请教GWD-1-Q17

GWD1-Q17:

请教NN，这个题看过不下两遍，还是一定都弄不明白~~

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?

A.    Bone flutes were probably the only musical instrument made by Neanderthals.

B.    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.

C.    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.

D.    Flutes are the simplest wind instrument that can be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale.

E.     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.

The magical words in this question are "four holes", "was developed and used thousands of years", and "before it was adopted by WM"

A: Could be, but since there is no such info found within the Q, this is irrelevent

B: Without E, this would be an attractive "inaccurate response", let's first leave it here

C: Again, this is just flat-out irrelevent

D: Could be, but it has nothing to do in supporting the hypothesis.

E: This is it. The right answer. It's better if we use the denial test. If in fact, the bone was only long enough to make 4 notes instrument, then the later 6 notes one would have to be developed by morden WM, thus making the whole hypothese incorrect.

so by the same token, in its right form, E just provide the strongest reason showing that the ancient ancestor indeed developed a 6 notes (though it just happened that the one that was found has been broken to have just 4), and the present 6 notes is just a simple adoption of the old one.

Hope that help