Self-study
P1
Problem ·
Obstacles to studying ancient textiles
Traditional sources (archaeological remains and texts) don't sufficiently cover textiles. Textiles are destroyed over time. The textiles that have survived were usually discarded as useless.
Success in learning about textiles ·
Researchers have overcome the obstacles
P2
█████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████████████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██████████████ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ █████████ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ █ ████████████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ███ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ████ █ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████████ █████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███████████ ██████ ███
How obstacles were overcome ·
Tech advances and change in philosophy of archaeology
New methods such as radiocarbon dating, infrared photography, and isotope "fingerprinting" can reveal more about textile materials and colors. Archaeologists now preserve all objects, even those that don't seem to have value.
Example ·
Dirty linen thought useless turned out to be oldest known complete garment
P3
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Additional advance ·
We now recreate how cloth was actually produced
This allows us to generate and check hypotheses about textiles and textile production in the past.
Examples ·
Identification of loom weights, evidence that a dress adorned a small statute as opposed to a large one
Passage Style
Problem-analysis
Single position
1.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Archaeology is an █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██ ████████ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ █ ████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████████
This ignores the problem that the author’s interested in. The author doesn’t just argue that archaeology has changed. She argues, using examples in P2 and P3, that those changes have had an effect: they’ve allowed archaeologists to overcome limitations in the available evidence and learn more about ancient textiles. In other words, the fact that archaeology has transformed itself has helped solve a problem.
b
A diversity of ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ████████
This does a good job of capturing the problem and its solution. There’s scant remaining evidence about ancient textiles, but new approaches in archaeology have helped researchers to overcome those limitations.
c
Despite many obstacles, ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██████████████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ███████████
Too narrow. The author isn’t trying to convince us that archaeology can replicate equipment and production techniques. She brings up these advances (and several others) to support a broader point: archaeology has found solutions to the problem of how to study ancient textiles despite limitations in the available evidence. That’s the main point.
d
Research into the ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████████
This confuses cause and effect. (D) says that textile research led to new archaeological techniques. But the author argues the reverse: new archaeological techniques led to new opportunities for textile research. Nothing suggests that textile research is what prompted those advances.
e
Though researchers have ████████ ███████ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████████████ ████████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███████████
Unsupported comparison. The author doesn’t suggest that one archaeological technique is more significant than another. She just argues that various techniques have been useful.