Advances in Archaeology

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

TopicsPrimary PurposeSociety

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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

Primary Purpose

Anticipate

For Primary Purpose, ignore the content for a second and just ask: what is the passage doing?

The author opens by saying "here is a hard problem" (the evidence for ancient textiles is thin and scattered), then spends most of the space saying "here is how researchers solved it." That is a problem-and-progress story, not an attack, not a defense, not a list of recommendations.

Goal

Looking for an answer that says, in some form, Be wary of:

Answers that frame the author as defending or attacking something — the author isn't taking sides

Answers that broaden the topic beyond textile research

Answers that say the author is recommending or summarizing hypotheses, when really the author is recounting what worked

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

The question

The passage as a whole functions

Answer choices

Wrong Purpose1% picked this
a defense of the controversial methods adopted by certain researchers in
The author isn't defending the methods against critics — there is no controversy in view. The methods are simply described as approaches that have worked. There is also no indication that anyone has called the methods controversial.
1%
Wrong Purpose1% picked this
a set of recommendations to guide future activities in a particular
The author looks backward at what researchers have already done, not forward with recommendations. There are no "should" or "ought" sentences directing future work.
1%
Correct81% picked this
an account of how a particular branch of research has successfully coped
Why this is right
This captures the problem-and-progress shape of the passage. P1 lays out the difficulties facing the study of ancient textiles, and P2 and P3 walk through the technological, philosophical, and reconstructive approaches that have allowed the field to make real progress despite those difficulties. That is precisely "an account of how a particular branch of research has successfully coped with certain difficulties."
Skill tested: Primary Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
81%
Wrong Purpose1% picked this
a rejection of some commonly held views about the methodologies of
The author does not reject any commonly held views. The closest thing is the discovery that the dress was made for the small statue rather than the large one — but that is a localized correction inside P3, not a wholesale rejection of methodologies.
1%
Wrong Purpose16% picked this
a summary of the hypotheses advanced by researchers who have used innovative
The passage describes findings and methods, not hypotheses awaiting verification. The discoveries discussed (the linen shirt, the loom weights, the small Athena statue) are presented as confirmed conclusions, not as outstanding hypotheses.
16%

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