#7 - Newspaper article: Recently discovered clay tablets

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

[esthertom001]

Hi! I was wondering why answer choice E is incorrect, and what makes C the better answer choice?

[Robert Carroll]

Esther,

The article thinks that the discovery of (potential) Egyptian writing between 3300 and 3200 BC challenges a belief about Sumerians being first. Doesn't this mean that Sumerian writing must be later than this time period? If Sumerian writing is known from, say, 4000 BC, then the purported Egyptian writing is much later - it wouldn't seem the challenge the belief about Sumerian priority. In order for something between 3300 and 3200 BC to challenge a claim of priority, that time period must be earlier than the one it's challenging.

Looking at answer choice (E), we want Sumerian writing to be later than 3300-3200 BC; we don't really care when the civilization was founded. So it's not necessary for the argument. But answer choice (C) is definitely necessary - if the Sumerians are thought to have invented literary writing earlier than 3300 BC, then the Egyptian writing isn't earlier, so it's not able to challenge the claim of Sumerian priority.

Robert Carroll

[blaisebayno]

Hi there,

This is confusing to me. The historians believe that Sumerian was the first to produce literature. This discovery says wow no, they weren't. The discovery challenges the belief of Sumerian primacy in literature. This means, I have to assume, that before this discovery, historians generally believed that the Sumerians DID create literature earlier than 3300 B.C. That is what the discovery is challenging. Please help me understand where I'm going wrong.

[katehos]

Hi there,

This is confusing to me. The historians believe that Sumerian was the first to produce literature. This discovery says wow no, they weren't. The discovery challenges the belief of Sumerian primacy in literature. This means, I have to assume, that before this discovery, historians generally believed that the Sumerians DID create literature earlier than 3300 B.C. That is what the discovery is challenging. Please help me understand where I'm going wrong.

Hi blaisebayno!

In order to challenge the belief that the Sumerian civilization was the first to create literature, we don't have to assume that historians believes the Sumerians created literature earlier than 3300 B.C. In fact, the stimulus does not tell us when exactly historians believe Sumerians created literature (for all we know, historians could believe Sumerians created literature in the past twenty years), which is exactly why we must eliminate the possibility that the Sumerians created literature before 3300 B.C. in order to make this argument.

Perhaps it could be useful to think about a timeline to show why we do not have to assume Sumerians first wrote literature before 3300 B.C. Let's say that the earliest literature historians have ever found was written by the Sumerians in 2000 B.C. This would give us a timeline that looks like this:

No example of literature discovered 2000 B.C. Sumerian literature discovered other literature may have been discovered

As you can see, nothing about this hypothetical timeline contradicts the stimulus. If we introduce the clay tablets from the stimulus, our timeline would now look like this:

No example of literature discovered 3300 to 3200 B.C. Egyptian literature discovered 2000 B.C. Sumerian literature discovered other literature may have been discovered

This timeline helps show why these tablets challenge the belief that the Sumerian civilization was the first to create literature. But I've arbitrarily picked 2000 B.C. -- the stimulus didn't say that's when the Sumerians first wrote literature (as mentioned earlier, the stimulus doesn't say when exactly the historians believe Sumerians first wrong literature at all)! So, let's create some more timelines. What if the earliest literature discovered was Sumerian literature from 5000 B.C.?

No example of literature discovered 5000 B.C. Sumerian literature discovered 3300 to 3200 B.C. Egyptian literature discovered other literature may have been discovered

This would absolutely destroy the argument in the article! Though it might not have been evident at first, this was actually an application of the Assumption Negation Technique to answer choice (C). In the above timeline, we have an example of historians believing that Sumerians DID create literature earlier than 3300 B.C., which would make it very very difficult to conclude that the Egyptian tablets challenge the belief that Sumerians were the first to create literature. That's exactly what we want from our correct answer!

I hope this helps
Kate

[blaisebayno]

Hi there,

This is confusing to me. The historians believe that Sumerian was the first to produce literature. This discovery says wow no, they weren't. The discovery challenges the belief of Sumerian primacy in literature. This means, I have to assume, that before this discovery, historians generally believed that the Sumerians DID create literature earlier than 3300 B.C. That is what the discovery is challenging. Please help me understand where I'm going wrong.

Hi blaisebayno!

In order to challenge the belief that the Sumerian civilization was the first to create literature, we don't have to assume that historians believes the Sumerians created literature earlier than 3300 B.C. In fact, the stimulus does not tell us when exactly historians believe Sumerians created literature (for all we know, historians could believe Sumerians created literature in the past twenty years), which is exactly why we must eliminate the possibility that the Sumerians created literature before 3300 B.C. in order to make this argument.

