Archaeological excavations often yield artifacts whose original purposes remain unclear, leading to scholarly debates. While some researchers believe ...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Archaeological excavations often yield artifacts whose original purposes remain unclear, leading to scholarly debates. While some researchers believe certain ancient tools served ceremonial purposes, others argue they were purely functional implements, making it necessary to establish a clear ______ to resolve such disagreements through systematic comparative analysis.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
chronicle
theory
inventory
documentation
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Archaeological excavations often yield artifacts whose original purposes remain unclear, leading to scholarly debates.' |
|
| 'While some researchers believe certain ancient tools served ceremonial purposes, others argue they were purely functional implements,' |
|
| 'making it necessary to establish a clear _______ to resolve such disagreements through systematic comparative analysis.' |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Archaeological artifacts with unclear purposes create scholarly debates that need a systematic framework to resolve.
Argument Flow: The passage moves from identifying a problem (unclear artifact purposes causing debates) to specifying the nature of those debates (ceremonial vs functional interpretations) to proposing what is needed for resolution (establishing something clear for systematic analysis).
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The blank appears after describing a scholarly debate about artifact purposes
- The sentence says we need to establish a clear something to resolve disagreements through systematic comparative analysis
- So we need something that can be established, something that would be clear, something that helps resolve scholarly disagreements, and something that works through systematic comparative analysis
- This points to a systematic framework or approach that provides structure for analyzing and comparing different interpretations
chronicle
✗ Incorrect
- A chronicle is a record of events in chronological order
- This does not fit because establishing a clear chronicle would not help resolve disagreements about artifact purposes
theory
✓ Correct
- A theory is a systematic framework for understanding and explaining phenomena
- Establishing a clear theory would provide researchers with a structured approach to analyze artifacts and resolve disagreements about their purposes
- This matches our prethinking perfectly
inventory
✗ Incorrect
- An inventory is simply a list of items or resources
- Establishing a clear inventory would not help resolve scholarly debates about artifact purposes - it would just catalog what exists
documentation
✗ Incorrect
- Documentation refers to written records or evidence
- While documentation is important in archaeology, establishing clear documentation does not address the need for a systematic approach to resolve interpretive disagreements