帮忙看看一道费费逻辑吧，谢谢啦

luyiqing

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.



There should be 2 assumptions to support the hypothesis. The 1st assumption of the author is that only venereal disease will be treated by mercury in Beethoven’s time. The 2nd assumption is only some people in Beethoven's time will ingest mercury, if all people ingest mercury, the evidence is not useful. So, some people in Beethoven's time did not ingest mercury. The answer should be B.



A, E have nothing to do with the argument.

C is not necessary, 'Since mercury was commonly ingested in Beethoven’s time to treat venereal disease' is enough.

D is wrong:  according to the author, it is the venereal disease that will cause the deafness, not the mercury poison.

我没看懂啊，那两个assumption是为什么呀

hikarugaara

historian的argument是如果发现头发中有汞，那么贝多芬就有性病，理由是当时汞用来治性病。
很明显啊，如果所有人都含有汞，这个理论就不成立，因此前提是并不是所有人都吃汞

luyiqing

恩，谢谢NN了