Information and Ideas practice question

Answer: A. Excavated warehouses were filled with goods manufactured hundreds of miles away.

The claim is that wealth came from trade rather than local farming, so warehouses stocked with distant goods point to trade as the source (A). B and D actually suggest local food production, working against the claim, and C shows growth without identifying its cause.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The surrounding soil was fertile enough to grow grain.

Fertile soil points to local farming as a wealth source, which is the explanation the historian is arguing against, so this weakens rather than supports the claim.

C. The city's population grew steadily for two centuries.

Steady population growth shows the city thrived but names no cause, so it can't distinguish trade from farming.

D. Many residents kept small gardens within the city walls.

Gardens inside the walls are evidence of local food production — the alternative the historian rejects — so this works against the claim.

More Information and Ideas questions

• Hard
  Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the researcher's hypothesis?
• Hard
  Which choice most logically completes the text with a conclusion the evidence supports?
• Hard
  Which quotation from the passage would best support the student's claim?
• Hard
  Which choice best describes data that would support the conclusion that more daily reading is associated with …
• Hard
  Which choice most logically completes the text with a conclusion the evidence supports?
• Hard
  Which statement about the data would best support the claim that the bus lane made the route faster?