PrepTest 122, Section 2, Question 14
Scientist: A controversy in paleontology centers on the(42 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AMany animals that(10 more words not shown)
- BAdvanced hunting weapons(16 more words not shown)
- CMany prehistoric human(8 more words not shown)
- DThose prehistoric human(22 more words not shown)
- EMany of the(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Couldn't they sit down and use their hands?
The scientist says sophisticated toolmaking came after upright posture because making those tools requires free hands. I can accept the need for free hands. What I don't see is why standing upright is the only way to free them. Moving on all fours wouldn't prevent an ancestor from sitting still and working with its hands.
What we’re looking for
That gives us a way to challenge the proposed sequence. For the weaken question, I'd like evidence that our ancestors could use their hands for toolmaking before standing upright. The point isn't to deny that standing frees the hands. It's to question whether that had to happen before sophisticated tools could be made.
Working the answers
- A
This initially looks promising: animals that don't stand upright can make tools. But there are two limits. It concerns animals generally rather than the particular human ancestors, and it concerns basic tools rather than sophisticated ones. Basic toolmaking without upright posture doesn't establish that advanced toolmaking was possible that way. B addresses the actual ancestors and the advanced tools more directly.
- BCorrect
We have advanced hunting weapons among the artifacts of ancestors who did not stand upright. That's concrete evidence against the scientist's proposed order. These ancestors apparently had sophisticated tools before they had the posture the scientist treats as required for making them.
The answer doesn't need to tell us exactly how they freed their hands. The evidence of the tools themselves challenges the claim that standing upright came first.
- C
The scientist doesn't say every upright ancestor immediately developed sophisticated tools. Upright posture could come first, with tools arriving much later or only among some groups. Finding upright ancestors without tools is compatible with that sequence, so it doesn't undermine it.
- D
Hand dexterity and having one's hands free are different things. Standing might free the hands for work without making the fingers any more skillful. Equal dexterity therefore doesn't refute the scientist's claim that upright posture supplied the needed freedom. We want evidence about the possibility of advanced toolmaking before that posture, not just a comparison of hand skill.
- E
Using a finished tool isn't the same as making it. A tool might be usable while sitting even if making it required some different posture. This answer addresses users, while the scientist's explanation concerns advanced toolmaking. B supplies the relevant evidence that E lacks.
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