LR Question 26 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Anthropologist: Many people think that if human…
QUESTION TYPE: Identify The Conclusion
CONCLUSION: It isn’t true that chimpanzees must have had an early version of language.
REASONING: Humans didn’t evolve from chimps. We evolved from a common ancestor. Evolution of language may have begun after the ancestor was extinct.
ANALYSIS: This is a good argument. If evolution of language happened after the common ancestor died, then it would be the direct ancestors of humans that evolved language. This is easiest to show with a diagram:
Common ancestor ➞ chimp ancestor ➞ chimps
Common ancestor ➞ human ancestor ➞ humans
If language evolution happened at the first stage, then chimps would have language. If language evolution happened at the second stage, then only humans would have language.
We don’t know when language evolution occurred. So the conclusion is we can’t say for sure whether chimps evolved some early version of language.
___________
- This is evidence supporting the conclusion that chimps may not have evolved language.
- CORRECT. This is true, because humans didn’t evolve from chimps.
- We’re not told what chimp communications are like.
- The author never mentioned how smart chimps are. Maybe they outsmart us….
- The author didn’t even say that this is true. It’s just possible, and that’s why we can’t say for sure whether language evolved in chimps.
More Resources for Identify the Conclusion Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Identify the Conclusion questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers identify the conclusion questions.
Could you be please clarify. You state that answer B is correct because “humans didn’t evolve from chimps”, which is the first half of answer A. I’m confused as to why B is superior to A, given the explanation.
This is an identify the conclusion question, so we’re looking for the answer choice that most closely approximates the conclusion of the reasoning in the stimulus. The stimulus does state that humans did not evolve from chimpanzees, but that’s not the conclusion of the argument; it’s a premise. The stimulus is saying that humans did not evolve from chimpanzees but from some common ancestor, therefore, we cannot say that chimpanzees necessarily use something equivalent to human language. (B) is correct because it sums up the conclusion and not just a premise.