费费21题 请教!

21. Historian: We can learn about the medical history of individuals through chemical analysis of their hair. It is likely, for example, that Isaac Newton’s psychological problems were due to mercury poisoning; traces of mercury were found in his hair. Analysis is now being done on a lock of Beethoven’s hair. Although no convincing argument has shown that Beethoven ever had a venereal disease, some people hypothesize that venereal disease caused his deafness. Since mercury was commonly ingested in Beethoven’s time to treat venereal disease, if researchers find a trace of mercury in his hair, we can conclude that this hypothesis is correct.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the historian’s argument depends?

(A) None of the mercury introduced into the body can be eliminated.

(B) Some people in Beethoven’s time did not ingest mercury.

(C) Mercury is an effective treatment for venereal disease.

(D) Mercury poisoning can cause deafness in people with venereal disease.

(E) Beethoven suffered from psychological problems of the same severity as Newton’s.

答案是A, 为何D是错误的? TKS

文章的假设是希望证明通过头发可以判断药物的使用历史。文章的关键不是M有没有这种功能，而是是否由头发传递了B的信息。如果A成立，那么头发就不是唯一的传递信息的载体。

兄弟，答案是B吧。我说说我的思路：

首先，我们要弄清楚历史学家的论断是什么？历史学家说现在有一些人猜测贝多芬同学是因为得了叫做venereal的病所以耳聋了。而在贝多芬的时代，汞被广泛用于治疗 venereal这个病，因此如果在贝多芬同学的头发里发现汞，那么就说明贝多芬是得过venereal，是因为这个病耳聋的。

那么在这个推断里面就有一个一一对应关系的假设在里面。venereal=mercury。如果这个假设成立，在贝多芬时代，不得venereal这个病的人，就肯定不会摄入汞，也就肯定不会在他们的头发里发现汞。所以正确答案是B。

而A我认为是和这个推断有关系，但是不能一票否决掉这个论断。即使汞可以从身体中去除，但是如果贝多芬在去世前一直在摄入汞的话，那么仍然可以从他的头发里检测到汞阿，因此即使A不成立，论断依然可以成立！

仅作参考阿！