PrepTest 152, Section 3, Question 5
Along with Egypt and Sumer, the third major(455 more words not shown)
The author would be most(10 more words not shown)
- ABecause the Indus(18 more words not shown)
- BOnly a disaster(20 more words not shown)
- CArchaeologists' understanding of(20 more words not shown)
- DThe cities of(16 more words not shown)
- EThe demise of(19 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The exact cause of the decline is still uncertain. The author favors environmental disruption and considers both drought and an earthquake. That gives us something to investigate, not permission to declare one possibility established.
What we’re looking for
For this broad agreement question, keep that distinction in mind. A claim that would help us learn more may be supported even when a claim settling the cause would go too far.
Working the answers
- A
Being prone to earthquakes makes an earthquake possible, but it doesn't establish that an earthquake was the most likely cause of the decline. Drought is also considered. The writer doesn't rank the earthquake above the alternatives.
- B
The author doesn't establish that only a disaster of this magnitude could bring down such a sophisticated civilization. Considering catastrophic environmental causes is different from proving that nothing less catastrophic, or no other kind of cause, could explain its demise.
- CCorrect
Looking for earthquake damage would test one of the explanations the author proposes. Relevant damage could strengthen that account; findings that don't fit it could lead researchers to reconsider it. Either way, the investigation could improve understanding without being guaranteed to solve the whole mystery. That's why a useful next inquiry is supportable even though a definite answer isn't.
- D
This turns an explanation of possible causes into criticism of the cities' preparedness. The author never says the inhabitants should have anticipated a major earthquake or taken particular protective measures.
- E
Altered rivers are one possible consequence of an earthquake, not the cause the author declares most likely. This commits to a particular version of the environmental account beyond the evidence given, much as A commits to the earthquake itself.
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