Frobisher, a sixteenth-century English explorer, had soil samples from Canada’s Kodlunarn Island examined for gold content.  Because high gold content was reported, Elizabeth I funded two mining expeditions.  Neither expedition found any gold there.  Modern analysis of the island’s soil indicates a very low gold content.  Thus the methods used to determine the gold content of Frobisher’s samples must have been inaccurate.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

1. The gold content of the soil on Kodlunarn Island is much lower today than it was in the sixteenth century.
2. The two mining expeditions funded by Elizabeth I did not mine the same part of Kodlunarn Island.
3. The methods used to assess gold content of the soil samples provided by Frobisher were different from those generally used in the sixteenth century.
4. Frobisher did not have soil samples from any other Canadian island examined for gold content.
5. Gold was not added to the soil samples collected by Frobisher before the samples were examined.

答案是E,

我可以理解这个选项，但是觉得这个答案很无聊的，可能我得理解不当，请教作对的大侠怎么想的。谢谢指点

这题蛮搞的第一感觉是放金子干嘛？真是汗

但是看结论就行了： methods are inaccurate

这样想，如果是放了金子，检测出金子，那么检验方法的准确性没问题。说明这方法能检测出金子的。

所以E是答案。

我也是看了半天不理解

顿悟：如果说不是检验方法不对，而是检验前，他在samples里加了金子，所以检验出有金子，E答案就是排除这个可能性，从而得出检验方法不对的结论