The folktale that claims that a

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Specific33% picked this

   Rattlesnakes molt exactly once a

   If this were Sufficient Assumption, this answer choice would effectively prove the conclusion. A rattlesnake with 10 sections would be 10 years old. However, the author just needs to assume there is SOME reliable relationship between molting / age. He doesn't need that relationship to be once per year. If snakes molted twice a year, that would still give a reliable way to translate # of sections into age. A snake with 10 sections would be 5 years old.

   33%
2. B

   Too Strong: Identical1% picked this

   The rattles of rattlesnakes of different species are identical

   The author doesn't need them to be identical. She needs them to all have rattles that reflect the correct number of sections made (in this hypothetical non-brittle world). But it doesn't matter if some of them are brown, some are black, some are red, etc.

   1%
3. C

   Opposite2% picked this

   Rattlesnakes molt more frequently when young than

   The author needs to assume there is a consistent relationship between molting and time. If there's an erratic one that varies by age or weather or whatever, that would hurt his reliable measurement of time.

   2%
4. D

   Out of Scope: Brittleness18% picked this

   The brittleness of a rattlesnake’s rattle is not correlated with the length of

   The author's argument is about a hypothetical world in which the snake's rattle is not brittle, so there's no reason in that hypothetical world where the snake's rattle isn't brittle the author would be making any assumptions about the brittleness of the rattle. To put this another way, if you negate this, and you say that brittleness of rattle is correlated with length of life, that doesn't hurt the author's argument. She is arguing that counting numbers of sections is one reliable way to tell the age of a snake. It doesn't hurt her argument if there's another way to tell the age of a snake (via the brittleness of its rattle).

   18%
5. E

   Correct45% picked this

   Rattlesnakes molt as often when food is scarce as they do when

   Why this is right

   One of the all-time hardest correct answers. Since the author is assuming there's a reliable relationship between molting and age, she has to assume that the rate of molting doesn't vary with malnutrition, or funky climate, or changes in predator/prey dynamics, or mating habits, etc. If she thinks that all we need to see is the number of sections, to determine a snake's age, then she is assuming that molting happens at a constant interval. If we negated this, we could object to the argument by saying "if the rate of molting is different, based on whether a snake was well fed or starving, then we couldn't really reliably gauge a snake's age from its number of sections. A snake with 10 sections might be 5 years old if it's been well fed or up to 10 years old if it's been malnourished."

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

   45%