A purse containing 32 ancient gold

Answer choices

1. A

   Unsupported Comparison: more valuable1% picked this

   Moroccan coins were more valuable in the ancient city than were

   Nothing in the passage deals with how valuable these coins were or weren't, so we have no basis for thinking these Moroccan coins were more or less valuable than any other coin.

   1%
2. B

   Too Strong: most6% picked this

   Most gold coins available during the time when the ancient city thrived were

   We know that the 32 coins in this purse were minted in Morocco. That is no reason to believe that more than 50% of the coins available during this time were minted in Morocco. This is the age old trap on Necessary Assumption and Most Supported of acting like "the only X mentioned in the paragraph is therefore the only or the most important X there is overall".

   6%
3. C

   Correct84% picked this

   The purse with the gold coins had been brought to the ancient city by a pilgrim on the

   Why this is right

   This would be the most supported hypothesis for where this purse came from, given our available facts. We're not saying we can PROVE it, but we were only given two potential theories for how these coins got so far from Morocco (trader or pilgrim) and the last sentence made it seem like the trader hypothesis is an unlikely one.

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

   84%
4. D

   Too Strong: only4% picked this

   Gold coins were the only medium of exchange used in the

   We actually don't know if gold coins were any medium of exchange used in the ancient city. The fact that a purse with these Moroccan coins was found in this city doesn't mean people in this city traded with these coins. But it would be a reasonable speculation to think an important trading center would consider these coins as a medium of exchange. It's an incredibly extreme speculation to think the only possible way to trade goods in this city was to use gold coins (no bartering, no other forms of currency). This, like (B), is playing off the "since they only mentioned gold coins, maybe there were only gold coins" type of trap mentality.

   4%
5. E

   Out of Scope: interacted5% picked this

   Pilgrims and traders in the ancient city were unlikely to have interacted

   Nothing in the passage gives us any reason to think that pilgrims and traders were or weren't likely to have interacted with one another.

   5%