Historical researchers face a significant challenge when studying medieval peasant life: contemporary written records focus almost exclusively on nobi...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Historical researchers face a significant challenge when studying medieval peasant life: contemporary written records focus almost exclusively on nobility and clergy, creating substantial gaps in our understanding of common people's daily experiences. To develop insight into how ordinary medieval citizens lived and worked, historians must _____ their routines and social structures using archaeological evidence, material artifacts, and the scattered references to commoners found in administrative documents.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
reconstruct
romanticize
eliminate
categorize
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Historical researchers face a significant challenge when studying medieval peasant life:" |
|
| "contemporary written records focus almost exclusively on nobility and clergy," |
|
| "creating substantial gaps in our understanding of common people's daily experiences." |
|
| "To develop insight into how ordinary medieval citizens lived and worked," |
|
| "historians must _______ their routines and social structures" |
|
| "using archaeological evidence, material artifacts, and the scattered references to commoners found in administrative documents." |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Historians must use alternative evidence sources to understand medieval peasant life since traditional written records ignore common people.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes a research problem (bias in historical records toward elites), explains its consequences (knowledge gaps about ordinary people), and then describes how historians address this challenge by using alternative evidence sources to fill those gaps.
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 describes what historians do when they use archaeological evidence, artifacts, and scattered references to understand peasant life
- Since direct written records about peasants don't exist, historians need to piece together or build up an understanding from these indirect, fragmentary sources
- The word should capture the idea of creating or building something (knowledge of peasant life) from incomplete evidence
reconstruct
✓ Correct
- "Reconstruct" means to build or create again from available evidence
- This perfectly matches what historians do—they piece together understanding of peasant life from archaeological findings and scattered references
- Fits the context of building knowledge from fragmentary sources when direct records don't exist
romanticize
✗ Incorrect
- "Romanticize" means to idealize or present something as better/more appealing than reality
- This doesn't fit—the passage emphasizes using evidence to understand peasant life, not making it seem romantic or idealized
eliminate
✗ Incorrect
- "Eliminate" means to remove or get rid of
- This is the opposite of what historians want to do—they want to understand peasant routines and social structures, not eliminate them
- Makes no logical sense in the context of developing insight
categorize
✗ Incorrect
- "Categorize" means to sort into groups or classes
- While historians might organize their findings, this doesn't capture the main action described—they're trying to understand and piece together peasant life from fragments, not just sort it into categories