Self-study
P1
In The Dynamics of Apocalypse, John Lowe attempts to solve the mystery of the collapse of the Classic Mayan civilization. ███
Phenomenon ·
Collapse of Classic Mayan civilization
Lowe's methodology ·
Uses monument construction dates to estimate when Mayan sites were abandoned
Evidence ·
Monument dates show that Mayan expansion stopped, followed by political troubles
Evidence ·
Death rate outstripped birth rate
Evidence ·
Monument construction stopped, followed by Mayan collapse
P2
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Hypothesis ·
Population growth caused agricultural decline and Mayan collapse
Growth put stress on farmland while diverting labor away from farming; resulting food scarcity caused conflict
P3
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Criticism ·
Evidence for hypothesis may be unreliable or incomplete
Hypothetical example ·
of further evidence that would weaken hypothesis
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
26.
The author of the passage █████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████ █████████
a
With careful analysis, ██████████████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ █ ████ █████████████
This doesn’t capture the author’s criticism of the method in the last paragraph. The author wouldn’t agree that we can “accurately” reconstruct the historic activity from archaeological evidence.
b
Archaeological evidence is ████ ██████ ███ ██████████████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████
The author never compares the usefulness of archaeological evidence for different purposes.
c
The accuracy of ███ ██████████████ ██████ ███ ██████████████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████████
The author never suggests the accuracy of the archaeological record depends on how long a civilization lasted.
d
The archaeological record ██ ███ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████████ ████████ █████████
This is too extreme. The author never suggests it’s inappropriate to use the archaeological record; she simply points out that there’s an important flaw in using it.
e
Historic activity can ██ █████████████ ████ ██████████████ █████████ ███ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████████
This is the best answer. The author points out that a hypothesis based on the archaeological record can be “tested only against the best available data.” Since we can’t go back in time and know exactly when Mayans stopped constructing monuments or exactly when they abandoned their cities, the author would think that we can’t confirm the accuracy of historic reconstructions based on archaeological evidence. There will always exist the potential for new evidence to be discovered that would cause us to revise our historic reconstructions.