Critical Reasoning

Can someone please the following.

Excavations of the Roman City of Sepphoris have uncovered numerous detailed mosaics depicting several readily identifiable animal species: a hare, a partridge, and various Mediterranean fish. Oddly, most of the species represented did not live in the Sepphoris region when these mosaics were created. Since identical motifs appear in mosaics found in other Roman cities, however, the mosaics of Sepphoris were very likely created by traveling artisans from some other part of the Roman Empire.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

a) The Sepphoris mosaics are not composed exclusively of types of stones found naturally in the Sepphoris area.
b) There is no single region to which all the species depicted in the Sepphoris mosaics are native.
c) No motifs appear in the Sepphoris mosaics that do not also appear in the mosaics of some other Roman city.
d) All of the animal figures in the Sepphoris mosaics are readily identifiable as representations of known species.
e) There was not a common repertory of mosaic designs with whch artisans who lived in various parts of the Roman Empire were familiar.

OA: E

Anindya Madhudor wrote:Can someone please the following.

Excavations of the Roman City of Sepphoris have uncovered numerous detailed mosaics depicting several readily identifiable animal species: a hare, a partridge, and various Mediterranean fish. Oddly, most of the species represented did not live in the Sepphoris region when these mosaics were created. Since identical motifs appear in mosaics found in other Roman cities, however, the mosaics of Sepphoris were very likely created by traveling artisans from some other part of the Roman Empire.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

a) The Sepphoris mosaics are not composed exclusively of types of stones found naturally in the Sepphoris area.
b) There is no single region to which all the species depicted in the Sepphoris mosaics are native.
c) No motifs appear in the Sepphoris mosaics that do not also appear in the mosaics of some other Roman city.
d) All of the animal figures in the Sepphoris mosaics are readily identifiable as representations of known species.
e) There was not a common repertory of mosaic designs with whch artisans who lived in various parts of the Roman Empire were familiar.

OA: E

Apply the NEGATION TEST.
The correct answer choice is WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.
When the correct answer choice is REVERSED, the conclusion will be invalidated.

Answer choice E: There was A COMMON REPERTORY OF MOSAIC DESIGNS with which artisans who lived in various parts of the Roman Empire were familiar.
If there was A COMMON REPERTORY OF MOSAIC DESIGNS, then local artisans in Sepphoris could have created the mosaics, invalidating the conclusion that the mosaics were created by artistans from some other part of Rome.
Since the negation of E invalidates the conclusion, E is the necessary assumption: WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.

The correct answer is E.

negation test is used whe we face 2 attractive remaining choices. prethinking is a good way to understand the argument and to find an assumption.

prethink: 2 events (traveling and motif in S) are connected.

go to answer choices, E protect the above thing and win.

GMATGuruNY wrote:

Anindya Madhudor wrote:Can someone please the following.

Excavations of the Roman City of Sepphoris have uncovered numerous detailed mosaics depicting several readily identifiable animal species: a hare, a partridge, and various Mediterranean fish. Oddly, most of the species represented did not live in the Sepphoris region when these mosaics were created. Since identical motifs appear in mosaics found in other Roman cities, however, the mosaics of Sepphoris were very likely created by traveling artisans from some other part of the Roman Empire.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

a) The Sepphoris mosaics are not composed exclusively of types of stones found naturally in the Sepphoris area.
b) There is no single region to which all the species depicted in the Sepphoris mosaics are native.
c) No motifs appear in the Sepphoris mosaics that do not also appear in the mosaics of some other Roman city.
d) All of the animal figures in the Sepphoris mosaics are readily identifiable as representations of known species.
e) There was not a common repertory of mosaic designs with whch artisans who lived in various parts of the Roman Empire were familiar.

OA: E

Apply the NEGATION TEST.
The correct answer choice is WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.
When the correct answer choice is REVERSED, the conclusion will be invalidated.

Answer choice E: There was A COMMON REPERTORY OF MOSAIC DESIGNS with which artisans who lived in various parts of the Roman Empire were familiar.
If there was A COMMON REPERTORY OF MOSAIC DESIGNS, then local artisans in Sepphoris could have created the mosaics, invalidating the conclusion that the mosaics were created by artistans from some other part of Rome.
Since the negation of E invalidates the conclusion, E is the necessary assumption: WHAT MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to be valid.

The correct answer is E.

Dear GMATGuru,

1-Can you please shed light on the structure of the OA? What does 'were familiar' refer to? does it mean that 'those artisans were families with those designs'? or does it mean the design s were familiar? The structure is so convoluted.

2- How to negate choice C?

Thanks