PrepTest 152

[lcid:3706] Prep Test 152 LSAT — Reading Comp — S3 Reading comp

Passage

 Along with Egypt and Sumer, the third major early Bronze Age civilization was the Indus Valley civilization, which flourished from Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's correction: New evidence shows that Indus Valley was an unparalleled civilization
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Old belief: Indus Valley was archaeologically uninteresting because it had typical architecture and no palaces or citadels (last sentence)
    • Author's correction: Recent excavations show Indus Valley had a combination of characteristics not present in any other civilization (last sentence)
    • Comparison of Indus Valley to other Bronze Age civilizations:
      • Geographically, it was a larger urban civilization than Egypt or Sumer (first and second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "without parallel in history" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Support: List of Indus Valley's achievements
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Indus Valley's achievements:
      • Brick cities on flood-proof terraces with long, straight streets (first sentence)
      • First urban sewer system (first sentence)
      • Possibly featured a democratic system of government (second sentence)
      • Thrived without armies (last sentence)
        • Supporting example: No evidence of weapon production
      • Author's attitude: "masters" (first sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Support: Continued list of Indus Valley's achievements
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Indus Valley's achievements (continued from the previous paragraph):
      • First to cultivate rice and cotton (first sentence)
      • Carefully organized agricultural system to produce and distribute food (first sentence)
      • Top trader in the ancient world, introducing standardized weights and trading with Mesopotamia (second through last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "carefully organized" (first sentence), "top traders" (second sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's correction: Recent evidence suggests the decline of Indus Valley due to environmental reasons, not an invasion
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • History books'/Wheeler's view: Indo-Aryan invaders led to Indus Valley's decline (second sentence)
    • Author's correction:
      • Lack of written or archaeological evidence supporting Wheeler's view (third sentence)
      • Excavations show Indo-Aryans weren't even present in the region at the time alleged invasion (fourth sentence)
      • Archaeological evidence shows relocation south of Indus Valley (fifth sentence)
      • Indus Valley people probably spread out into smaller cultures due to drought/food shortages or an earthquake (sixth through last sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationships:
      • Indo-Aryan invaders led to Indus Valley's decline, according to Wheeler and many history books (second sentence)
      • Drought could have caused lands to be unfarmable, which would cause an abandonment of city centers, according to the author (seventh through eighth sentence)
      • An earthquake could have caused rivers to change directions and caused migration to the country, according to the author (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "not certain" (first sentence), "lack of written evidence" (third sentence), "no archaeological evidence" (third sentence), "In fact" (fourth sentence), "most likely" (sixth sentence), "may" (seventh sentence), "may" (last sentence)

Main Point: New archaeological evidence reveals that the Indus Valley was an unparalleled ancient urban civilization and that its decline was more likely due to environmental changes, undermining previously held beliefs about the civilization.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 3 (P1, S3) - Previously held belief and author's correction

P4, S2 - Previously held belief about the decline

P4, S6 - Author's correction about the decline

Meta-Structure?

Correcting the Record: This passage utilizes a Correcting the Record Meta-Structure*. In fact, the author corrects the record twice in this passage. First, the author corrects the mistaken belief that Indus Valley wasn't much to write home about. Over the second and third paragraphs, the author argues that new archaeological evidence shows that Indus Valley was an advanced, expansive, and productive civilization. Then, the author corrects another mistaken belief about Indus Valley's decline in the final paragraph. The author asserts that recent archaeological evidence undermines the long-standing view that an Indo-Aryan invasion led to the fall of the Indus Valley civilization. It's more likely, the author avers, that Indus Valley dispersed into smaller regional societies in response to some environmental change.

When a passage utilizes a Correcting the Record Meta-Structure and the author provides an alternative view to replace the mistaken one, the main point is usually the author's opinion about that alternative view. Unfortunately, the author never summarized their opinion about the new view on Indus Valley, so we'll have to piece together a summary for our author. We wrote that the main point is, "New archaeological evidence reveals that the Indus Valley was an unparalleled ancient urban civilization and that its decline was more likely due to environmental changes, undermining previously held beliefs about the civilization."

*Some may argue that this is a Criticizing a Viewpoint or Rebutting Critics Meta-Structure — understandably so, since there's considerable overlap between these Meta-Structures and the Correcting the Record Meta-Structure. If either of those designations makes more sense to you, then it's totally OK to go with either! Doing so will yield the same main point and broad understanding of the text we came up with by designating this passage a Correcting the Record Meta-Structure. Technically speaking, when the passage frames the view the author rebuts as misunderstood or ill-informed, it's best to consider the passage a Correcting the Record passage. The old view in this passage is ill-informed since those who held the old beliefs about Indus Valley didn't have access to the author's recent archaeological evidence. If the author otherwise argues another view is wrong, unjustified, or misguided, it's best to consider the passage a Criticizing a Viewpoint passage. And when the view the author rebuts is framed as a criticism, it's best to consider the passage a Rebutting Critics passage

List: The predominant minor Meta-Structure in this passage is a list. In the second and third paragraphs, the author list tons of reasons why the ancient Indus Valley civilization was impressive. We summarized each item on the list in the Passage Summary. If you'd like to save yourself some fact-finding missions on the inevitable Minor Point questions, you can try to memorize a few key items. Here's what we recommend memorizing about ancient Indus Valley:

  • Good city planners, with nice roads and sewage systems
  • Good at agriculture, particularly rice and cotton
  • Good at trading, getting as far as the Arabian Sea and Mesopotamia

Of course, if you have trouble memorizing stuff, you don't have to. You can always check the passage to anticipate what the correct answer will say. We'll discuss how you can do this most efficiently in the question explanations.

