The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, contains identical text written in three scripts: Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic. While scholars could...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, contains identical text written in three scripts: Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic. While scholars could easily read the Greek portion, hieroglyphic writing had remained undecipherable for centuries. The parallel texts proved so valuable that decades of comparative linguistic analysis were necessary to ______ the meanings of individual hieroglyphic symbols.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
establish
develop
acquire
attract
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, contains identical text written in three scripts: Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic.' |
|
| 'While scholars could easily read the Greek portion, hieroglyphic writing had remained undecipherable for centuries.' |
|
| 'The parallel texts proved so valuable that decades of comparative linguistic analysis were necessary to' |
|
| 'the meanings of individual hieroglyphic symbols.' |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: The Rosetta Stone's parallel texts enabled scholars to use comparative linguistic analysis to determine hieroglyphic meanings after centuries of mystery.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes the historical context of the Rosetta Stone discovery, highlights the long-standing problem with hieroglyphic interpretation, then explains how the stone's parallel texts provided the breakthrough needed for extensive comparative analysis to solve this problem.
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
- Looking at our passage analysis, we see that decades of comparative linguistic analysis were necessary to do something with 'the meanings of individual hieroglyphic symbols.'
- The context tells us that hieroglyphics had been undecipherable for centuries, but the parallel texts made breakthrough work possible.
- The relationship we need is about what the analysis accomplished regarding these symbol meanings.
- The scholars had to determine, figure out, or prove what these symbols meant - they had to definitively work out meanings that had been unknown.
- So the right answer should indicate the process of determining or proving the meanings definitively through scholarly analysis.
establish
✓ Correct
- 'Establish' means to determine or prove something definitively through evidence
- Fits perfectly with the context of scholarly analysis determining meanings that were previously unknown
- Matches the formal, academic tone of 'comparative linguistic analysis'
develop
✗ Incorrect
- 'Develop' suggests creating or growing something over time
- The meanings already existed - scholars needed to figure them out, not create them
- What trap this represents: Students might think 'develop' works because the process took decades, but the meanings weren't developed - they were discovered
acquire
✗ Incorrect
- 'Acquire' means to obtain or get something
- Too informal for the scholarly context and doesn't capture the analytical process
- Suggests simply obtaining rather than the complex work of determining meanings
attract
✗ Incorrect
- 'Attract' means to draw something toward you
- Makes no logical sense in this context - you can't attract meanings
- Completely unrelated to the scholarly analysis described