Reading Comprehension

PT152 · S3 · P1 · Q6 Indus Valley Civilization

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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.

Topic

Indus Valley civilization

Framework

Highlight Something Noteworthy

Main Point

Recent excavations have shown ways in the Indus Valley civilization was without parallel in history, by uniting certain characteristics never found together in a single civilization.

Summary

P1 - Intro & Thesis

The first two sentences give us our background info on the Indus Valley civilization (IVC). Then the final sentence of the paragraph gives us our primary big picture clues: long considered boring, but recent is making us think it's really quite fascinating.

As we read the rest of the passage, we'll assume we've already heard the main point, and we're really just hoping to grab a couple bullet points of subsidiary details.

P2 - IVC had clever, modest, peaceful cities

Their cities were laid out very logically. They had the first sewer system. They didn't seem to have rulers or much income inequality or much need for weapon production.

P3 - IVC was good at agriculture and trade

They were the first to grow rice and cotton, and they were avid traders.

P4 - Possible causes for the decline of IVC

The author considers a long-standing theory (hint-hint, author will probably disagree) that IVC was brought down by an invasion of Indo-Aryan invaders.

The author then debunks this theory and speculates some climate-environment-natural disaster alternatives.

6.

The author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements about archaeological investigations into the Indus Valley civilization?

  1. Archaeological data on the civilization

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: controlled by small group There's nothing in the passage that suggests that a small group of scholars for many years controlled all the data on the civilization.

    3% picked this

  2. Correct

    It is only in recent

    Why this is right

    At first, it might seem pretty strong to say "it is only in recent years that scholars have gathered enough evidence to reach credible conclusions". But this matches up fairly well with the last sentence of the first paragraph: the civilization was long considered archaeologically uninteresting, but recent excavations show the civilization to be without parallel. This answer is further buttressed by the first few sentences of the final paragraph: A long-standing theory [about the civilization's decline] was proposed in the 1920's. But, in addition to a lack of written evidence, there is no archaeological evidence of battles. In fact, new excavations show . Archaeological evidence also shows . This suggests . This paragraph is giving off the feel that until we did these recent excavations, we were really just making guesses, but now we feel like we actually have a decent sense of the civilization.

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

    74% picked this

  3. The Sumerian tablets that provide

    Too Strong: the only

    Just because Sumerian tablets are the only ancient written record mentioned in the passage doesn't mean that those tablets are the only known ancient written records.

    2% picked this

  4. While an adequate amount of

    Too Strong: most

    We have nothing in the passage to justify this strong statement that more than 50% of the archaeological data that we've had for decades has been misinterpreted. It's also a stretch to say that "an adequate amount of data" has existed for many decades, since the passage is stressing that this civilization has been largely ignored until recently.

    17% picked this

  5. The most recent archaeological investigations

    Out of Scope: broader trend

    There's nothing in the passage to support the idea that these recent excavations regarding the Indus Valley civilization are part of any broader trend in archaeology regarding overreliance on written evidence.

    4% picked this

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