Perhaps it could be useful to think about a timeline to show why we do not have to assume Sumerians first wrote literature before 3300 B.C. Let's say that the earliest literature historians have ever found was written by the Sumerians in 2000 B.C. This would give us a timeline that looks like this:

No example of literature discovered 2000 B.C. Sumerian literature discovered other literature may have been discovered

As you can see, nothing about this hypothetical timeline contradicts the stimulus. If we introduce the clay tablets from the stimulus, our timeline would now look like this:

No example of literature discovered 3300 to 3200 B.C. Egyptian literature discovered 2000 B.C. Sumerian literature discovered other literature may have been discovered

This timeline helps show why these tablets challenge the belief that the Sumerian civilization was the first to create literature. But I've arbitrarily picked 2000 B.C. -- the stimulus didn't say that's when the Sumerians first wrote literature (as mentioned earlier, the stimulus doesn't say when exactly the historians believe Sumerians first wrong literature at all)! So, let's create some more timelines. What if the earliest literature discovered was Sumerian literature from 5000 B.C.?

No example of literature discovered 5000 B.C. Sumerian literature discovered 3300 to 3200 B.C. Egyptian literature discovered other literature may have been discovered

This would absolutely destroy the argument in the article! Though it might not have been evident at first, this was actually an application of the Assumption Negation Technique to answer choice (C). In the above timeline, we have an example of historians believing that Sumerians DID create literature earlier than 3300 B.C., which would make it very very difficult to conclude that the Egyptian tablets challenge the belief that Sumerians were the first to create literature. That's exactly what we want from our correct answer!

I hope this helps
Kate

Thank you Kate!

[jorobe]

Esther,

The article thinks that the discovery of (potential) Egyptian writing between 3300 and 3200 BC challenges a belief about Sumerians being first. Doesn't this mean that Sumerian writing must be later than this time period? If Sumerian writing is known from, say, 4000 BC, then the purported Egyptian writing is much later - it wouldn't seem the challenge the belief about Sumerian priority. In order for something between 3300 and 3200 BC to challenge a claim of priority, that time period must be earlier than the one it's challenging.

Looking at answer choice (E), we want Sumerian writing to be later than 3300-3200 BC; we don't really care when the civilization was founded. So it's not necessary for the argument. But answer choice (C) is definitely necessary - if the Sumerians are thought to have invented literary writing earlier than 3300 BC, then the Egyptian writing isn't earlier, so it's not able to challenge the claim of Sumerian priority.

Robert Carroll

Thanks for your reply, Robert!

I'm a still a little confused why E is incorrect. If "the Sumerian civilization arose sometime between 3300 and 3200 BC," then wouldn't it have been impossible for the Sumerian civilization to have created literature before 3300. In other words, how could the Sumerian civilization create literature if that civilization didn't exist yet? (you can't write unless you already exist?). It seems like E is functionally identical to C, except E seemed like a better choice because I presumed that it'd take at least a little while after the Sumerian civilization comes into existence for them to write literature, giving more room for the Egyptians to write literature before or at the same time.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on clearing that up!

[katehos]

Hi jorobe!

If Sumerian civilization arose, let's say, at 3300 B.C. (the earlier end of the time range discussed in (E)), hypothetically, they could've created literature a year later. We don't necessarily know how long it would take for them to create literature from the information in the stimulus/answer choice, so that presumption you made about how long it would take should be a bit of a warning sign that this is an incorrect answer.

In order to further illustrate why (E) is incorrect and (C) is correct, let's apply the Assumption Negation Technique to (E). If we logically negate (E), we get something along the lines of "the Sumerian civilization did not arise sometime between 3300 and 3200 B.C." This could mean the Sumerian civilization arose before that or after that, but we don't know! So, this answer choice does not weaken the argument when negated and is thus incorrect.

On the other hand, (C), when logically negated, reads something like "historians believe the Sumerians did create literature earlier than 3300 B.C." If this is the case, then the Egyptian tablets from 3300 to 3200 B.C. do not challenge the belief that Sumerians were the first to create literature! So, this is a huge issue for the conclusion in the stimulus and thus we know (C) is the correct answer.

I hope this helps!
Kate

[TootyFrooty]

can you please explain how to calculate 3200 bc and 3300 bc. Like which one is older and which one is more recent? I suspect 3300 bc to be older, am I correct?

[Stephanie Oswalt]

can you please explain how to calculate 3200 bc and 3300 bc. Like which one is older and which one is more recent? I suspect 3300 bc to be older, am I correct?

You are correct. Time counts backward for BC, so the numbers closer to zero are more recent.