16Hit1600
Information and IdeasHardLocate the stated reason supporting a claim

Information and Ideas practice question

For centuries the caravan route linking the oases of the northern Sahara carried salt southward and gold northward, and historians long assumed that traders rarely lingered at the intermediate wells. Archaeologist Halima Berrada's excavation at one such well complicates that picture. Among the debris she recovered hundreds of fragments of thick storage jars whose interior residues, analyzed chemically, proved to contain fermented date products. Because jars of this size and fabric were far too heavy and too fragile to have been strapped to a camel for weeks of travel, Berrada argues that they must have been made and filled on-site. The wells, she concludes, supported resident populations manufacturing goods for the caravans, not merely water stops that traders passed through.

According to the text, what is Berrada's reason for concluding that the jars were produced at the well site itself?

  1. A. The residues inside the jars were identified as fermented date products.
  2. B. Jars of that weight and fragility could not have survived transport by camel.Correct
  3. C. More jar fragments were recovered at the well than at other sites along the route.
  4. D. Historians had long believed that traders did not remain at the wells for long.

Answer: B. Jars of that weight and fragility could not have survived transport by camel.

The text states the inference explicitly: 'Because jars of this size and fabric were far too heavy and too fragile to have been strapped to a camel... Berrada argues that they must have been made and filled on-site.' Choice A names a finding from the excavation but not the reason for the on-site conclusion; it confuses what was discovered inside the jars with the argument about where the jars originated. C invents a comparison with other sites that the text never makes. D restates the prior scholarly assumption that Berrada's work complicates, treating a view she argues against as her supporting reason.

Why the other answers are wrong

A. The residues inside the jars were identified as fermented date products.
The date residues are something the analysis found inside the jars, but Berrada's reason for saying the jars were made on-site is about the jars themselves — their weight and fragility.
C. More jar fragments were recovered at the well than at other sites along the route.
The text never compares the number of fragments at this well with any other site along the route; that comparison isn't in the passage.
D. Historians had long believed that traders did not remain at the wells for long.
That's the long-standing assumption Berrada's excavation complicates — a view she argues against, so it can't be the support for her conclusion.

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