavation of a site at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline, uncovered a variety of animal bones, including those from chickens and pigs. Neither chickens nor pigs could fly or swim so far out into the ocean, and the bones are approximately two hundred years old.

Combined with the information to the left, which of the following, if true, would best support the conclusion that the bones were rubbish dumped overboard by a passing boat?

A. Chickens and pigs are usually transported overseas today by air freight.
B. Bones from chickens and pigs were sometimes carried as good luck charms by colonial-era travelers.
C Scientists were able to locate the skeletons of at least 15 chickens in the underwater site.
D Another underwater location in the Atlantic Ocean contained similar bones dating from approximately 100 years ago.
E Mixed with the animal bones, there were also items like pottery shards and broken tools.

thevenus · Answer

A. Chickens and pigs are usually transported overseas today by air freight.
 The author is concerned about the bones from chickens of 200years old time,not of today's. 
B. Bones from chickens and pigs were sometimes carried as good luck charms by colonial-era travelers.
  Good contender,so hold. 
C Scientists were able to locate the skeletons of at least 15 chickens in the underwater site.
 Number of chickens has nothing to do with the case. 
D Another underwater location in the Atlantic Ocean contained similar bones dating from approximately 100 years ago.
 A lot changes in 100 years, so it's really not possible to judge a 200 year old event with a 100 year old event. 
E Mixed with the animal bones, there were also items like pottery shards and broken tools. 
 Good contender,so hold.

Now it's (B) Vs (E)

Colonial-era travelers had ships/boats to travel or not?we don't know.....but if the the bones were rubbish dumped overboard by a passing boat then definitely they had carried those bones in some pottery(those days pottery would have been the only cheapest source to carry dumped items) along with broken tools to make the pots sink deep down due to broke tool's weight. 
SO,(E) is the right answer IMO.
OA?

mandreak2k3 · Answer

IMO answer is B.

Since there is no such information been given whether travelers carried those bones in pottery. Its a mere assumption.

OA Please.

ranjeet75 · Answer

I think the answer should be B.

"bones were carried in pottery" is just an assumption which may be or may not be right because it is possible that bones were carried in ships/boats

thevenus · Answer

"...... uncovered a variety of animal bones, including those from chickens and pigs."

(B) Bones from chickens and pigs were sometimes carried as good luck charms by colonial-era travelers.

If chicken and pigs were the good luck charm then why a variety of animal bones got found?

They must have many animals as good luck charm ? :-D

novemberain · Answer

I would go with E

A recent excavation of a site at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline, uncovered a variety of animal bones, including those from chickens and pigs. Neither chickens nor pigs could fly or swim so far out into the ocean, and the bones are approximately two hundred years old.

Combined with the information to the left, which of the following, if true, would best support the conclusion that the bones were rubbish dumped overboard by a passing boat?

A. Chickens and pigs are usually transported overseas today by air freight. – Doesn’t support the conclusion 
B. Bones from chickens and pigs were sometimes carried as good luck charms by colonial-era travelers - Doesn’t support conclusion
C Scientists were able to locate the skeletons of at least 15 chickens in the underwater site.- irrelevant
D Another underwater location in the Atlantic Ocean contained similar bones dating from approximately 100 years ago.- Irrelevant
E Mixed with the animal bones, there were also items like pottery shards and broken tools. – Supports conclusion that bones with other rubbish items likepottery shards and broken tools were found.

catennacio · Answer

Between B & E, I chose E. 
In B: if the bones are good luck charms, why do they want to throw away? This is not to mention that we don't know anything about the colonial-era travelers.

E on the other hands says there are other tools too.. so it's more likely that people used the tools to do something with the animals.

tuanquang269 · Answer

Choice B is really the weaken choice that cannot be the correct answer, as the conclusion of the argument states that the bones of chickens and pigs are the rubbish of passing boats.

onedayill · Answer

I'll go with E

OA Please?

bones are good luck charms, why do they want to throw away?

Qassam · Answer

It's E.

B is incorrect, as "good luck charms" can't be classified as rubbish.

MarkSullivan · Answer

My intuition is that this problem is not a GMAT problem (LSAT, perhaps?). One obvious clue is the phrase "information to the left" in the question itself (GMAT passages are always  above  the question). But the stronger clue is the fact that two answers (B and E) can be construed as supporting answers. This is actually pretty rare on GMAT CR but quite common on the LSAT.

Anyway, several other posters have already done an excellent job of narrowing down to (B) and (E), so I'll focus on those two.

As I said before, (B) can probably be construed as supporting. The logic goes like this: "Colonial-era travelers kept chicken and pig bones as good luck charms. They carried the bones with them on boats in the Pacific Ocean. Somehow the bones ended up off the boats (tossed overboard, sunk boat, etc.) Certainly a plausible real-world explanation. But on the GMAT, you're not allowed to construct a story around the given answer – a correct answer should  directly  support the conclusion.

With (E), it seems natural that pottery shards and broken tools would be tossed overboard, and so this supports the idea that the bones found with the shards and tools had been tossed overboard as well. There's still a small link missing here – we don't have  absolute  evidence that the pottery shards and broken tools were tossed overboard from a ship. Maybe it's all from a landfill that washed out to sea 200 years ago?

In the end, I'm not a big fan of either of these answer choices. If I saw this question on the GMAT, I'd go with (E) because I do think the support is a little more direct there. But the big takeaway is that this is not the kind of CR question you'll be seeing on the GMAT!

Cheers,
Mark

metallicafan · Answer

+1 B

I think it is B. It matches with the age of the bones.
In E, we cannot assume that the pottery comes from the same boat.

getgyan · Answer

I think it is E. If sailors carried it for good luck then why would anyone throw it. If the ship sunk or the crew thre stuff then the bones should be found along with some other wreckage like pottery in this case

arya251294 · Answer

but if the the bones were rubbish dumped overboard by a passing boat then definitely they had carried those bones in some pottery(those days pottery would have been the only cheapest source to carry dumped items)

Don't you think this is the outside information. What if they didn't use pottery at all to dump the bones?
It doesn't look like a GMAT type question at all.

WannaManaConsult · Answer

Let’s focus on the components of conclusion:

“Rubbish” from “passing boat”

B has two issues:

1. good luck charms are not rubbish and they only explain chicken+pig bones (reading said variety of animal bones). Furthermore, good luck charms “sometimes” carried by sailors aren’t likely to be something thrown away in bulk.

2. Compared to E, B doesn’t close the door on “dumped from passing boat” as shut. There is still more possibility that the animal bones may have ended up there by other means.

B is still viable support. It’s just not as good as E.

E is better.
The pottery shards and broken tools directly support thrown away by humans, from a boat. The broken tools support “rubbish.”

This feels more like an LSAT question but I am fairly certain E is better.

Posted from my mobile device

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A recent excavation of a site at the bottom of the Pacific

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