Q6

[CharlesT757]

I personally thought (B) was unwarranted. The end of paragraph 1 states "Indus was long considered archaeologically uninteresting..."

Sooooo just because it was long considered uninteresting doesn't mean there wasn't sufficient evidence gathered back in the day to reach credible conclusions. Answer (B) is so strong. It is ONLY in recent years. Really? So you're telling me it was ONLY until recent that we gathered sufficient evidence to reach credible conclusions? None of the past archaeological finds didn't have any credible conclusions?

I understand that it's not explicitly stated in the passage that there were any credible conclusions made "long ago" and the last paragraph is establishing that Wheeler was wrong. But Wheeler can't be the only archaeologist of the LARGEST ANCIENT URBAN CIVILIZATION. Okay sorry for the rant but let me know if I made any unreasonable assumptions.

[Misti Duvall]

This might be a little bit easier by focusing on more of the passage. Answer choice (B) talks about recent years, so it can help to look for what the author says happened recently. The best support for the answer is in a different part of the last paragraph, partway through with the sentence that starts "In fact, new excavations show..." That's the evidence that disproved the old theory and allowed scholars to come to new (and the author seems to think, better, conclusions).

[yingz53]

My thoughts about B

Though credible conclusions regarding the civilization here seems vague, it refers to 'the causes of the civilization decline', which is the only controversial issue in this passage.
And the first sentence in paragraph mentions that this question 'are not certain' and one of the theories is by Mortimer. That is to say, Mortimer's theory is a representative one but all of those theories did not make a conclusive explanation until some new evidence came out.
So B is right and the evidence mentioned is sufficient to establish the argument that 'the Indus Valley people most likely relocated for catastrophic environmental reasons'

I think we can learn from the question the following things:
1) translate the answers to something specific in the passage
2) be open to some seemingly extreme answers 'sufficient'
3) the better way is ruling out all the wrong answers because I can not be so confident when first time coming across B. So just leave it and the other answers come from nowhere.