Cucurbits, a group of plants that includes squash and melons, relied on mastodons to spread their seeds in the Ice...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Cucurbits, a group of plants that includes squash and melons, relied on mastodons to spread their seeds in the Ice Age. When these animals died out, cucurbits faced extinction in turn, having lost their means of seed dispersal. Around this time, however, the ancestors of Indigenous peoples in North America began raising cucurbits as crops, thus _______ the plants' survival.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
verifying
multiplying
comforting
ensuring
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Cucurbits, a group of plants that includes squash and melons, relied on mastodons to spread their seeds in the Ice Age.' |
|
| 'When these animals died out, cucurbits faced extinction in turn, having lost their means of seed dispersal.' |
|
| 'Around this time, however, the ancestors of Indigenous peoples in North America began raising cucurbits as crops,' |
|
| 'thus _______ the plants' survival.' |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Visual Structure Map: [HISTORICAL DEPENDENCY] Cucurbits relied on mastodons for seed dispersal → [CRISIS] Mastodons died out → Cucurbits faced extinction → [SOLUTION] Indigenous peoples began farming cucurbits → [MISSING RESULT] their survival
Main Point: Indigenous peoples' agricultural practices saved cucurbits from extinction when their natural seed dispersers (mastodons) disappeared.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes a historical dependency, presents the crisis when that dependency was broken, and then shows how human intervention provided a solution that had a specific positive effect on the plants' survival.
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 needs to describe what Indigenous peoples' action of cultivating cucurbits as crops did for the plants' survival
- From our analysis, we know:
- Cucurbits faced extinction due to losing their seed dispersers
- Indigenous peoples began farming them around the same time
- This farming action had a positive effect on their survival
- The missing word should indicate that farming made their survival certain or guaranteed, since cultivation would provide the seed dispersal and propagation that mastodons previously provided
- So the right answer should show that Indigenous farming made certain or guaranteed the cucurbits' continued existence
verifying
✗ Incorrect
- 'Verifying' means confirming or checking something that already exists
- The Indigenous peoples weren't checking on the plants' survival—they were actively causing it through cultivation
- What trap this represents: Students might confuse 'making sure something happens' with 'checking that something happened'
multiplying
✗ Incorrect
- 'Multiplying' means increasing the number or quantity of something
- While farming might increase plant numbers, the focus here is on survival/continuation, not quantity
- The sentence structure with 'survival' as the direct object doesn't work well with 'multiplying'
comforting
✗ Incorrect
- 'Comforting' means providing emotional support or consolation
- Plants don't experience emotions that need comforting
- This choice completely misses the logical relationship in the passage
ensuring
✓ Correct
- 'Ensuring' means making certain or guaranteeing that something will happen
- Perfectly captures how Indigenous farming practices guaranteed the plants' continued existence
- Creates the logical cause-effect relationship: farming → guaranteed survival
- Matches our prethinking about making survival certain