It is now clear that the

Answer choices

1. A

   Bad Description12% picked this

   It makes a generalization about Egyptian society based on a sample so small that it is

   This describes a sampling flaw — generalizing about Egyptian society from a tiny, unrepresentative sample. The argument is not making a claim about Egyptian society in general; it is making a single claim about whether any earlier society produced alcohol. The cup is offered as one piece of evidence, not as a sample from which a generalization is drawn. This is the wrong flaw.

   12%
2. B

   Equivocation4% picked this

   It uses the term “alcoholic beverage” in a different sense in the premises than

   The argument uses "alcoholic beverage" the same way throughout — including beer in Egypt and wine in Babylon. Both are alcoholic beverages by the same definition. There is no shift in meaning between premise and conclusion.

   4%
3. C

   Bad Description4% picked this

   It presumes, without providing justification, that because one society developed a technology before another, the development in the latter was dependent on

   The argument never claims Babylonian alcohol production depended on Egyptian alcohol production. It just says Egyptians came first. There is no claim of causal influence between the two societies, so there is no flaw of presuming such dependence.

   4%
4. D

   Correct79% picked this

   It ignores the possibility that the first known instance of a kind is not the first

   Why this is right

   This nails the gap. The Egyptian cup is the first known instance of alcohol production, but the conclusion claims the Egyptians were the first ever to produce alcohol. Those are not the same. Some other society — or earlier Egyptians — could have produced alcohol before 2000 B.C. without leaving (or having yet found) archaeological evidence. The argument simply assumes "earliest known" equals "earliest, period," which is exactly the criticism this answer raises.

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

   79%
5. E

   Bad Description1% picked this

   It provides no evidence for the claim that the Babylonians produced wine as early

   The argument does not need to defend the claim that Babylonians produced wine in 1500 B.C. — that is the existing view the argument is overturning, and even if we accept it, the argument still works the way it does (the Egyptian evidence is older). The flaw is not in failing to support the Babylonian date.

   1%