Last Thoughts?

The author expresses a lot of attitude in this passage. Way more than we usually see in social science passages. The author apparently admires the Indus Valley civilization for its accomplishments. The author seemingly doesn't care for Wheeler's ill-informed take on the Indus Valley civilization's decline. Because the author expresses this many opinions in this passage, expect at least a few Tone questions.

Question prompt

The author would be Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Social Science

Strategy Overview

Consult your notes or passage to recall the author's attitude about the topic in question, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the author's opinion on that topic

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us to find the answer choice about archaeological investigations into the Indus Valley that the author would most likely agree with. The author discusses archaeological evidence throughout the entire passage. So, reviewing the passage to anticipate the correct answer will neither be productive nor an efficient use of our time.Instead, let's rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We just reviewed the author's overall attitude on the previous question, so we can rely on that as we progress through these answer choices.As we said on the previous question, the main point of the passage is, "New archaeological evidence reveals that the Indus Valley was an unparalleled ancient urban civilization and that its decline was more likely due to environmental changes, undermining previously held beliefs about the civilization." Clearly, the author is impressed by the Indus Valley civilization's achievements, and the author thinks recent archaeological evidence proves that the civilization truly was unparalleled.Regarding Indus Valley's decline, the author definitely isn't buying Wheeler's theory. The author also seems convinced that archaeological evidence suggests a catastrophic environmental change, like a drought or earthquake, led to the decline (P4, S6-9). But we should also recall that the author claims "the causes of the civilization's decline ... are not certain" (P4, S1). So, the author probably hasn't committed to any single explanation for Indus Valley's decline and might think we need more archaeological evidence before making any definitive conclusions about the end of the Indus Valley civilization.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Archaeological data on the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this consistent with the passage's main point and what we reviewed from the author's attitude?

    No. For that reason, experienced test-takers would table this answer choice rather than research the passage to determine whether the old archaeological data were controlled by a small group of scholars.

    Besides, we wouldn't find any support for that claim if we reread the entire passage. The author never describes who controlled the earlier archaeological data regarding ancient Indus Valley.

  2. B
    It is only in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Is this consistent with the passage's main point and what we reviewed from the author's attitude?

    Yes. The author's main point is that recent archaeological evidence has allowed us to reach new conclusions about Indus Valley's significance and decline. The author's rebuttal of Wheeler's theory illustrates this point. Before, archaeologists like Wheeler made spurious conclusions about Indus Valley. But now that we have more archaeological evidence, we can reach credible conclusions. This answer choice is consistent with the author's main point; it also reflects the passage's Correcting the Record Meta-Structure. For these reasons, expert test-takers would be satisfied that this is correct and give the remaining choices an at-most cursory reading.

  3. C
    The Sumerian tablets that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this consistent with the passage's main point and what we reviewed from the author's attitude?

    No. Expert test-takers would also view the strong, hard-to-prove language ("the only known references") as a major red flag. For these reasons, they would table or eliminate this answer choice. They wouldn't spend time rereading the part of the passage that discusses the Sumerian tablets.

    If we researched the passage, we'd see that this wasn't supported. The author says the Sumerian tablets evidence Indus Valley's trade with Mesopotamia, but the author never says these are the only references to Indus Valley in ancient written records (P3, S3). The evidence of Indus Valley's standardized weights may have also come from written records (P3, S3).

  4. D
    While an adequate amount Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this consistent with the passage's main point and what we reviewed from the author's attitude?

    No. Still, many test-takers select this answer choice. The author disagrees with past archaeological conclusions about the ancient Indus Valley civilization, such as Wheeler's. This makes (D) an attractive option to many. However, the author's disagreement with past conclusions does not imply the past conclusions rested on adequate evidence or that the evidence was misinterpreted.

    In fact, the author's main point is that recent archaeological evidence has allowed us to reach new conclusions about Indus Valley's significance and decline. If we needed new evidence to draw reliable conclusions, we probably didn't have enough old evidence.

  5. E
    The most recent archaeological Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this consistent with the passage's main point and what we reviewed from the author's attitude?

    No. The author's main point did not focus on any "broader trend in archaeological investigations." This passage is focused exclusively on archaeological discoveries in the site of the ancient Indus Valley civilization — not any pervasive trends in the field of archaeology.

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