Critical Reasoning

Dobson: Some historians claim that the people
who built a ring of stones thousands of years ago
in Britain were knowledgeable about celestial
events. The ground for this claim is that two of the
stones determine a line pointing directly to the
position of the sun at sunrise at the spring
equinox. There are many stones in the ring,
however, so the chance that one pair will point in
a celestially significant direction is large.
Therefore, the people who built the ring were not
knowledgeable about celestial events.
Which one of the following is an error of reasoning
in Dobson’s argument?

(A) The failure of cited evidence to establish a
statement is taken as evidence that that
statement is false.
(B) Dobson’s conclusion logically contradicts some
of the evidence presented in support of it.
(C) Statements that absolutely establish Dobson’s
conclusion are treated as if they merely give
some support to that conclusion.
(D) Something that is merely a matter of opinion is
treated as if it were subject to verification as a
matter of fact.
(E) Dobson’s drawing the conclusion relies on
interpreting a key term in two different ways.

OA: A

Let me start.... C'mon guys.. start bisecting, dissecting!!

A. Here the two stones doesnt conclusively prove that ancient ppl knew about celestial events. Not conclusively proving, doesnt mean that ancients DIDNT know about celestial events. They may or may not have known. That is what this choice says.

B. no contradiction here.

C. not correct. the evidence does not support one way or another.


D. Not sure how to eliminate this. As I was reading the stimulus, I found the reasoning hole, and A exactly mentioned that.

E No key term is interpreted in 2 ways.

A for me too..

there can be a possibility that evidence can be true

A for me too

A for me too

A for me too

It seems to me that the right answer is A.