Bunuel
The ancient Kazazi tribe is considered the first group of people to domesticate corn, famously giving different varieties of corn their own unique names. The Kazazi did not have unique names for varieties of wheat, however, so it is unlikely that the Kazazi were able to domesticate wheat.
Which of the following, if true, most undermines the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The climate and soil conditions that are best for growing corn are the same conditions that are best for growing wheat.
(B) Archaeologists have discovered that the first tribe to domesticate wheat did so more than 50 years before the Kazazi domesticated corn.
(C) Tribes only give unique names to crops that they have successfully domesticated.
(D) The Kazazi did not have unique names for different varieties of potatoes or lettuce, crops the tribe is known to have domesticated.
(E) The knowledge and tools required to domesticate wheat are more sophisticated than the knowledge and tools required to domesticate corn.
VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:
If you break down the logical flaw in the argument, it is one of generalization - the argument essentially says that "the tribe gave specific names to one type of crop it domesticated, so if it didn't have a special name for a type of crop it didn't domesticate it."
In order to weaken an argument with a generalization flaw, you want to show that that one data point isn't indicative of the whole. And choice D does just that: it shows two other types of crops that didn't have special names but were domesticated, showing that the "domesticated and had names" link is an outlier, not the rule. Choice D is therefore correct.
Among the incorrect answer choices: choice A is a long way away from "domesticating" wheat - since the argument states that the Kazazi was the first tribe to domesticate corn, it shows that just having good conditions doesn't mean that those conditions are anywhere near sufficient to domesticate a crop. So A doesn't have an impact on the conclusion. Choice B is similar: just because wheat had already been domesticated for the first time somewhere else on the planet doesn't mean that the Kazazi would have been able to do it on their own. Choice C is out of scope: the Kazazi did not have special names for wheat, so knowing the circumstances under which tribes DID have special names for crops is irrelevant. And choice E, if anything, strengthens the argument by suggesting essentially that if you just figured out how to domesticate corn, you still have a long way to go to domesticate wheat.