Critical Reasoning

lunarpower wrote:sigh...

this problem is a blatant ripoff of the following problem, from GMAT PREP:

15. Excavation of the ancient city of Kourion on the island of Cyprus revealed a pattern of debris and collapsed
buildings typical of towns devastated by earthquakes. Archaeologists have hypothesized that the destruction was
due to a major earthquake known to have occurred near the island in A.D. 365.Which of the following, if true,
most strongly supports the archaeologists' hypothesis?
(A) Bronze ceremonial drinking vessels that are often found in graves dating from years preceding and following
A.D. 365 were also found in several graves near Kourion.
(B) No coins minted after A.D. 365 were found in Kourion, but coins minted before that year were found in
abundance.
(C) Most modern histories of Cyprus mention that an earthquake occurred near the island in A.D. 365.
(D) Several small statues carved in styles current in Cyprus in the century between A.D. 300 and 400 were found
in Kourion.
(E) Stone inscriptions in a form of the Greek alphabet that was definitely used in Cyprus after A.D. 365 were
found in Kourion.

this seems to skate dangerously close to copyright violation.
more importantly, this question provides zero value beyond the value provided by the above GMATPREP problem. so i'll just copy and paste an analysis i've done elsewhere for that problem. (the choices are even in exactly the same order!)

take the below text, replace "earthquake" with "tornado" and "365" with "1976", and you're all set.

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when you consider STRENGTHEN/WEAKEN problems, you should SIMPLIFY THE ARGUMENT as much as possible.

in this problem, the argument basically boils down to
we know that the town was destroyed by an earthquake. therefore, it must have been destroyed by the particular earthquake in 365.

the weak link in this argument is the assumption that no OTHER earthquake could have caused the destruction.

therefore,
if an answer choice PINPOINTS THE DESTRUCTION IN THE YEAR 365, then it strengthens the argument.

choice (b) does this: coins suddenly stopped being made in precisely 365.

choice (c) is irrelevant: it just reiterates something that we already know, namely, that there was an earthquake in 365. this is not new.
if this argument said that there were NO OTHER earthquakes, it would strengthen the argument. but that's not what it says.