Dobson

[YellowSapphire]

Source: VeritasPrep [800score]

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 grounds for this claim are that two of the stones determine a line pointing directly to the position of the sun at sunrise at the spring equinox. However, there are many stones in the ring so the chance that one pair will point in a celestially significant direction is high. 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 fact.
E. Dobson is not a scientist.

[captcha]

IMO A

A historians claim rests on a weak argument, but Dobson says because the argument is weak, so its opposite is true, which is the error in dobson's reasoning

[mundasingh123]

A. The failure of cited evidence to establish a statement is taken as evidence that that statement is false. *

A is correct because Dobson says that the likelihood that a pair of stones point in the dir. of the sun is high and inspite of the uncertainty that still prevails,Dobson concludes that the Historians' claims are false.

[mundasingh123]

But i am still pondering over what is cited evidence referring to.Is it the evidence cited by the Historians to support their claims .Or the probaility that a pair of stones happen to point toward the Sun.After rereading and re-re reading it.I feel it refers to the statement Dobsom makes to support his conc.

[Target2009]

+1 to A