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The wild Mouflon sheep of the island of Corsica are direct descendants of sheep that escaped from domestication on the island 8,000 years ago. They therefore provide archaeologists with a picture of what some early domesticated sheep looked like, before the deliberate selective breeding that produced modern domesticated sheep began.
The argument above makes which of the following assumptions?
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
| The wild Mouflon sheep of the island of Corsica are direct descendants of sheep that escaped from domestication on the island 8,000 years ago. |
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| They therefore provide archaeologists with a picture of what some early domesticated sheep looked like, before the deliberate selective breeding that produced modern domesticated sheep began. |
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The argument starts with a historical fact about sheep ancestry, then uses this fact to draw a conclusion about what these sheep can tell us today
Wild Mouflon sheep show archaeologists what early domesticated sheep looked like before selective breeding changed them
The argument assumes that because these sheep descended from 8,000-year-old domestic sheep, they must still look the same as their ancestors did back then - basically that they haven't changed over all these years
Assumption - We need to find what the author must believe to be true for the conclusion to hold. The author concludes that today's wild Mouflon sheep show us what early domesticated sheep looked like before selective breeding began.
The key claims involve timing (8,000 years ago vs when selective breeding began), physical characteristics (what sheep looked like then vs now), and genetic continuity (direct descendants). We need to be precise about what changed and what stayed the same over time.
To find assumptions, we'll think about ways the conclusion could fall apart while keeping the stated facts intact. The author assumes these wild sheep are good representatives of their ancestors from 8,000 years ago. What could make that assumption wrong? We'll look for gaps between 'these sheep descended from those sheep' and 'these sheep look like those sheep.'
This choice suggests the argument assumes domesticated sheep 8,000 years ago were quite different from wild sheep of that time. However, the argument doesn't need to make any claims about wild sheep from 8,000 years ago - it's only concerned with domesticated sheep that escaped and became wild. The argument works regardless of what other wild sheep existed back then, so this isn't a necessary assumption.
This choice claims the argument assumes no other sheep breeds escaped domestication around the same time. But the argument doesn't need this to be true. Even if other sheep escaped domestication elsewhere, the Mouflon sheep could still provide archaeologists with valuable information about early domesticated sheep. The existence of other escaped sheep breeds wouldn't undermine the conclusion, so this isn't an assumption the argument requires.
This choice reverses the relationship described in the argument. The passage tells us that wild Mouflon sheep descended from domesticated sheep, not that modern domesticated sheep descended from wild sheep from 8,000 years ago. This choice describes a different lineage entirely and isn't something the argument assumes or needs to assume.
This is exactly what the argument must assume. For the conclusion to work - that Mouflon sheep show us what early domesticated sheep looked like - we need these wild sheep to have changed less over time than modern domesticated sheep. The argument relies on the idea that while modern domesticated sheep were altered through selective breeding, the wild Mouflon sheep retained more of their original characteristics from 8,000 years ago. Without this assumption, we couldn't trust that today's Mouflon sheep represent what the original domesticated sheep looked like.
While environmental factors could theoretically affect how sheep look over time, the argument doesn't require that Corsica's climate remained completely unchanged. Some climate variation wouldn't necessarily prevent these sheep from showing us what their domesticated ancestors looked like, especially compared to modern sheep that underwent deliberate breeding changes. This assumption is too extreme and not necessary for the argument to hold.