PT154 S2 Q18 ExplanationAnthropologists have long debated whether

Answer choices, explained

1. A

   Wrong Ingredient5% picked this

   It is the main conclusion drawn in

   The main conclusion is the first half of the last sentence, which we can tell because it's supported with the Support Indicator "because" (FABS = for, after all, since, because).

   5%
2. B

   Not a Technical Term2% picked this

   It is a definition of a technical term used in

   It is a definition, but is "culture" a technical term? It seems like a basic, familiar noun. Technical terms are like "glissando, depth of field, covariation"; they are terms that people outside a certain field would not necessarily know.

   2%
3. C

   Correct79% picked this

   It is a claim that is used to support a conditional conclusion drawn

   Why this is right

   Is the conclusion conditional? Sure, it says, If this definition ? customs preserve culture is correct at least in a technical sense Does the definition in the 2nd sentence used to support this conclusion? Yes, in the sense that the premise (the final claim) only makes sense when that definition is applied to it. If we weren't using that definition as our operative definition of "culture", then we wouldn't accept that "abandoning any custom would by definition destroy that culture".

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

   79%
4. D

   Bad Conclusion Match12% picked this

   It is a claim that is used to support the view that a culture should be understood as

   The author is not concluding or suggesting that we should understand culture as a totality of customs. Whenever an author says "If X is true, then Y", the author is not in any way hinting that she thinks X is true or should be true. Furthermore, in this case, the author is showing that if we used this definition of culture then we would get the absurd implication that any time a culture decides to drop or add a custom, that entire culture ceases to exist. (Who would think we should define culture in a way that would mean we're constantly losing and gaining cultures based on slight changes).

   12%
5. E

   Not Ascribed / Not Called Trivial2% picked this

   It is a claim ascribed by the argument to some anthropologists but dismissed by the

   The second sentence does not make clear who has proposed this definition. The fact that anthropologists are discussed in the first sentence doesn't mean that they proposed this definition. And the author isn't dismissing the definition as trivial. The author is saying, "If this definition were correct, then we could get this implication, which means that in some trivial way the idea that customs preserve culture would be true."

   2%