PrepTest 151, Section 1, Question 13
Through years of excavations and careful analysis of(461 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AA set of(12 more words not shown)
- BA set of(14 more words not shown)
- CA general principle(13 more words not shown)
- DA hypothesis is(14 more words not shown)
- EA proposition is(12 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The opening gives us the proposed conclusion: the Botai may have domesticated and ridden horses. Then we get the reasoning supporting it—first the sex-and-age patterns, then the whole skeletons and burial arrangements.
What we’re looking for
There are alternative possibilities along the way. Ordinary hunting and food-herd management must be considered because they might explain the bones without riding. But the writer uses those comparisons to develop Olsen's case. The overall movement is a hypothesis followed by support.
Working the answers
- A
Several findings do appear, and competing explanations are considered. But this description makes the findings the starting point, followed by an open evaluation of their explanations. The actual opening announces the domestication-and-riding hypothesis, and the rest develops the case for it. D captures that organization more precisely.
- B
The general claim doesn't wait until the end of a list of observations. It appears in the first sentence and tells us what the later details are meant to support.
- C
We aren't given a general rule and then cases showing how to apply it. The claim concerns a particular people's use of horses, and the later material supplies evidence for that claim.
- DCorrect
The hypothesis is domestication and possible riding; the supporting reasoning connects mortality patterns, horse behavior, transport difficulties, and burial evidence to it. A line of reasoning can contain several connected steps and pieces of evidence. It doesn't have to be one isolated reason.
- E
The writer does consider apparent objections, but this isn't a balanced summary of arguments for and against the proposition. The difficulties are addressed within a developing case for Olsen's interpretation. Merely encountering a competing possibility doesn't make it the organizing purpose.
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