单选题 Samples from the floor of a rock shelter in Pennsylvania were dated by analyzing the carbon they contained. The dates assigned to samples associated with human activities formed a consistent series, beginning with the present and going back in time, a series that was correlated with the depth from which the samples came. The oldest and deepest sample was dated at 19,650 years before the present, plus or minus 2,400 years. Skeptics, viewing that date as too early and inconsistent with the accepted date of human migration into North America, suggested that the samples could have been contaminated by dissolved "old carbon" carried by percolating groundwater from nearby coal deposits.
Which one of the following considerations, if tree, argues most strongly against the suggestion of the skeptics?

A、 No likely mechanism of contamination involving percolating groundwater would have affected the deeper sampies from the site without affecting the uppermost sampie.
B、 Not every application of the carbon-dating procedure has led to results that have been generally acceptable to scientists.
C、 There is no evidence that people were using coal for fuel at any time when the deepest layer might have been laid down.
D、 No sample in the series, when retested by the carbondating procedure, was assigned an earlier date than that assigned to a sample from a layer above it.
E、 (E) No North American site besides the one in Pennsylvania has ever yielded a sample to which the carbon-dating procedure assigned a date that was comparably ancient.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 怀疑者仅对取自最深处的样品的日期产生怀疑，但是若取自最深处的样品与取自其他地方的样品的形成机制是一样时，怀疑者的怀疑以及支持他们的怀疑的提议就不能站住脚，因此(A)是正确答案。(E)对怀疑者的建议构成了支持，(B)、(C)和(D)均为无关选项。