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605-655 (Medium)|   Evaluate Argument|                  
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Excavation of the house of a third-century Camarnian official revealed 08 Oct 2024, 09:14
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We need to determine what evidence might help explain whether the official served the magistrates simultaneously or sequentially:

This means if the official served simultaneously, evidence might indicate that he moved between cities often.

And if he served sequentially, evidence might show long-term stays in each city.

So, why B is our answer:

A cache of the official's documents related to work from early in his career would most likely contain records, correspondence, or other paperwork detailing his duties, assignments, or the locations where he worked early on.

Thus, these documents could provide information about whether he was assigned to multiple cities at once or just one, offering direct evidence of whether his work involved travelling between cities or staying in one city.
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Excavation of the house of a third-century Camarnian official revealed 13 Aug 2025, 11:19
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But with B, aren't you assuming that the documents from his early career days will necessarily contain the pattern asked in the Q

How does this option confirm to us that the documents will definitely give us info on the pattern related to his serving for the cities?

"documents related to work" can be any document about work, the option gives a generalization, not a specification (which you have assumed while choosing this option)

Don't understand how does B hold?

can we say this is a good question?
None of the options seem to fit

Please if some expert can help!!

KarishmaB
Bunuel
Excavation of the house of a third-century Camarnian official revealed that he had served four magistrates—public officials who administer the law—over his thirty-year public career, in four provincial capital cities. However, given the Camarnian administrative system of that era, it is unclear whether he served them simultaneously, as a traveling administrator living for part of the year in each provincial capital, or else did so sequentially, leaving one magistrate after several years to join another.

Which of the following would, if found in the excavation, most likely help reveal the pattern of the official's administrative service?

(A) Maps and documents describing each of the four provincial capitals
(B) A cache of the official's documents related to work from early in his career
(C) A set of cups of a type made only in the city of the first magistrate whom the official is known to have served
(D) Several pieces of furniture in the styles of two of the provincial capital cities
(E) Heavy clothing appropriate only for the coldest of the four cities


CR53341.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION

Show Spoiler
Argument Construction

Situation
Evidence from an excavation makes clear that a particular third-century Camarnian official served four magistrates in four provincial capitals over his thirty-year career, but it is unclear whether he served the magistrates simultaneously or sequentially.

Reasoning
What evidence, if it were also found in the excavation, would be most helpful in determining whether the official served the magistrates simultaneously or sequentially? It would be helpful to find documents from throughout the magistrate's career indicating at what times he worked for each magistrate, or even documents from just one period, as long as there were a large number, because this would likely show whether he was working for just one magistrate or for all four.

(A) We already know that the official worked in each of the four capitals. The fact that maps and documents describing the capitals were at his house tells us nothing about whether he worked for magistrates in these capitals simultaneously or not.

(B) Correct. Presumably the work-related documents would show whom he was working for at the time, and for how long—and would provide evidence as to whether he was working for multiple magistrates or for just one.

(C) Merely finding a set of cups made only in one of the cities tells us little. Even if we knew when he acquired the set, he need not have been working for the magistrate of that city at the time he acquired it; perhaps he had simply traveled to that city.

(D) One frequently moves furniture when moving from one city to another, so the fact that the official had pieces of furniture that may have come from different cities does not give us any indication of whether the official worked for all four magistrates simultaneously or not.

(E) The fact that heavy clothing appropriate only for the coldest of the four cities was found in the excavation of the official's house does not imply that other clothing, appropriate for one or more of the other cities, was not found. Consistent with the finding of the heavy clothing, the official may have worked exclusively in the city for which that clothing was appropriate, or worked intermittently in this city.


deepverma
Hi Karishma,

https://gmatclub.com/forum/excavation-o ... 94368.html
For the above question ,Please address my queries:
1)Why E is wrong ; I found it as taking strongest stand for the pattern that Camarnian official stayed only 1 place and mostly managed 4 simulaneously
2) For B : I had doubts , as B talks only about early carrer so how can we r sure that it will give information of 30 years career pattern
3) How to handle questions when all choices looks incorrect or partially correct? Any Technique ?

Thanks a ton!

Brian has already explained the solution in detail above so I will focus on just option (E) (which seems to be throwing you off)

(E) is certainly wrong - Say he works at all 4 places for some part of the year - 3 months each. One would expect him to have heavy clothing suitable to city A (say, coldest).
Say he worked in the four cities one after the other. When he lived in city A, he would have bought the heavy clothing. On his move to another city after years, he could have easily carried the clothes not knowing what the future held for him. Or he could have moved to city A at the end and bought the clothes at that time.
So finding clothes apt for only one city tells us nothing about his service pattern.
If we find clothes apt for all 4 cities, that tells us nothing either. He could have acquired them all in one year or in sequence in one stint after another.

(B) does have the problem of "early" but it is the best option we have. Say, if we know how things were in the first 5 years of his career (whether he was serving multiple magistrates or only one), we can guess what the pattern was for him. Note that the assumption of the question is that there was a pattern and it was not a mix of patterns. The question asks what would help us find the pattern that his career followed (so we know that his career followed one of the two patterns - simultaneous service or one after another). If he first served only one magistrate early on and mid way in his career switched to multiple, then the question makes no sense. The question makes sense only if his career followed only one pattern. So even documents of just early times should reveal the pattern.

