Q17:

The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what is required to play the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale—the seven-note musical scale used in much of Western music since the Renaissance. Musicologists therefore hypothesize that the diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis?

Bone flutes were probably the only musical instrument made by Neanderthals. No musical instrument that is known to have used a diatomic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite. The flute was made from a cave-bear bone and the campsite at which the flute fragment was excavated was in a cave that also contained skeletal remains of cave bears. Flutes are the simplest wind instrument that can be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale. The cave-bear leg bone used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete diatonic scale.

讨论的答案为B，我认为是E。

在问题里说，发现的是一个fragment of a bone with four holes, 而diatonic scale is seven-note. If it's true that the cave-bear leg bone used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete diatonic schale, then bone fragment might have been part of the diatonic scale. This supports the speculation that the diatonic scale is developed thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

请大家帮忙confirm.

yes, E is the right answer.