A tree’s age can be determined

Answer choices

1. A

   Unrelated to Goal2% picked this

   The Pazyryk tombs were all robbed during ancient times, but breakage of the tombs’ seals allowed the seepage of water, which soon froze permanently,

   It's not clear how any of the story in this answer would translate into a way that archaeologists can figure out the age of a tomb based on the age of the tree that was used to make it. This just tells us that stuff inside the tomb was well preserved.

   2%
2. B

   Unrelated to Goal31% picked this

   The Pazyryk Valley, surrounded by extremely high mountains, has a distinctive yearly pattern of rainfall, and so trees growing in the Pazyryk Valley have

   It's not clear how any of the story in this answer would translate into a way that archaeologists can figure out the age of a tomb based on the age of the tree that was used to make it. This says that these trees were distinct from other valleys' trees. But it doesn't say how we could look at the rings from one of these trees and figure out the age of the tomb.

   31%
3. C

   Correct53% picked this

   Each log in the Pazyryk tombs has among its rings a distinctive sequence of twelve annual rings representing six drought years followed by three

   Why this is right

   This is very confusing, but this telltale sequence of twelve rings would allow archaeologists to figure out "relative ages". Given that all the trees show that sequence of rings somewhere in their set of rings, we can judge the relative ages of the trees/tombs by looking at how many rings come after the telltale sequence. Let's say there's a telltale sequence of rings that are represented by four capital R's: RRRR Consider these trees, listed from innermost (earliest) ring to outermost ring: TREE 1: r r r r r R R R R r r r r TREE 2: r r R R R R r r The RRRR is the same time period. Tree 1 and 2 were both alive during the RRRR time period. Tree 2 lived two more years (because there are two more r's after the RRRR), and then was cut and made into a tomb. Tree 1 lived four more years (because there are four more r's after the RRRR) and then it was cut and made into a tomb. So a tomb made from Tree 2 is two years older than a tomb made from Tree 1, because Tree 2's tomb was built two years after the RRRR phase, whereas Tree 1's tomb wasn't built until four years after the RRRR phase.

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

   53%
4. D

   No Impact12% picked this

   The archaeologists determined that the youngest tree used in any of the tombs was 90 years old and that the oldest

   This feels tempting, because it's talking about ages of trees, but that doesn't tell us the relative ages of the tomb. A tomb made in 1920 is five years older than a tomb made in 1925, but how would knowing the age of the tree used to make those tombs help? It's possible that the tomb in 1920 was made from a 90 -ear-old tree, and the tomb in 1925 was made from a 450 year old tree, or vice versa. There's no way to get from the age of the tree to the relative age of the tomb.

   12%
5. E

   Unrelated to Goal2% picked this

   All of the Pazyryk tombs contained cultural artifacts that can be dated to roughly

   It's not clear how any of the story in this answer would translate into a way that archaeologists can figure out the age of a tomb based on the age of the tree that was used to make it. It's just telling us that we could use the artifacts to determine that the tombs are at most about 2300-years-old. But we need a way where the tree rings tell archaeologists the relative ages of the tombs, i.e. which tomb is oldest / youngest.

   2%