Logical Reasoning

PT153 · S2 · Q14 Biologists are mistaken in thinking

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Biologists are mistaken in thinking that the fossil record provides direct evidence of the course of human evolution.

Conclusion

Biologists are mistaken in thinking that the fossil record provides direct evidence of the course of human evolution.

rephrase: The fossil records does not provide direct evidence of the course of human evolution.

Intermediate Conclusion

There's no way to objectively interpret a fossil.

Evidence

The traits we choose to use to classify the fossil always reflect the model that the paleontologist wants to test (such as classifying 'pelvis' as a human trait only happens because our model involves the idea that bipedalism --i.e. walking on two legs, not four -- distinguishes humans from apes).

Evaluate

Whenever we do Main Conclusion, we remind ourselves of the two prevailing trends for where they attempt to hide the conclusion:

- 30% of them are found in the first sentence - 65% of them are found in some Pivot / Rebuttal sentence

In this case, the first sentence was a Rebuttal: "biologists are mistaken". When a Main Conclusion paragraph opens with the author's opinion, that's almost always the Main Conclusion, which the rest of the paragraph seeks to support.

The second sentence begins with an Intermediate Conclusion. The colon, ":" indicates that the 2nd half of the sentence serves as support for the first half.

Goal

As always, on Main Conclusion, our goal is just to match the meaning of the claim we identified as the conclusion.

So let's find an answer that sounds like .

14.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the overall conclusion of the argument?

  1. No early apes had pelvises

    Unstated Last-Claim Trap

    This doesn't have any resemblance to the first sentence, so it's not worth scrutinizing any further. It happens to be saying something extreme and unstated. It sound the most like language from the final sentence, and since the final sentence is the conclusion on only 10% of Main Conclusion questions, we should always be wary of selecting an answer that sounds like the last idea.

    0% picked this

  2. The claims made by evolutionary

    Unstated

    This does not look like any sort of match for the first sentence, so we don't need to think about it any further. As it happens, it's saying something very extreme that was never said.

    6% picked this

  3. The fossil remains of some

    Unstated Last-Claim Trap

    This doesn't have any resemblance to the first sentence, so it's not worth scrutinizing any further. It's saying something that was never stated. It sounds the most like language from the final sentence, and since the final sentence is the conclusion on only 10% of Main Conclusion questions, we should always be wary of selecting an answer that sounds like the last idea.

    1% picked this

  4. Correct

    The fossil record does not

    Why this is right

    This matches the meaning of the first sentence, which we identified as our Main Conclusion.

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

    89% picked this

  5. Paleontologists? classifications of fossils are

    Premise

    This is the second half of the 2nd sentence; it's a premise supporting the Intermediate Conclusion that begins the 2nd sentence.

    4% picked this

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