GWD7-Q18， 求指教

patrickshine

GWD7-Q18:

Althoughthe earliest surviving Greek inscriptions written in an alphabet date from theeighth century B.C., a strong case can be made that the Greeks actually adopted alphabetic writing at least two centuriesearlier.  Significantly, the text ofthese earliest surviving Greek inscriptions sometimes runs from right to leftand sometimes from left to right.  Now,the Greeks learned alphabetic writing from the Phoenicians, and in the process they would surely have adopted whateverconvention the Phoenicians were then using with respect to the direction ofwriting.  Originally, Phoenicianwriting ran in either direction, but by the eighth century B.C. it had beenconsistently written from right to left for about two centuries.

In theargument given, the two portions in boldfaceplay which of the following roles?

A.   The first is the position that the argumentseeks to establish; the second reports a discovery that has been used tosupport a position that the argument opposes.

B.   The first is the position that the argumentseeks to establish; the second presents an assumption on which the argumentrelies.

C.   The first presents evidence that is used insupport of the position that the argument seeks to establish; the secondpresents an assumption on which the argument relies.

D.   The first is an objection raised against aposition that the argument opposes; the second is the position that theargument seeks to establish.

E.    The first is an objection raised against aposition that the argument opposes; the second is evidence that has been usedto support that position.

答案是选择B。 逻辑链我理不清，求指教。 第一个BF是 the position that the argument seeks to establish 没有问题，但是第二个BF理解上有点困难。

eight century B.C. 发现了inscriptions 推断出， greeks 采用alphabetic的时间要往前推两个世纪。 这些inscriptions 的书写顺序是不定的。

G从P那里学习的alphabetic writing, 所以照搬了P的书写习惯。

一开始 P也是任意方向的，但是 eight century <---之前两个世纪 就已经固定了从右到左。

如果说 因为G向P学的，沿袭了P的习惯，而P从8世纪之前二百年就固定了顺序， 而这些inscriptions是不固定顺序的，所以肯定是比八世纪之前二百年还要早，从而得出G 采用的时间要往前再推二百年。 是这么个逻辑么？ 但是 这些inscriptions 是八世纪的呀？ inscriptions written in an alphabet date from the eighth century B.C.

所以， 俺不能理解了。。。 求助

sdcar2010

Simple. If 1) all Greek inscriptions are to one direction only, 2) the Greek learned from P as soon as P changed its way of writing, and 3) P changed its way of writing (one direction only) two centuries before the 8th century B.C., then Greek adopted the writing style two centuries before the 8th century B.C.

patrickshine

sdcar2010 发表于 2013-10-4 22:27
Simple. If 1) all Greek inscriptions are to one direction only, 2) the Greek learned from P as soon  ...

问题就是 你的这个premise 1 我找不到。。。 原文里面是： Significantly, the text of these earliest surviving Greek inscriptions sometimes runs from right to left and sometimes from left to right.

sdcar2010

My bad. If the Greek writing took both directions, then it copied from P at least 2 centuries earlier than 8th century, B.C.

patrickshine

sdcar2010 发表于 2013-10-5 12:33
My bad. If the Greek writing took both directions, then it copied from P at least 2 centuries earlie ...

恩， 谢谢~~~