Reading comp PrepTest 104 · Section 2 · Question 23

Topic: Social Sciences

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Lowe's premises on the collapse of Mayan civilization (uses dates that new monuments were created to establish timeline)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Lowe's view on the chronology of the collapse of Mayan civilization:
    • Mayans continued to create monuments from 672-751, but they stopped expanding to new territories (fifth sentence)
    • Mayans with long-standing alliances began feuding from 751-790 (seventh sentence)
    • In Classic Mayan cities, the death rate exceeded the birth rate from 790-830 (eighth sentence)
    • New monuments stopped being built after 830, and the Mayan civilization collapsed by 930 (last sentence)
  • Comparison to the previous researchers of Mayan civilization:
    • Both used the dates monuments were created to make a step-by-step account of how the Mayan civilization fell (third sentence)
  • Comparison in Mayan population:
    • The death rate in Mayan cities was greater than the birthrate (eighth sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "detailed examination" (second sentence); "assumes" (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Lowe's explanation of the collapse (population growth, decreased agricultural production, too many elites, warfare)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Cause-and-effect relationships, according to Lowe:
    • Population growth (especially in the elite class) caused a need for more farming, which caused a decline in agricultural productivity (second through fourth sentences)
    • The growing elite class caused increased demands for monuments and luxuries, which caused a need for laborers who would otherwise be working in agricultural fields (fifth sentence)
    • Both caused Mayan states to war over laborers and food, which caused refugees to flee and the domino-like collapse of different Mayan states (sixth and last sentences)
  • Author's attitude: "plausible explanation" (first sentence)

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Author on Lowe's explanation (difficult to know whether his data are accurate)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Author's view:
    • Lowe's explanation assumes that he's correct about the timeline, but it's difficult to know whether he actually is (first and second sentences)
    • Better data could come out and alter our understanding of the timeline and undermine his explanation (third sentence)
  • Example of how better data could undermine Lowe's explanation, according to the author:
    • If someone proves that Mayans stuck around at sites long after they stopped carving new monuments, that would disprove his assumption that the end of new monuments meant that Mayan abandoned sites (last sentence)
  • Author's attitude: "central flaw" (first sentence); "rests on the assumption" (first sentence); "difficult to know" (second sentence); "especially" (second sentence); "a hypothesis can be tested only against the best available data" (second sentence); "quite possible" (third sentence); "might be radically altered by better data" (third sentence); "might well be disproved" (last sentence)

Main Point: John Lowe establishes a plausible explanation of how the Classic Mayan civilization collapsed based on a detailed examination of the archaeological record, but this explanation could be undermined or altered by better data.

Paragraph 1, Sentence 3 (P1, S3) - Lowe's assumption

P2, S2 - Lowe's explanation introduced

P3, S2-3 - Author's commentary on Lowe's explanation

Phenomenon/Explanation - The Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure best fits this passage.* In such a passage, the author will describe a fact, behavior, or situation before outlining one or more explanations of that fact, behavior, or situation. Here, the author describes Lowe's take on the fall of the Classic Mayan civilization (we'll refer to this as the "Mayan civilization" moving forward) before describing and commenting on Lowe's explanation of that fall.

The main point is generally the explanation when a passage utilizes a Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure. However, if the author quibbles with the explanation, then the main point the author's opinion of the explanation. Here, the author calls the explanation "plausible" (P2, S1) before commenting on its "central flaw" (P3, S1). So, we incorporated the author's commentary into our anticipated main point.

*You certainly could have called this a Question/Answer passage. You could have even used a Critical Meta-Structure, like Criticizing a Viewpoint or Correcting the Record. That said, even though this passage starts like a Reporting a Viewpoint passage, the author's commentary in the last paragraph makes that Meta-Structure an inapt description of this passage.

Cause and effect: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure in the passage is the cause-and-effect chain the author describes in the second paragraph. Just to simplify those for us, we outlined these relationships here:

• Population Growth → Increased Farming Needs → Decreased Agricultural Productivity → Warfare Over Food and Laborers

• Population Growth Among Elites → More Laborers for Monuments and Luxuries → Decreased Labor Available for Farming → Warfare Over Food and Laborers

This is a detail-heavy passage, no? I mean, there’s a long chronology of the fall of the Mayan civilization and many cause-and-effect relationships that posit how the civilization fell. So we should definitley expect a lot of Minor Point questions, right? Well, keep this in mind when you read the “Key Takeaway” for the last question.