#2 - Archaeologist: How did the Parthenon’s stonemasons

[KelseyWoods]

Complete Question Explanation

Strengthen. The correct answer choice is (C).

In this question, we are being asked to strengthen the archaeologist's hypothesis. So our first task is to identify what that hypothesis is! The archaeologist begins by posing a question: How were the Parthenon's stonemasons able to carve columns that bulged outward in the center in the exact same way? The archaeologist's hypothesis is what she thinks the answer to this question might be--she believes they were able to construct the columns in this precise way because they used scale drawings. So our prephrase is that we're looking for anything that would support the idea that the Parthenon's stonemasons used scale drawings to create the columns.

Answer choice (A): This answer choice has nothing to do with using scale drawings so it does not support the archaeologist's hypothesis. Whether or not modern attempts to recreate columns like those at the Parthenon have been successful has nothing to do with how the Parthenon's stonemasons originally created those columns.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice is also irrelevant to the hypothesis about the scale drawings. Knowing that Didyma was constructed over a century after the Parthenon still doesn't tell us anything about how the Parthenon was constructed or if the stone masons at the two temples used similar techniques.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. This is the only answer choice that addresses the archaeologist's hypothesis about the stonemasons using scale drawings to construct the Parthenon's columns by telling us that using scale drawings was actually a fairly common construction practice in ancient Greece. If ancient Greeks commonly used scale drawings in construction, then that strengthens the idea that the Parthenon's stonemasons used scale drawings when constructing the Parthenon.

Answer choice (D): Again, this answer choice tells us nothing about how the columns were constructed and, specifically, whether scale drawings were used. The height difference of the columns does not tell us if they were constructed in similar or different ways.

Answer choice (E): Yet another answer choice that tells us nothing about whether scale drawings were used to construct the columns at the Parthenon. The amount of experience the stonemasons had does nothing to support the hypothesis that they used scale drawings.

[15veries]

I thought D is correct because if they could make something twice big , its easier to make something the half of it...Why is D wrong and C correct?

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, 15veries,

Good question, and you've identified one of the peculiarities of the LSAT. In the LSAT you are only concerned with what you know for sure. In other words, you are only concerned with the evidence provided in the stimulus. You are correct that in real life, it may be easier to scale things down rather than scale things up, but notice what we've done here. We have introduced our own outside knowledge or assumptions into the problem. For the LSAT, you must dispense with outside knowledge (except for "common sense" or an understanding of the plain meaning of words). For instance, I wouldn't have known that larger columns based on diagrams would have made similar diagrams more likely at the Parthenon. Since you've told me about this, it makes sense, but you can't rely on this kind of reasoning on the LSAT. Your interest is in the argument itself, a kind of construct in which someone is trying to use evidence to prove/infer something else. In this case, the author has provided insufficient evidence to prove his or her conclusion. Your task is to strengthen the conclusion, so you have to address this gap without introducing new assumptions.

In this case, to strengthen the conclusion that the stonemasons of the Parthenon may have used similar diagrams, you could "prephrase"/predict that the construction of the Greek temple at Didyma preceded the construction of the Parthenon. Or you could prephrase that the Greeks of Didyma and the Greeks who constructed the Parthenon were able to communicate with one another. You can't even take for granted that you know the Parthenon is in Athens!

Answer choice C provides a match. Scale drawings were not only used in Didyma but were also used widely elsewhere. This answer choice addresses the "gap" or assumption implicit in this argument and is the credited response. I hope this helps!

[sherrilynm]

I got this one right, but what I am confused about is that this question seems to rely on the assumption that we know the Parthenon is in Greece? (Because otherwise, let's say for example the Parthenon is in Canada, why does it matter that scale drawings were used in Greece?) Isn't that bringing in information outside of "common sense"?

[Malila Robinson]

Hi Sherrilynm,
It may be a bit of a stretch to say that knowing that the Parthenon is in Greece should be common knowledge. It is likely that they included the info about the Greek temple at Didyma to clarify or remind the readers that Greece is where it is located since the archaeologists were linking the two.
Hope that helps,
Mlaila

[peahnut]

Need more clarification about how to make the connection from Greek temple Didyma to Parthenon. Here are the problems I had with making the connection (felt like an assumption when I was taking the test, which I want to avoid):

(1) Nothing is mentioned about Parthenon's location (how do we know it is also in Greece/ancient Greece?)

(2) They don't even tell us that Parthenon is a temple (all that is mentioned is that Parthenon has columns/it could have been a city hall)

SO my first instinct for prephasing the correct AC was to affirm the applicability of the scale drawing for Didyma (e.g by confirming that Parthenon was also a Greek temple / or that the architecture design was similar, etc)

I easily eliminated all other ACs and was left with (C) and (E).

Although (E) does not do much to help strengthen the support of the already existing premise and conclusion
at least it adds a new premise that strengthens the argument altogether.

Whereas (C) felt more irrelevant to the evidence provided by the (stim) since we are not given any information regarding Parthenon (it would be very relevant if Parthenon was also part of ancient Greece AND also a temple/but entirely significantly less relevant if NOT ancient Greece and NOT temple).

Basically settled on (E) over (C) in the mindset of choosing the LEAST worse AC.

[Hanin Abu Amara]

Hi Peahnut,

The stimulus contains a pretty weak argument. They do lack evidence in that they don't tell us where the Parathenon is located or how we would know that they could/would have used a similar drawing.

They are simply telling us maybe the stonemasons of the Parthenon used the same strategy as those of the Didyma. That's all. Now to some degree they are expecting you to know that the Parthenon is in Greece. While I don't think it's fair of them to assume we would all know, imagine they asked a question about the leaning tower of Pisa. Most people would not have to be told that it's in Italy. Now the Parthenon is much much less famous but we can take cues from the stimulus to make that assumption.

C helps strengthen the argument because it shows us that the drawing was used.

E does not strengthen because it does not connect to the drawing and helping us show that the drawing was used. We care about the method they used, not so much their experience.

It doesn't matter whether Parthenon is a temple or not. All that matters is that it has the same column like structure.

Hope that helps,