Q7 - The existing works of ancient literature...

[HoodyHoo]

I was able to knock out B C and D. Left with A and E, I chose correctly that A was the answer. Going back and looking at my work, I could have easily picked E. Can someone explain why E is incorrect?

Thanks!

[christine.defenbaugh]

Thanks for posting, HoodyHoo!

Since we want to help "justify the conclusion", we want to strengthen it - first stop, the argument core!

PREMISE: Existing ancient works refer frequently to lost works.
CONCLUSION: Existing ancient works are not the most original works from ancient times.

This is a classic term shift argument! The premise tells us only that the works "refer to other works", and yet suddenly the the author concludes they must are "not...the most original". We need something to connect these two ideas!

(A) provides a direct link between the two: works that do the thing in the premise (refer to other works) tend to be the thing in the conclusion (not the most original!).

(E) raises something altogether different: modern original ideas. The argument was all about these ancient works and whether or not THEY were original. Who cares about modern original ideas?

Also, nothing in (E) connects to the information in the premise in any significant way. And even if all our modern "original" ideas were proposed in ancient times, does that make ancient works unoriginal? Not at all!

Let's take a quick spin through the remaining incorrect answers as well:

(B) Hmm, "laudable things to say" doesn't tell me who's original and who isn't!

(C) The number of lost texts doesn't make it any more or less likely that the ones we have are unoriginal.

(D) How does an idea being "subversive" relate to whether or not it is original?

Only (A) gives us a rock solid connection between the idea in the premise (reference to other works) and the idea in the conclusion (unoriginality).

Please let me know if this helped clear up your question!