Biologist: Many paleontologists have suggested that the difficulty of adapting to ice ages was responsible for the e...

Annie on January 17, 2020

Hi @shafieiava,

This question is asking you to find the answer choice which points to a way to criticize the argument. So, you want to identify a flaw in the argument.

Before turning to the answer choices, try to spot the flaw yourself. I see one in that the argument assumes that humans and other animals would have the same changes in their brains. There's no support for this in the argument.

Answer (A) is incorrect because this argument is not designed with a necessary/sufficient set-up. Also, this answer choice talks about a single species when the argument is focused on comparing humans and other species.

Answer (B) is correct because it identifies the gap in the logic we spotted above. The biologist just assumes that what happens to humans can be disproven by what happens to other animals. While this may seem convincing, we have no evidence in the argument to support this connection.

Answer (C) is incorrect because it focuses on something being "needed" for a change to occur. The argument doesn't make any claim that the ice age was necessary for these changes.

Answer (D) is incorrect because it is irrelevant. There is no discussion of difficulties in the argument.

Answer (E) is incorrect because it ignores the second sentence of the argument. This argument is not that the ice age caused the change, but rather that it didn't because animals weren't also changed.