Information and IdeasEasy–MediumLocating a stated detail
Information and Ideas practice question
The Voynich manuscript, a book written in an unknown script, has resisted every attempt at decoding. Its pages are filled with drawings of plants that match no known species. Carbon dating places the vellum on which it is written between 1404 and 1438, though the text itself could have been added later.
According to the text, what does carbon dating establish about the manuscript?
- A. The approximate age of the material it is written on.Correct
- B. The meaning of its script.
- C. The identity of the plants in its drawings.
- D. That its text was written in 1404.
Answer: A. The approximate age of the material it is written on.
The text says carbon dating 'places the vellum' — the writing surface — between 1404 and 1438, and immediately adds that the text could be later. So the dating fixes the material's age, not the text's.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. The meaning of its script.
- The script remains undecoded; the first sentence says every attempt has failed.
- C. The identity of the plants in its drawings.
- The plants match no known species — nothing identifies them.
- D. That its text was written in 1404.
- The text explicitly says the writing 'could have been added later' than the vellum's date range.
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