Over 40,000 lead seals

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct56% picked this

   Most of the lead seals produced during the early Byzantine Empire were affixed to documents that were then

   Why this is right

   This actually helps us with both of our goals. It gives us more reason to think that any seals that were produced were probably attached to documents, and it gives us more reason to think that seals attached to documents got recycled. There are a pair of MOST statements in the evidence that are easy to miss "If opened, then probably served purpose" "If served purpose, then probably recast" Neither one of those were actually triggered by any facts in the evidence. We were never told that any of these documents were opened, so we don't know what proportion of seals ever "served their purpose and then got recast". This answer doesn't mathematically guarantee the conclusion (that the number of docs is many times the number of remaining seals), but it definitely moves us in that direction. It sounds like most seals got recycled at least once.

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

   56%
2. B

   Unclear Impact17% picked this

   Most of the lead seals produced during the early Byzantine Empire were affixed to documents that

   That the documents have since been destroyed doesn't tell us whether the seals attached to them were also destroyed or whether that document was ever opened. It's possible that there were 40,000 documents with seals. Most of those documents have since been destroyed, but we saved all the lead seals.

   17%
3. C

   Weaken9% picked this

   The amount of lead available for seals in the early Byzantine Empire was much greater than the amount of lead that

   This makes it less likely that there was a need to recast the lead since an abundance of lead would make it worth less, thereby reducing the incentive to recast it once it had served its purpose.

   9%
4. D

   Too Weak13% picked this

   During the time of the early Byzantine Empire there were at most 40,000 documents of enough importance to prevent the removing

   This range includes a number of documents [5] that would support the argument and a number of documents [40,000] that would undermine the argument.

   13%
5. E

   Opposite (if anything)5% picked this

   During the time of the early Byzantine Empire there were fewer than 40,000 seals affixed to documents

   We want to know that the number of documents that had seals on them was well above 120,000 documents. The fact that this answer puts an upper limit on how many documents had seals would, if anything, undermine our author's argument. It would be more helpful for us to hear that "during this empire, there were more than 40,000 seals affixed to documents at any given time", since we're trying to argue that at least 120,000 documents used lead seals.

   5%