PrepTest 146, Section 4, Question 22
Hundreds of clay tablets marked in cuneiform have(447 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(18 more words not shown)
- AThe more than(20 more words not shown)
- BIt was customary(25 more words not shown)
- CThe tablets marked(22 more words not shown)
- DThere is no(24 more words not shown)
- EVillagers were required(18 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Target the specified theory: the envelopes held official records of villagers' contributions to temple-based pools. An alternative explanation for the same sort of record would weaken that inference. Perhaps the records concerned what one person owed another, rather than what villagers contributed to a central pool.
What we’re looking for
We don't need to disprove the entire development from tokens to writing. We need to challenge this particular interpretation of the envelopes.
Working the answers
- A
Different envelope sizes, thicknesses, and styles can coexist with their use as contribution records. Those physical differences don't identify a competing purpose or show the proposed one is wrong.
- BCorrect
This supplies another reason to record goods: a person performing a service receives a record of promised compensation. Records of agricultural or crafted products could therefore reflect private obligations rather than contributions to a temple pool. That weakens the proposed identification without needing to prove that every envelope had the alternative purpose.
- C
Later cuneiform tablets needn't have the same function as the earlier token-containing envelopes. Their use after 3000 B.C. doesn't settle what those envelopes recorded.
- D
The account actually reports finding tokens inside envelopes. A lack of evidence that tokens were necessarily intended for envelopes doesn't show that the discovered envelopes failed to hold contribution records. The relevant question is their function, not whether every token had to be enclosed.
- E
Accounting for required labor as well as goods is compatible with records of contributions to central pools. It expands what was contributed; it doesn't offer a reason to reject the proposed purpose of the envelopes.
More Application questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Application questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.