Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT130 S2 P1 Q1 Explanation

Advances in Archaeology

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsMain PointSociety

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Passage

Traditional sources of evidence about ancient history are archaeological remains and surviving texts. Those investigating the crafts practiced by women in ancient times, however, often derive little information from these sources, and the archaeological record is particularly unavailing for the study of ancient textile production, as researchers are thwarted by the perishable and also about how to piece together a whole picture from many disparate sources of evidence.

Technological advances in the analysis of archaeological remains provide much more information than was previously available, especially about minute remains. Successful modern methods include radiocarbon dating, infrared photography for seeing through dirt without removing it, isotope "fingerprinting" for tracing sources of raw materials, and thin-layer chromatography for analyzing dyes. As if in part of the well-known Petrie collection decades before anyone began to study the history of textiles.

The history of textiles and of the craftswomen who produced them has also advanced on a different front: recreating the actual production of cloth. Reconstructing and implementing ancient production methods provides a valuable way of generating and checking hypotheses. For example, these techniques made it possible to confirm that the excavated pieces that in fact a dress for the small statue would have taken nine months to produce.

What this question is testing

Main Point

Anticipate

This is a Main Point question. Step back and ask: across the whole passage, what is the author trying to say?

The author starts with a problem — almost no direct evidence of ancient textiles survives — and then walks through how researchers solved it from a few different angles. So the main point is that researchers have learned a lot about ancient textiles, and they did it by combining several different approaches.

Goal

Looking for an answer that captures both halves of the passage at once: the lack of evidence on one side, and the variety of methods that overcame it on the other. Common traps to watch for:

Answers that only cover one of the methods (just technology, just reconstruction)

Answers that recast the passage as a story about archaeology generally, when textiles are the actual focus

Answers that overstate the role of one approach over the others

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
1.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of

Answer choices

  1. Wrong Emphasis4% picked this

    Archaeology is an expanding discipline that has transformed itself in response both to scientific advances and to changing cultural demands such as a

    The passage is about studying ancient textiles, not about archaeology as a discipline broadly. Archaeology's philosophical shift is mentioned in P2 only as one of the developments that helped textile research. There is also no mention of "increasing interest in women's history" as a driver of change. The answer takes a backdrop and treats it as the main subject.

  2. Correct58% picked this

    A diversity of new approaches to the study of ancient textiles has enabled researchers to infer much about the history of textiles and their

    Why this is right

    This captures the thread tying all three paragraphs together. P1 lays out the scant evidence and announces that researchers have nonetheless learned a lot. P2 introduces new technology and the preservation ethic. P3 introduces reconstruction of ancient production methods. Across all three paragraphs, the message is: a diversity of new approaches has made it possible to infer much about ancient textiles and their makers despite the limited evidence.

    Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  3. Too Narrow18% picked this

    Despite many obstacles, research into the textile production methods used by women in the ancient world has advanced over the past century to the

    Reconstruction of ancient equipment and production techniques is the topic of P3 only — it is one of several approaches the passage describes, not the headline. The technological methods in P2 and the preservation ethic are equally important to the passage's point.

  4. Wrong View18% picked this

    Research into the history of textiles has spurred sweeping changes in the field of archaeology, from the application of advanced technology to the revaluation

    The passage describes archaeology's philosophical shift as something that helped textile research, not the other way around. There is no claim that textile research drove sweeping changes in archaeology. The answer reverses the direction of influence.

  5. Too Strong2% picked this

    Though researchers have verified certain theories about the history of textiles by using technological developments such as radiocarbon dating, most significant findings in this

    The passage presents technology, the preservation ethic, and reconstruction as complementary approaches that together advanced the field. It never claims that "most significant findings" came specifically from reconstruction rather than from the other methods. This answer manufactures a hierarchy the passage doesn't draw.

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