Logical Reasoning

PT150 · S2 · Q2 Ancient humans in eastern North America

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Ancient humans in eastern North America hunted mammoths until the mammoth disappeared from the area around 13,000 years ago.

Conclusion

This ancient settlement in eastern North America was occupied at a time when mammoths lived in the area.

Evidence

We found a fossil bone there, and it had an engraving of a mammoth.

Evaluate

Okay ... just because the bone had an engraving of a mammoth doesn't mean there were actually mammoths around. My daughters "engrave" pictures of mermaids with their crayons; that doesn't mean that mermaids live in our area.

Goal

Look for an answer naming the missing link, , or an answer ruling out an objection:

for example ... - the engraver wasn't just copying picture of mammoths he had seen in cave paintings

- the engraver wasn't just drawing the picture of an animal which no longer existed but whose description lived on in oral history

- the bone wasn't just an old bone that made its way to this settlement (in other words, maybe the people lived here 10,000 years ago, but the bone was 15,000 years old)

2.

The argument requires the assumption that

  1. Correct

    the engraving was made during

    Why this is right

    If you negate this, you get "the engraving was not made during the time when the settlement was occupied". Does that hurt the argument? Sure. The author is moving from "if you engraved it on a bone, then you must have been seeing this thing in your area". If the engraving took place during another time period, then the bone doesn't tell us anything about whether mammoths lived in this area during the time period when the settlement was occupied. Negating this answer makes room for objections like my example of, "what if people lived here 10,000 years ago, but the bone was engraved 15,000 years ago?" In general, on LSAT problems involving archaeological evidence, the authors usually have to assume stuff like "where we found X is where X came from" / "what this area looks like now resembles what it looked like then".

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

    89% picked this

  2. the fossil on which the

    Irrelevant: type of bone

    If we negate this, it would be saying "the engraving was made on a mammoth bone". Would that weaken the argument? No, that would all but prove the author's claim that mammoths were present in that area.

    1% picked this

  3. when mammoths disappeared from eastern

    Too Strong: none anywhere

    The author doesn't need to assume anything about all of North America being 100% mammoth free. If we negated this and it said that "there was still at least one mammoth somewhere in central or western North America", would it hurt the argument? Not at all. If we were tempted by this answer, we should think more about isolating the Conclusion and the Evidence. This answer is lost within the background claim that isn't even essential to the argument.

    4% picked this

  4. the engraving technique employed on

    Too Strong: unique

    The author doesn't have to think there was anything special about this engraving technique. If a similar technique is also used in western North America, that would change nothing.

    4% picked this

  5. there is no scientific way

    Too Strong: no way

    Would it hurt the author's argument if there were a scientific way of dating the engraving? Nope. Dating the engraving and dating the bone could actually help to confirm the author's conclusion.

    1% picked this

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