Question 1
Riya1475828 wrote:
Can someone please explain Q1?
GMATNinja?
MartyMurrayQuestion 1 asks why the author included a particular detail of the passage. To understand this kind of thing, it's important to look at the bigger picture. Why did the author write each paragraph, and the passage as a whole? Answering this will allow you to see the purpose of a smaller detail.
So, why did the author write each paragraph?
In the first paragraph, the author
suggests that a longish timeline of temple-building may be wrong, but says that scientists haven't been able to confirm one way or the other. Perhaps the 250-year span of temple building is incorrect, and the actual timeline matches up with oral reports of a big change sometime around 1600. We just don't know.
In the second paragraph, the
author provides evidence to confirm the shorter timeline, which matches up with oral reports from the native population. With this bigger picture in mind, why did the author use the phrase "single generation of Hawaiians" in the final line? Well, a single generation is a short period of time. So, this language is there to show that the new studies and the oral histories match up well -- both indicate that the changes occurred within a short period of time.
That aligns nicely with (D): "the researchers’ study is consistent with oral histories regarding Pi’ilani."
(D) is the correct answer to question 1.
I hope that helps!