Q19:

Historian: In the Drindian Empire, censuses were conducted annually to determine the population of each village. Village census records for the last half of the 1600’s are remarkably complete. This very completeness makes one point stand out; in five different years, villages overwhelmingly reported significant population declines. Tellingly, each of those five years immediately followed an increase in a certain Drindian tax. This tax, which was assessed on villages, was computed by the central government using the annual census figures. Obviously, whenever the tax went up, villages had an especially powerful economic incentive to minimize the number of people they recorded; and concealing the size of a village’s population from government census takers would have been easy. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that the reported declines did not happen.

In the historian’s argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

The first supplies a context for the historian’s argument; the second acknowledges a consideration that has been used to argue against the position the historian seeks to establish. The first presents evidence to support the position that the historian seeks to establish; the second acknowledges a consideration that has been used to argue against that position. The first provides a context for certain evidence that supports the position that the historian seeks to establish; the second is that position. The first is a position for which the historian argues; the second is an assumption that serves as the basis of that argument. The first is an assumption that the historian explicitly makes in arguing for a certain position; the second acknowledges a consideration that calls that assumption into question.

我选C，从后半句判断，可是前半句为什么是支持后一句呢？前半句说complete，后半句说census不对，不是反驳吗？

1。Village census records for the last half of the 1600’s are remarkably complete. 说明了整个纪录是完整的（注意：不是说它是对的）

2。the reported declines did not happen. 是指出villages overwhelmingly reported significant population declines是不对的。

也就是说其实2并没有否定1，相反2的推出必须建立在纪录是完整的基础上的。所以也只有C是对的。

然而，问中也说到了This very completeness makes one point stand out,而这个point就是在最后观点中否定掉的那个，所以很容易让人联想到最后的观点也同时否定掉了这个point的前提（Village census records for the last half of the 1600’s are remarkably complete）。

我的观点是否定了一个观点并不等于否定了这个观点的前提，所以最后可以选C。