Which one of the following is given by the passage as a reason for the difficulty a lawyer would have in determining ...

Shiyi-Zhang on January 19, 2019

Could someone please explain to me why could choice D be true? Thanks!

Ravi on January 19, 2019

@Shiyi-Zhang,

Great question. D could be true because the stimulus is just talking
about a certain region of the earth; it's not talking about all of the
earth.

It sounds like you misread the stimulus to mean that the southern
region of the entire earth. If that were what the stimulus said, then
yes, D could not be true.

However, D is saying that the dinosaurs did not inhabit the north half
of the REGION during the Cretaceous period. For all we know, the
"certain region" discussed in the stimulus is only a small fraction of
the entire earth. Because we don't know exactly how large the certain
region in question is, D could be true. The dinosaurs simply could
have inhabited an entirely different region that the certain region in
question.

We know that E must be false because we know that for the last 75
million years of the Mesozoic era, the entire southern half of this
certain region was covered in water, and we know that dinosaurs lived
only on land. This allows us to conclude that E must be false, and
it's the correct answer.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions!