We are asked to strengthen the grounds that are presented by the archeologist, not the conclusion which helps with choosing answer choice b over the others.
So for this question the author concludes: the rubbish tells us very little about the possessions of the people in this area.
Why? Because the things in the pit are subject to erosion. What if.. the trash was not being eroded, aka more valuable/salvageable items that can withstand erosion were in the pit? What could we infer then from the trash? Probably a lot more if we could find diamond necklaces and fine china. Of course this is not the case, as we want to strengthen the assumption that all the remains in the pit are just eroded junk.
This is what answer choice B plays on.
If the pieces in the pit that could have been salvaged/valued were removed from the pit.. then it follows that we cant infer anything about the people from the trash in the pit because all that is left is eroded trash/items of no value.
Which strengthens the authors reasoning that we can not make many inferences about people from the possessions in the pit, because the items are subject to erosion.
I hope that maybe this helps you understand a little better!
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Hi!
We are asked to strengthen the grounds that are presented by the archeologist, not the conclusion which helps with choosing answer choice b over the others.
So for this question the author concludes: the rubbish tells us very little about the possessions of the people in this area.
Why? Because the things in the pit are subject to erosion. What if.. the trash was not being eroded, aka more valuable/salvageable items that can withstand erosion were in the pit? What could we infer then from the trash? Probably a lot more if we could find diamond necklaces and fine china. Of course this is not the case, as we want to strengthen the assumption that all the remains in the pit are just eroded junk.
This is what answer choice B plays on.
If the pieces in the pit that could have been salvaged/valued were removed from the pit.. then it follows that we cant infer anything about the people from the trash in the pit because all that is left is eroded trash/items of no value.
Which strengthens the authors reasoning that we can not make many inferences about people from the possessions in the pit, because the items are subject to erosion.
I hope that maybe this helps you understand a little better!