PT154.S3.P1.Q3 > Analytics

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Complex societies flourished on the central plateau of southern Africa from the ninth through sixteenth centuries. █████ ████████ █████████ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██████ █████ ██████ █████ █████ █████ ██ ██████████████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ██████ █████ ███████ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ███████████ █████████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ███

Intro to topic · Great Zimbabwe

Prosperous city-state, part of complex and stratified society

Other people's hypothesis · Prosperity was due to gold mining

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Alternative hypothesis · Prosperity was due to agricultural system

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Problem · Crop cultivation could not support large, permanently situated populations

Soil needed breaks between planting, no means of transporting or storing grain

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Solution · Cattle farming

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Evidence for Alt. Hypothesis · Cattle farming was complex

That complexity influenced Great Zimbabwe's social structure

Evidence for alt. hypothesis · Cattle farming gave ruling class extensive power

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Evidence for alt. hypothesis · Cattle farming also supported gold mining industry

Not only was gold mining not the main driver of Great Zimbabwe's prosperity, but gold mining actually owed its success to cattle farming

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

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Question Type

Analogy (RC)

The author describes the relationship between Great Zimbabwe’s cattle economy and the size of its population in P2. The population was so large that it couldn’t be supported by agricultural systems based on crop cultivation and grain transportation. Instead, the cattle economy was how Great Zimbabwe could supply enough food to its population. What’s a more abstract version of this relationship? The cattle economy was something that allowed the population to be as large as it was. Let’s look for an answer that involves one thing (cattle economy) that helps another thing exist (large size of population).

hunting and gathering

Hunting doesn’t help gathering exist. So (A) isn’t analogous.

irrigation and a ████ ██ █ ██████

This is the most analogous. Irrigation helps a farm in a desert exist by providing the farm with water. Similarly, the cattle economy helped the Great Zimbabwe’s population be as large as it was by providing enough food.

65%

accounting and marketing

Accounting doesn’t help marketing exist. So (B) isn’t analogous.

sports stadiums and ████████ ████████

Sports stadiums don’t help athletic contests exist. Athletic contests take place in sports stadiums, but they can also take place in many other areas.

11%

individual stones and █ █████ ████

Individual stones don’t help a stone wall exist — rather, they make up the stone wall. A wall is made out of a collection of stones. But the Great Zimbabwe’s population isn’t made out of a collection of cattle.

19%

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PrepTest 154 - Section 3 - Passage 1 - Question 3

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