Archaeologists and historians used to believe that the Maya civilization during its Classic period (roughly 250–900) lacked agricultural marketplaces....
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Archaeologists and historians used to believe that the Maya civilization during its Classic period (roughly 250–900) lacked agricultural marketplaces. One reason for this belief was that these scholars misunderstood the ecology of the regions the Maya inhabited. Marketplaces typically emerge because different individuals or groups want to trade resources they control for resources they don't control. Scholars seriously underestimated the ecological diversity of the Maya landscape and thus assumed that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
marketplaces likely would not have attracted many traders from outside the regions controlled by the Maya.
farming practices would have been largely the same throughout Maya lands even if the crops people produced varied significantly.
marketplaces would not have enabled Maya people to acquire many products different from those they already produced.
farmers would trade agricultural products only if they had already produced enough to meet their own needs.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Archaeologists and historians used to believe that the Maya civilization during its Classic period (roughly 250–900) lacked agricultural marketplaces." |
|
| "One reason for this belief was that these scholars misunderstood the ecology of the regions the Maya inhabited." |
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| "Marketplaces typically emerge because different individuals or groups want to trade resources they control for resources they don't control." |
|
| "Scholars seriously underestimated the ecological diversity of the Maya landscape and thus assumed that ______" |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Archaeologists wrongly believed Maya lacked marketplaces because they underestimated the ecological diversity that would have created demand for trading different resources.
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 logic chain is: marketplaces exist so people can trade different resources → scholars underestimated ecological diversity → therefore scholars would assume there wasn't much variety in resources → so there wouldn't be much reason for people to trade → so marketplaces wouldn't be needed or useful
- The right answer should reflect that scholars would think Maya people already had access to most of what they needed locally, making marketplaces unnecessary
marketplaces likely would not have attracted many traders from outside the regions controlled by the Maya.
- This focuses on outside traders, but the passage is about Maya marketplaces in general
- Doesn't connect to the ecological diversity issue
farming practices would have been largely the same throughout Maya lands even if the crops people produced varied significantly.
- This talks about farming practices being similar vs. crops varying
- Doesn't address whether marketplaces would be useful or needed
marketplaces would not have enabled Maya people to acquire many products different from those they already produced.
- Directly connects to the market principle: people can't get products different from those they already produced
- Follows logically: less diversity → people already have what they need → markets not useful
farmers would trade agricultural products only if they had already produced enough to meet their own needs.
- Focuses on surplus production rather than resource diversity
- Misses the main point about variety of resources available for trading