Standard archaeological techniques make

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: other techniques11% picked this

   There exist several different techniques for collecting samples of prehistoric pigments

   The conclusion we're fighting is specifically about whether "standard techniques" can do the job of dating this paint. If other techniques can collect samples of pigments without getting limestone, congratulation to them. But they don't pose any objection to the author, who is only talking about these techniques that can't avoid getting limestone in their paint samples.

   11%
2. B

   Correct75% picked this

   Laboratory procedures exist that can remove all the limestone from a sample of prehistoric

   Why this is right

   The author thinks it's a dealbreaker that the paint samples will all contain limestone, because limestone contains carbon minerals, which screw up the standard dating techniques. But apparently it is possible to use the standard techniques, because we already have procedures by which we can just remove all the limestone from the sample. Problem solved!

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   75%
3. C

   Out of Scope: age of limestone11% picked this

   The age of the limestone itself can be determined from samples that contain

   The conclusion only cares about whether we can determine the age of paintings, which means dating the paint pigment, which means dating the vegetable matter used to make the paint pigment. We don't care about what's possible in the world of determining the age of rocks like limestone.

   11%
4. D

   Strengthens1% picked this

   Prehistoric artists did not use anything other than vegetable matter to

   Given that this sounds like it's just reiterating what a premise told us, "Prehistoric artists painted on limestone with pigments composed of vegetable matter", this should feel more like it's reinforcing the author's thinking than it is combating the author's thinking. If the prehistoric artists sometimes made paintings with something other than vegetable matter, then that would open the door to new possible ways in which we could use standard techniques to figure out the age of these paintings. So if they used lots of different substances, then there's more doubt about the author's argument, which only pertained to vegetable matter.. If they only used vegetable matter, then the author's argument is more sound.

   1%
5. E

   Strengthens, if anything1% picked this

   The proportion of carbon to other elements in limestone is the same in all

   This seems to rule out the sort of objection we were imagining in which a 5 oz sample of paint has 1 oz of limestone squeezed over to one side and 4 oz of paint filling the remainder. An uneven dispersion of carbon throughout the limestone could allow there to be lucky little pockets of "no carbon", from which we could grab out carbon-free paint sample. So if this answer is telling us that the carbon is evenly distributed throughout the whole sample, then it's harder to extricate the carbon we don't want from the vegetable matter we do. Thus, it would help the author.

   1%