Knowledge of an ancient language is essential for reading original ancient documents. Most ancient historical docume...

shunhe on May 20, 2020

Hi @jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com,

Thanks for the question! Let’s take a look at the stimulus really quickly. So we’re told that you need to know an ancient language to original ancient documents (like the original copy of the Iliad in Greek), but then we’re told that most historical documents have been translated into modern languages, so no need to learn ancient languages! We’re looking for a weakness in the argument, and (A) gives that to us, since it tells us that the argument concludes that something is NEVER necessary just because it’s sometimes not necessary. For example, the argument says that most ancient historical documents have been translated, but not all, so some ancient-history scholars might still need to learn ancient languages to read those documents. It’s like saying you sometimes don’t need to wear business clothes, so you never need to wear them—the argument just goes too far.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.