48. Some anthropologists study modern-day societies of foragers in an effort to learn about our ancient ancestors who were also foragers. A flaw in this strategy is that forager societies are extremely varied. Indeed, any forager society with which anthropologists are familiar has had considerable contact with modern, non-forager societies.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the criticism made above of the anthropologists' strategy?

(A)          All forager societies throughout history have had a number of important features in common that are absent from other types of societies.

(B)         Most ancient forager societies either dissolved or made a transition to another way of life.

(C)         All anthropologists study one kind or another of modern-day society.

(D)         Many anthropologists who study modern-day forager societies do not draw inferences about ancient societies on the basis of their studies.

(E)         Even those modern-day forager societies that have not had significant contact with modern societies are importantly different from ancient forager societies.

Argument Evaluation

Situation        Studying contemporary foraging societies in order to understand ancient foragers is flawed because forager societies are so widely varied and also because the contemporary foragers

have had so much contact with modern societies.                                                                                      =

Reasoning Which point weakens this argument?The argument rejects the comparison of modem-day foraging societies to ancient ones because of the variety of existing forager societies and because the modern-day foragers have been in contact with other modem cultures. What situation would support making this comparison? What if modem-day foragers remain similar to ancient foragers because of non-changing features of foraging societies throughout history? If these are features that are not shared with other cultures, then the argument that anthropologists cannot learn about ancient foragers by studying their modern counterparts is weakened.

答案是A,这段(黄色部分)解释实在看不懂,请高人指教,谢谢~ 还有,题干的最后一句话是什么意思呢?

答案是A,这段(黄色部分)解释实在看不懂,请高人指教,谢谢~ 还有,题干的最后一句话是什么意思呢?

题干是讲，人类学家从学习当代foraging societies 来学习他们的ancient ancestors 这种做法是不合理的，因为每一个人类学家熟悉的foraging societies都和现代群体有着紧密的联系，所以不可以用这个方法.

What situation would support making this comparison? What if modem-day foragers remain similar to ancient foragers because of non-changing features of foraging societies throughout history? If these are features that are not shared with other cultures, then the argument that anthropologists cannot learn about ancient foragers by studying their modern counterparts is weakened.

如果可以证明有一些特点是其他文化没有的，不会因为环境的改变而改变的， 那就不可以说学习现代foraging societies不能知道他们的ancient ancestors 。

好像理解点了~

题干是说，由于人类学家熟悉的foraging societies都是和现代群体有关的，因此通过学习当代foraging societies 来学习他们的ancient ancestors 是不合理的！

题目问weaken，那么如果可以证明foraging societies的某些特点是不会因为环境的改变而改变（也就是说，现代是古代的传承），那么题干就被削弱了。

不知道这么理解对吗？是这个意思吗？请NN们指正！