Critical Reasoning

The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone
flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what
is required to play the third through sixth notes of the
diatonic scale-the seven-note musical scale used in
much of Western music since the Renaissance.
Musicologists therefore hypothesize that the diatonic
musical scale was developed and used thousands of
years before it was adopted by Western musicians.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports
the hypothesis?
(A) Bone flutes were probably the only musical
instrument made by Neanderthals.
(B) No musical instrument that is known to have
used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than
the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite.
(C) The flute was made from a cave-bear bone and
the campsite at which the flute fragment was
excavated was in a cave that also contained
skeletal remains of cave bears.
(D) Flutes are the simplest wind instrument that can
be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale.
(E) The cave-bear leg bone used to make the
Neanderthal flute would have been long enough
to make a flute capable of playing a complete
diatonic scale.

whts wrong with OPb

IMO E

Only E sounds to support the conclusion. What is OA?

Yes E seems right because if the bone is long enough to play diatonic scale then the conclusion that diatonic scale was used long before is strengthened.

let's break it down, yo.

here's what we have:

we found a part of a bone flute made by neanderthals.

this part of the bone flute plays part of the diatonic scale.

thus, we think that maybe the diatonic scale was NOT INVENTED BY THE WEST.

so we need to find something that shows that the neanderthals totally could have invented that scale.

(e) supports this, because if the full leg bone was long enough to make a flute that could play the whole scale...then it stands to reason that the neanderthals may have made flutes long enough to play the whole scale

(b) does not support this, because it does not suggest that the scale was not invented by the west -- it just suggests that the scale was not invented by people before the neanderthals. since both neanderthals and the west came after this...we have not answered anything.