PrepTest 142, Section 1, Question 17
How the pigment known as Han purple was(73 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- AChemical analysis shows(21 more words not shown)
- BHan purple was(17 more words not shown)
- CThe technique used(16 more words not shown)
- DThe ingredients used(18 more words not shown)
- EThe white glass(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Which came first: the glass or Han purple?
The same ingredients and similar heating processes suggest a connection, but they don't tell us the order of discovery. Maybe someone making glass accidentally produced the pigment. Could it have happened the other way around, with work on the pigment leading to the glass? We haven't ruled that out.
What we’re looking for
For a strengthener, I'd like evidence that white-glass production preceded Han purple. That would make the proposed direction more plausible. The conclusion concerns how the pigment was discovered, so keep asking whether a choice connects its origin with glassmaking rather than merely tells us something interesting about its later use.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This doesn't give the chronology we predicted. It says that most known fragments of both materials were produced within a small area. That makes a connection between the two production processes more plausible than if they had occurred in entirely separate regions.
It's limited support. We still don't know which came first, and proximity alone doesn't prove an accidental discovery. But a strengthener needn't settle every objection. This evidence bears on the proposed connection between glass production and the pigment, while the other choices don't establish that link.
- B
Different uses after discovery don't tell us how the discovery occurred. A material accidentally produced during the manufacture of household items could later be prized for luxury or ceremonial purposes. The contrast in uses doesn't establish the proposed origin.
- C
Knowing how to make the pigment could have been restricted whether it was discovered accidentally or deliberately. The discoverers might keep either kind of discovery secret, or the technique might spread slowly. Few people knowing the method does not connect its discovery with glass production.
- D
Easy access to ingredients tells us people could obtain them. It doesn't tell us which process led to the other, or whether the pigment was discovered while making glass. The same materials could have been used independently.
- E
More surviving glass artifacts doesn't establish that glass was invented earlier or that making it produced the first pigment. Perhaps more glass was made after both were already known, or more of it survived. Artifact counts aren't a chronology of discovery.
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