#8 - The more modern archaeologists learn about Mayan

[Nina]

In the correct answer B, does the "unrepresentative sample" refers to "the Mayan religious scribes", which cannot represent "the people in general"?

Thanks a lot!

[Steve Stein]

Hey Nina,

That's exactly right. The author takes a premise about the religious scribes--sounds like an exclusive group--and draws a broad conclusion about the "people in general."

Nice work!

~Steve

[Nina]

Thank you, Steve!

[SMR]

Hi,

Which statement in this stimulus is the conclusion and why is that statement the conclusion?

Thank you!

[David Boyle]

Hi,

Which statement in this stimulus is the conclusion and why is that statement the conclusion?

Thank you!

Hello,

Good question. One could say that the flow is, "Writings show Mayan scribes were good with math, therefore Mayans in general knew math, therefore we know more about Mayan intellectual achievements than we used to." Or, the first sentence about knowing more than we used to about Mayan achievements, could be considered an "intro" sentence, with the main portion of the stimulus being, "Writings show Mayan scribes were good with math, therefore Mayans in general knew math." In that case, the second clause (Mayans knew math) would be the conclusion. Or, as I said first off, the first sentence of the stimulus ("we know more about Mayan intellectual achievements than we used to") could be considered the conclusion.
This could be one of those interesting paragraphs that has two conclusions, arguably (Mayans knew math; and, we understand Mayan achievements more than we used to).
Regardless of where the conclusion or conclusions are, answer B makes sense, since you can't generalize from the scribes to the whole society. That's my conclusion!

David

[SMR]

Hi David!

So, if this were a Main Point Qyestion Type or a Method of Reasoning Question type and we had to identify the main conclusion, what would the correct answer be? Would it be that the main conclusion is the 1st sentence in the stimulus or would it be that the main conclusion is "the people in general seem to have had a strong grasp of sophisticated mathematical concepts" ?

Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Hi David!

So, if this were a Main Point Qyestion Type or a Method of Reasoning Question type and we had to identify the main conclusion, what would the correct answer be? Would it be that the main conclusion is the 1st sentence in the stimulus or would it be that the main conclusion is "the people in general seem to have had a strong grasp of sophisticated mathematical concepts" ?

Thanks!

Hello,

The safest bet for the main conclusion would probably be the first sentence, if you see the stimulus as saying, "We know more about Mayan intellectual achievements than we used to; for example, Mayans in general knew math, which we know by the evidence that Mayan scribes were good with math." So the second and third sentences support the first sentence.
Then again, arguably, there is no "conclusion", just a list of facts (or assertions) and examples. If you had to grab for a conclusion, though, the first sentence might come closest to one.

David