PrepTest 83, Section 2, Question 21
Archaeologist: Our team discovered 5,000-year-old copper tools near a Canadian river, in a spot that offered easy access to the raw materials for birchbark canoes—birch, cedar, and spruce trees. The tools are of a sort used by the region's Aboriginal people in making birchbark canoes in more recent times. It is likely therefore that Aboriginal people in Canada built birchbark canoes 5,000 years ago.
Archaeologist: Our team discovered 5,000-year-old copper tools near a Canadian river, in a spot that offered easy access to the raw materials for birchbark canoes—birch, cedar, and spruce trees. The tools are of a sort used by the region's Aboriginal people in making birchbark canoes in more recent times. It is likely therefore that Aboriginal people in Canada built birchbark canoes 5,000 years ago.
Archaeologist: Our team discovered 5,000-year-old copper tools near a Canadian river, in a spot that offered easy access to the raw materials for birchbark canoes—birch, cedar, and spruce trees. The tools are of a sort used by the region's Aboriginal people in making birchbark canoes in more recent times. It is likely therefore that Aboriginal people in Canada built birchbark canoes 5,000 years ago.
Archaeologist: Our team discovered 5,000-year-old copper tools near a Canadian river, in a spot that offered easy access to the raw materials for birchbark canoes—birch, cedar, and spruce trees. The tools are of a sort used by the region's Aboriginal people in making birchbark canoes in more recent times. It is likely therefore that Aboriginal people in Canada built birchbark canoes 5,000 years ago.
The archaeologist's argument depends on the assumption that the copper tools that were found
had no trade value 5,000 years ago
were present in the region 5,000 years ago
were designed to be used on material from birch, cedar, and spruce trees only
were the only kind of tool that would have been used for canoe making 5,000 years ago
are not known to have been used by the region's Aboriginal people for any task other than canoe making
Explanations
The archaeologist claims it's likely that Aboriginal people in this particular area built birchbark canoes 5,000 years ago. What's their evidence for this claim?
Well, their team found some 5,000-year-old copper tools. The tools were discovered in an area with easy access to birch, cedar, and spruce trees—the raw materials for making birchbark canoes. And the Aboriginal people of the area used tools like these to make birchbark canoes more recently than 5,000 years ago. But does this evidence make it likely that the Aboriginal people from this area built canoes 5,000 years ago? Not necessarily.
It turns out to be a necessary assumption question that keys in on the tools themselves, so we need an answer choice the author has to agree with about the tools—something that would make the conclusion impossible when removed / negated.
Let's take a look.
No. Total nonsense. The author does not have to believe this.
Bingo. If these tools were not present in the in the region 5,000 years ago, how could we infer any amount of likelihood that the Aboriginal people built canoes 5,000 years ago? The only evidence we'd have at that point is that these folks built these kinds of canoes recently, but nothing would connect their canoe-making to the more distant past. This is the answer.
Nah, the author doesn't have to believe that these types of wood were the only materials on which these tools were used.
Nope. Similar to C, the author doesn't have to believe that these were the only kinds of tools used to make canoes millennia ago.
Nah. The author could believe (or even know) that these tools had many purposes other than canoe-making. The tools don't have to be single-use in order for the author to make their argument, so this isn't the answer.
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