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by Lina » Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:43 pm
Traces of cultivated emmer wheat have been found among the earliest agricultural remains of many archaeological sites in Europe and Asia. The only place where the wild form of emmer wheat has been found growing is a relatively narrow strip of southwest Asia. Since the oldest remains of cultivated emmer wheat yet found are from village sites in the same narrow strip, it is clear that emmer wheat was first domesticated somewhere in that strip.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) The present-day distribution of another wild wheat, einkorn, which was also domesticated early in the development of agriculture, covers a much larger area of southwest Asia.

(B) Modern experiments show that wild emmer wheat can easily be domesticated so as to yield nearly as well as traditionally domestic strains.

(C) At the time when emmer wheat was first cultivated, it was the most nutritious of all the varieties of grain that were then cultivated.

(D) In the region containing the strip where wild emmer wheat has been found, climatic conditions have changed very little since before the development of agriculture.

(E) It is very difficult, without genetic testing, to differentiate the wild form of emmer wheat from a closely related wild wheat that also grows in southwest Asia.

OA to follow soon..
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by mehravikas » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:29 pm
Is it D?
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by papgust » Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:27 pm
Looks D to me too. Other choices look to be out of scope or weaken answers
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by heshamelaziry » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:16 pm
Clearly D
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by Lina » Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:44 am
the OA is D....
guys can u giv reaons to support the correct ans?
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Re: Strengthen

by gmatmachoman » Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:51 am
Lina wrote:Traces of cultivated emmer wheat have been found among the earliest agricultural remains of many archaeological sites in Europe and Asia. The only place where the wild form of emmer wheat has been found growing is a relatively narrow strip of southwest Asia. Since the oldest remains of cultivated emmer wheat yet found are from village sites in the same narrow strip, it is clear that emmer wheat was first domesticated somewhere in that strip.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) The present-day distribution of another wild wheat, einkorn, which was also domesticated early in the development of agriculture, covers a much larger area of southwest Asia.

(B) Modern experiments show that wild emmer wheat can easily be domesticated so as to yield nearly as well as traditionally domestic strains.

(C) At the time when emmer wheat was first cultivated, it was the most nutritious of all the varieties of grain that were then cultivated.

(D) In the region containing the strip where wild emmer wheat has been found, climatic conditions have changed very little since before the development of agriculture.

(E) It is very difficult, without genetic testing, to differentiate the wild form of emmer wheat from a closely related wild wheat that also grows in southwest Asia.

OA to follow soon..
I have been insisting manya-times regarding "picking of KEYWORDS".

In option D you can observe "since before " and in the argument you can notice "first domesticated ".
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by NikolayZ » Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:04 am
Hey Lina!
Firstly, let's remove all incorrect answer choices for reasons.
1. This one is clearly out of scope of the argument. We are talking only about emmer here.
2. Irrelevant also. We need to strengthen the conclusion that emmer was firstly domesticated in the narrow strip somewhere in Asia.
3. Again, nutrition of the emmer is irrelevant for the argument.
5. Actually this one is a little weakening for the argument, or the answer choice for the question - "...on which the argument depends".

As for D) If climate has changed a lot since past, it is very unlikely that emmer grew in that strip earlier. But the answer choice states that the climate has not changed much. So besides the presence of emmer in the location, we have another factor in favor of the argument.
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by tanviet » Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:37 am
pls, help

Kaplan classic method said that a strengthener is an assumption or new information which increases belief in an assumption; that way a strengthener increases belief in conclusion of the argument.

So, I wish to know the assumption which D increases the belief in. Pls, show me
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by navami » Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:30 am
clearly D
This time no looking back!!!
Navami
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