A scientific team compared

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct67% picked this

   The ancient mine tapped into a large underground deposit that also supplied nearby riverbeds with

   Why this is right

   This suggests at an alternative explanation for where the gold may have come from. It didn't need to be dug out from the ancient mine. Some of the nearby riverbeds had significant qualities of this same gold. The gold in these artififacts could have just come from pieces people picked out of the riverbed.

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

   67%
2. B

   Helps Author's Explanation3% picked this

   The ancient mine may have at one time been operated by the same civilization that was responsible for

   This goes the opposite way by making the Author's Story more plausible. If the artifacts and the mine belong to the same civilization, it's even more plausible that the two are connected.

   3%
3. C

   No Impact6% picked this

   The ancient mine was first operated many centuries before the artifacts

   If this were reversed, then it would Weaken by destroying the plausibility of the author's explanation (if the artifacts were made before the ancient mine was first operated). This somewhat strengthens by establishing that the ancient mine was already up and running. Some people may have thought we could say "if it was first operated many centuries before the artifacts were made, doesn't that make it seem like the mine would have already run out of gold?" Maybe, but I don't know the lifespan of gold mines. Also, it's possible that the civilization running the ancient mine had exhumed the gold long ago but hadn't made it into an artifact until centuries later.

   6%
4. D

   No Impact20% picked this

   Ancient gold artifacts were often constructed from gold taken from

   This doesn't help us assess the mystery of where the gold originally came from. It move us away from believing it came from this ancient mine where the ratio of trace elements matches.

   20%
5. E

   Mildly Helps Author's Explanation5% picked this

   Much of the gold dug from the ancient mine in western Asia was transported

   The fact that gold from this ancient mine got spread around the world means that the gold was available to be turned into artifacts in lots of different places in the world. Had this answer been reversed (most of the gold stayed very local to the mine), then we might be able to lower plausibility, but we would also need to know whether the artifacts came from near the mine or far away.

   5%