16Hit1600
Information and IdeasVery hardCentral claim of a nuanced argument

Information and Ideas practice question

Historians once described the decline of the medieval wool trade in the town as a story of failure. Yet the records tell a subtler tale. Merchants who lost the wool market did not simply vanish: within a generation, their families had moved into cloth finishing, moneylending, and the carrying trade, activities that left fewer traces in the customs rolls but more in the town's surviving wills. What looks like collapse in one set of documents looks like adaptation in another.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

  1. A. The decline of the wool trade appears to be a collapse only because historians relied on records that do not capture how merchant families adapted.Correct
  2. B. The town's merchants abandoned trade entirely after the wool market failed.
  3. C. Customs rolls are the most reliable source for the town's medieval economy.
  4. D. Wills show that the wool trade never really declined.

Answer: A. The decline of the wool trade appears to be a collapse only because historians relied on records that do not capture how merchant families adapted.

The text argues that the record type shaped the story; wills reveal adaptation that customs rolls miss.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The town's merchants abandoned trade entirely after the wool market failed.
They moved into other trades.
C. Customs rolls are the most reliable source for the town's medieval economy.
The text says customs rolls leave out important activity.
D. Wills show that the wool trade never really declined.
The wool trade did decline; what changed was what the families did next.

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