Critical Reasoning

The key for a modern 12-pin cylinder lock mechanism – one of the most secure locking mechanisms – has a cylindrical shape with multiple protrusions in various distinct orientations, making it one of the most difficult keys to mold. Recent archaeological excavations in Uganda unravelled a small piece of a key-like structure belonging to the 10th Century B.C. The excavated piece contains 8 pins with orientations of the pins and the shape of the pins similar to that in a 12-pin cylinder key. Archaeologists therefore hypothesize that the 12-pin cylinder lock mechanism has been in existence for more than 3 millennia.

Which of the following statements, if true, provides the best support for the archaeologists’ hypothesis?

A. The key is made from ivory – a material obtained from the tusks of elephants and the horns of rhinos, animals that were likely to have evolved in Uganda.
B. The cylinder lock mechanism is the most secure locking mechanism that could have been created by Neanderthals given their relatively unevolved intellectual capacity.
C. No lock mechanism that uses a similar cylinder-based mechanism could have existed prior to or around 10th Century B.C.
D. The construction of a cylinder lock and the intricacies behind its workings were definitely known during the 9th Century A.D., a recent evidence suggests.
E. The material used in the key would be malleable enough for creating 12 such distinctly oriented protrusions on the same cylindrical structure.


OA E

Source: e-GMAT