Necessary AssumptionDiff: Medium
Logic Breakdown
Passage Summary: A researcher found a city he claimed was Troy, but the author says he's wrong because the city is too tiny to have lasted through the ten-year war mentioned in the famous epic poem.
Conclusion: The city uncovered by Wilhelm Dörpfeld cannot be the historical Troy described in the Iliad.
Reasoning: The city found was too small to survive a ten-year siege, which is the duration of the war specified in Homer's poem.
Analysis: The author is treating the Iliad as a perfectly accurate historical record regarding the length of the war. To make this argument stick, the author must assume that the 'ten years' mentioned in the poem is a literal fact rather than a poetic exaggeration. If the real war only lasted a few weeks, the small size of the city wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Look for an answer that bridges the gap between the literary description and historical reality.
Conclusion: The city uncovered by Wilhelm Dörpfeld cannot be the historical Troy described in the Iliad.
Reasoning: The city found was too small to survive a ten-year siege, which is the duration of the war specified in Homer's poem.
Analysis: The author is treating the Iliad as a perfectly accurate historical record regarding the length of the war. To make this argument stick, the author must assume that the 'ten years' mentioned in the poem is a literal fact rather than a poetic exaggeration. If the real war only lasted a few weeks, the small size of the city wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Look for an answer that bridges the gap between the literary description and historical reality.
Passage Stimulus
Passage Redacted
Unlock Full Passage2.Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?
Correct Answer
E
E is necessary. Negation test: if the Iliad does not accurately represent the duration, then the ten-year benchmark is not established, and the inference that a small city could not be Troy because it couldn’t withstand ten years no longer holds. That would destroy the argument’s core link.
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