Archaeologists working in the Andes Mountains recently excavated a buried 4,000-year-old temple containing structures that align with a stone carving...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
Archaeologists working in the Andes Mountains recently excavated a buried 4,000-year-old temple containing structures that align with a stone carving on a distant hill to indicate the direction of the rising sun at the summer solstice. Alignments in the temple were also found to point toward the position, at the summer solstice, of a constellation known in Andean culture as the Fox. Since the local mythology represents the fox as teaching people how to cultivate and irrigate plants, the ancient Andeans may have built the temple as a religious representation of the fox.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument is based?
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
| Archaeologists working in the Andes Mountains recently excavated a buried 4,000-year-old temple containing structures that align with a stone carving on a distant hill to indicate the direction of the rising sun at the summer solstice. |
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| Alignments in the temple were also found to point toward the position, at the summer solstice, of a constellation known in Andean culture as the Fox. |
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| Since the local mythology represents the fox as teaching people how to cultivate and irrigate plants, the ancient Andeans may have built the temple as a religious representation of the fox. |
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Argument Flow:
The argument starts with archaeological evidence about temple alignments with the sun and Fox constellation, then introduces cultural information about fox mythology related to agriculture, and finally connects these pieces to conclude the temple's religious purpose.
Main Conclusion:
The ancient Andeans may have built the temple as a religious representation of the fox.
Logical Structure:
The argument uses archaeological evidence (temple alignments with Fox constellation) plus cultural context (fox mythology about agriculture) to infer the temple's religious purpose. The logic assumes that astronomical alignments combined with related mythology indicate religious significance.
Prethinking:
Question type:
Assumption - We need to find what the author must believe to be true for their conclusion to hold. The conclusion is that the ancient Andeans may have built the temple as a religious representation of the fox.
Precision of Claims
The key claims involve: (1) Quality - the nature of the astronomical alignments and their intentionality, (2) Activity - the connection between physical temple design and religious/cultural beliefs, and (3) Frequency/consistency - whether alignment patterns indicate purposeful religious symbolism rather than coincidence.
Strategy
To find assumptions, we need to identify gaps between the evidence (temple aligns with Fox constellation + fox mythology involves agriculture) and the conclusion (temple was built as religious representation of fox). We'll look for unstated beliefs the author must hold about: the intentionality of alignments, the connection between astronomy and religion in this culture, and whether these alignments actually indicate the temple's purpose.
This directly addresses a critical gap in the argument. The archaeologists are using current observations of temple alignments with the Fox constellation to draw conclusions about ancient builders' intentions from 4,000 years ago. For this reasoning to work, we must assume the constellation was in the same position then as it is now. Without this assumption, the current alignments tell us nothing about what the ancient Andeans intended when they built the temple. This is exactly what an assumption must be - something that MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to hold.
While this connects agriculture timing to the summer solstice, the argument doesn't require this specific timing assumption. The argument is about the temple representing the fox religiously based on alignments and mythology, not about when planting actually occurred. The fox mythology involves teaching cultivation, but the argument doesn't depend on the summer solstice being planting season specifically.
This explains how the temple survived to be discovered, but it's completely irrelevant to the conclusion about why the temple was built. Whether the temple was protected by debris has no bearing on the religious intentions of its builders or the significance of its astronomical alignments.
The argument doesn't require other agricultural constellations to be present. The conclusion is specifically about the Fox constellation and its connection to fox mythology. Additional agricultural alignments might strengthen the case but aren't necessary for the basic argument to work.
The duration of site occupation is irrelevant to the argument's conclusion about the temple's religious purpose. Whether the site was occupied briefly or for a long time doesn't affect whether the temple alignments indicate religious representation of the fox.