Q9 - Robin: Archaeologists can study

[Misti Duvall]

Question Type:
ID the Disagreement

Stimulus Breakdown:
Robin: Archaeologists can determine whether ancient cultures were nomadic or sedentary based on their artifacts. If the artifacts were made to last, the culture was likely sedentary.

Kendall: But people make artifacts according to the materials available to them.

Answer Anticipation:
They're both talking about the materials used to make artifacts, so that's the overlap. Based on Kendall's response, it seems like they're disagreeing about how much the materials used to make artifacts can tell us about whether a culture was nomadic or sendentary.

Correct answer:
(B)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) There's no disagreement about whether the distinction between nomadic and sedentary is allowable. Just about what the types of materials used to make artifacts can tell us. Eliminate.

(B) This is the correct answer. It's easy to eliminate on first pass because it's talking about whether a culture was nomadic and Robin concludes that a specific culture was sedentary. But uderlying Robin's argument is the assumption that artifacts made from durable material indicate a sedentary culture and artifacts made from non-durable material indicate a nomadic culture. Kendall questions whether the materials used to make an artifact can in fact help make this distinction.

(C) There's no discussion of other evidence that could help determine whether a culture was sedentary or nomadic. Eliminate.

(D) There's no discussion of the importance of Robin's distinction. Eliminate.

(E) They might agree on this! They're only really talking about whether the materials used to make an artifact can determine if the culture was nomadic or sedentary. Eliminate.

Takeaway/Pattern:
Sometimes answers aren't worded the way we expect, so be flexible and work wrong to right.

#officialexplanation