A scientific team compared gold samples from several ancient artifacts with gold samples from an ancient mine in west...

Kanyin on July 7, 2019

Why is A correct

I didn't eliminate A but couldn't make a case for why it weakens the argument either. Could you expand on this ?

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Ravi on July 26, 2019

@Kanyin,

Happy to help. Lets's take a look at (A).

(A) says, "The ancient mine tapped into a large underground deposit
that also supplied nearby riverbeds with significant quantities of
gold."

If the ancient mine dug gold out from a large underground deposit that
also supplied rivers with told, then this makes it far less likely
that the gold must have come from the mine. The gold in the riverbeds
would almost certainly contain a very similar composition to the gold
in the mine since it's all coming from the same deposit, so (A)
provides us with a really strong alternative explanation for the
source of the gold, thereby weakening the argument. This is why (A) is
the correct answer choice.

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