Question: A tree's age can be determined by counting the annual growth rings in its trunk. Each ring represents one year, and the ring's thickness reveals the relative amount of rainfall that year. Archaeologists successfully used annual rings to determine the relative ages of ancient tombs at Pazyryk. Each tomb was constructed from freshly cut logs, and the tombs builders were constrained by tradition to use only logs from trees growing in the sacred Pazyryk Valley.
Which one of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the archaeologists' success in using annual rings to establish the relative ages of the tombs at the Pazyryk site?
(A) The Pazyryk tombs were all robbed during ancient times, but breakage of the tombs seals allowed the seepage of water, which soon froze permanently, thereby preserving the tombs' remaining artefacts.
(B) The Pazyryk Valley, surrounded by extremely high mountains, has a distinctive yearly pattern of rainfall, and so trees growing in the Pazyryk Valley have annual rings that are quite distinct from trees growing in nearby valleys.
(C) Each log in the Pazyryk tombs has among its rings a distinctive sequence of twelve annual rings representing six drought years followed by three rainy years and three more drought years.
(D) The archaeologists determined that the youngest tree used in any of the tombs was 90 years old and that the oldest tree was 450 years old.
(E) All of the Pazyryk tombs contained cultural artefacts that can be dated to roughly 2300 years ago.
“A tree's age can be determined by counting the annual growth rings in its trunk” - is a GMAT critical reasoning topic. This GMAT critical consists of five answer choices and candidates are required to choose the correct one among the options. GMAT critical reasoning mainly measures the critical thinking of the candidates and their efficiency in considering the question logically. To solve the question, the candidate can look for a piece of evidence to weaken the argument. The candidate can discover logical flaws in the argument. There are 36 MCQ questions in the critical reasoning section of the GMAT and for it, the candidates get 65 minutes to complete the questions.
Answer: (C)
Explanation: The candidates need to read the question carefully to crack the question of GMAT Critical Reasoning. The candidates must draw a conclusion from the information provided in the question. After detecting the premise and conclusion of the argument, the candidates should regard the underlying assumption. The conclusion is the message of the argument that is supported by the premise. The candidate should identify the principal argument of the passage to weaken the argument of the question. The candidates must verify the answer choices accordingly and had to choose the answer that would support the argument. This GMAT critical question asks the candidate to select the option that justifies the paradox in the given argument. A detailed explanation of the five forms to weaken the argument is given in the PowerScore Bibles and other lesson books. The answer option that eradicates a probable secondary cause might read: The age of the tree is determined by estimating the annual growth rings of its trunk. The Pazyryk tombs were made from these logs that will help the archaeologist to determine the relative ages of the tombs.
Option (A): Wrong
The statement of this option does not support the argument of the passage. The option depicts the preservation of artifacts that is too far from the context of the passage. There is nowhere mentioned in the passage about the preservation of artifacts.
Option (B): Wrong
This does not support the claim of the passage. The statement depicted in this option discusses the characteristics of the rings. It says about the distinctive nature of trees in the Pazyryk Valley from the trees in other valleys. Therefore, the option is incorrect as the statement given in the option does not help us. Hence the option is insufficient to answer the question.
Option (C): Right
The statement of this option discusses the ages of the Pazyryk tombs. It depicts the distinctive features of the rainy rings and the drought rings that will enable the archaeologist to calculate the ages of the logs. Hence the option is sufficient to verify the relative ages of the tombs at the Pazyryk site.
Option (D): Wrong
This does not satisfy the argument of the passage. The option is incorrect since it does not help to determine the ages of the tombs at the Pazyryk site.
Option (E): Wrong
The statement cited in this option does not meet the requirement of the passage. It is irrelevant since it does not help the archaeologist to find the relative ages of the Pazyryk tombs.
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