PrepTest 152 - Section 3 - Passage 1 - Question 1

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Along with Egypt and Sumer, the third major early Bronze Age civilization was the Indus Valley civilization, which flourished from 2600 B.C. to 900 B.C. In geographic size, the Indus Valley civilization was the largest ancient urban civilization, bigger than pharaonic Egypt. ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███ ███ ███ █████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ███

Intro to Topic · Indus Valley civilization

Important Bronze Age civilization. Details about where, when, what.

Concession / Main Point · Had been considered uninteresting but new evidence shows otherwise

Indus Valley civilization was "without parallel." This is likely the main point and the rest of the passage will try to support this position.

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Premise · Unique urban infrastructure; interesting social, political, military structures

Masters of urban planning, built brick cities, had urban sewer system, little class distinction, democratic government, no military.

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Premise · Innovative agriculture and masters of trade

First to cultivate rice and cotton, top traders with standardized weights.

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Phenomenon · Why did the civilization decline?

Popular Hypothesis · Massacred by invaders

Wheeler's hypothesis is that Indo-Aryan invaders destroyed them but there is little written or archaeological evidence.

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Counter Evidence · Indo-Aryans were not present at decline

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Evidence · Resurgence in the south

Indus Valley civilization moved south?

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Author’s Hypothesis · Catastrophic environmental causes for decline and relocation

Severe drought or massive earthquake.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Main point

In the first three paragraphs, the author focuses on showing that the Indus Valley civilization was impressive, because it possessed a collection of characteristics that had not been displayed in a single civilization. In the last paragraph, the author proposes a hypothesis for the decline of the Indus Valley civilization.

Recent evidence sheds ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ███ ████████

This best captures the main point of the whole passage. P1 through P3 discuss recent evidence that shows the Indus Valley civilization was more significant than some scholars may have recognized. P4 discusses evidence concerning the decline of the Indus Valley civilization, and this evidence undermines Wheeler’s view.

96%

Bronze Age civilizations, █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████ ████████ █████████████

The author focuses specifically on the Indus Valley civilization, not on Bronze Age civilizations generally.

The Indus Valley ████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████ ████████████

Not supported, because although the author indicates that the Indus Valley civilization had a system that was in part democratic, she doesn’t suggest that the civilization has influenced the evolution of democracy. The author also doesn’t suggest that the civilization has influenced the evolution of modern agriculture. In any case, (C) also misses the discussion of the decline of the civilization in P4.

The Indus Valley ████████████ ██ █ ████████████ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████

The main point isn’t that we can’t draw legitimate conclusions about the cultural practice of its people. The author never cautions us against drawing these kinds of conclusions. Also, (D) misses the discussion of the decline of the civilization in P4.

Certain long-held assumptions █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ████████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████

The author doesn’t use the Indus Valley civilization as an example of a broader point about scholarship.

PrepTest 152 - Section 3 - Passage 1 - Question 1

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