LSAT 157 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q13

LR Question 13 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In northern Europe, archaeologists have discovered…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: The discovery of 400,000-year-old sharpened wooden poles effectively disproves the widespread belief that the humanlike precursors of Homo sapiens were entirely gatherers and scavengers and did not hunt.

REASONING: It is normally assumed that Homo sapiens did not inhabit Europe (where the poles were found) until 200,000 years ago.

ANALYSIS: There are a couple leaps in this passage that could be strengthened. First, it’s assumed that Homo sapiens did not inhabit the area at the time. The author concludes from this that the poles must have belonged to the humanlike precursors of Homo sapiens. If we are given evidence that the assumption is true, it would strengthen the argument.

Second, the author assumes that, because the wooden poles are sharpened, they must have been used for hunting. If an answer choice supports this assumption, it would strengthen the passage.

___________

1. CORRECT. This discounts the idea that the poles were not for hunting, strengthening the author’s argument.
2. This does not matter to the author’s argument. The author is basing their conclusion on the presence of sharpened wooden poles, not sticks and stones.
3. This weakens the author’s argument. It refutes the assumption that Homo sapiens did not inhabit Europe at the time, meaning that the poles may not have belonged to humanlike precursors at all!
4. In a vacuum, you could read this as supporting the author’s conclusion. If the precursors exhibit a variety of behaviour, some might be hunters, right? But we aren’t trying to support the conclusion – we want to support the argument. This is irrelevant to the author’s argument.
5. This tells us that Homo sapiens who hunted also scavenged and gathered. But we don’t care about Homo sapiens, we care about the humanlike precursors.

Recap: The question begins with “In northern Europe, archaeologists have discovered”. It is a Strengthen question. Learn how to master LSAT Strengthen questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.