Option (B) is correct.
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Excavation of the house of a third-century Camarnian official revealed 14 Aug 2025, 09:02
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DmitryFarber, could you please help with this Q?

or please if some expert can share their insights
MartyMurray
napolean92728
GMATNinjaTwo
egmat

Thank you very much
RiyaJ0032
But with B, aren't you assuming that the documents from his early career days will necessarily contain the pattern asked in the Q

How does this option confirm to us that the documents will definitely give us info on the pattern related to his serving for the cities?

"documents related to work" can be any document about work, the option gives a generalization, not a specification (which you have assumed while choosing this option)

Don't understand how does B hold?

can we say this is a good question?
None of the options seem to fit

Please if some expert can help!!

KarishmaB
Bunuel
Excavation of the house of a third-century Camarnian official revealed that he had served four magistrates—public officials who administer the law—over his thirty-year public career, in four provincial capital cities. However, given the Camarnian administrative system of that era, it is unclear whether he served them simultaneously, as a traveling administrator living for part of the year in each provincial capital, or else did so sequentially, leaving one magistrate after several years to join another.

Which of the following would, if found in the excavation, most likely help reveal the pattern of the official's administrative service?

(A) Maps and documents describing each of the four provincial capitals
(B) A cache of the official's documents related to work from early in his career
(C) A set of cups of a type made only in the city of the first magistrate whom the official is known to have served
(D) Several pieces of furniture in the styles of two of the provincial capital cities
(E) Heavy clothing appropriate only for the coldest of the four cities


CR53341.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION

Show Spoiler
Argument Construction

Situation
Evidence from an excavation makes clear that a particular third-century Camarnian official served four magistrates in four provincial capitals over his thirty-year career, but it is unclear whether he served the magistrates simultaneously or sequentially.

Reasoning
What evidence, if it were also found in the excavation, would be most helpful in determining whether the official served the magistrates simultaneously or sequentially? It would be helpful to find documents from throughout the magistrate's career indicating at what times he worked for each magistrate, or even documents from just one period, as long as there were a large number, because this would likely show whether he was working for just one magistrate or for all four.

(A) We already know that the official worked in each of the four capitals. The fact that maps and documents describing the capitals were at his house tells us nothing about whether he worked for magistrates in these capitals simultaneously or not.

(B) Correct. Presumably the work-related documents would show whom he was working for at the time, and for how long—and would provide evidence as to whether he was working for multiple magistrates or for just one.

(C) Merely finding a set of cups made only in one of the cities tells us little. Even if we knew when he acquired the set, he need not have been working for the magistrate of that city at the time he acquired it; perhaps he had simply traveled to that city.

(D) One frequently moves furniture when moving from one city to another, so the fact that the official had pieces of furniture that may have come from different cities does not give us any indication of whether the official worked for all four magistrates simultaneously or not.

(E) The fact that heavy clothing appropriate only for the coldest of the four cities was found in the excavation of the official's house does not imply that other clothing, appropriate for one or more of the other cities, was not found. Consistent with the finding of the heavy clothing, the official may have worked exclusively in the city for which that clothing was appropriate, or worked intermittently in this city.


deepverma
Hi Karishma,

https://gmatclub.com/forum/excavation-o ... 94368.html
For the above question ,Please address my queries:
1)Why E is wrong ; I found it as taking strongest stand for the pattern that Camarnian official stayed only 1 place and mostly managed 4 simulaneously
2) For B : I had doubts , as B talks only about early carrer so how can we r sure that it will give information of 30 years career pattern
3) How to handle questions when all choices looks incorrect or partially correct? Any Technique ?

Thanks a ton!

Brian has already explained the solution in detail above so I will focus on just option (E) (which seems to be throwing you off)

(E) is certainly wrong - Say he works at all 4 places for some part of the year - 3 months each. One would expect him to have heavy clothing suitable to city A (say, coldest).
Say he worked in the four cities one after the other. When he lived in city A, he would have bought the heavy clothing. On his move to another city after years, he could have easily carried the clothes not knowing what the future held for him. Or he could have moved to city A at the end and bought the clothes at that time.
So finding clothes apt for only one city tells us nothing about his service pattern.
If we find clothes apt for all 4 cities, that tells us nothing either. He could have acquired them all in one year or in sequence in one stint after another.

(B) does have the problem of "early" but it is the best option we have. Say, if we know how things were in the first 5 years of his career (whether he was serving multiple magistrates or only one), we can guess what the pattern was for him. Note that the assumption of the question is that there was a pattern and it was not a mix of patterns. The question asks what would help us find the pattern that his career followed (so we know that his career followed one of the two patterns - simultaneous service or one after another). If he first served only one magistrate early on and mid way in his career switched to multiple, then the question makes no sense. The question makes sense only if his career followed only one pattern. So even documents of just early times should reveal the pattern.

Option (B) is correct.
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Excavation of the house of a third-century Camarnian official revealed 14 Aug 2025, 10:29
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Excavation of the house of a third-century Camarnian official revealed that he had served four magistrates—public officials who administer the law—over his thirty-year public career, in four provincial capital cities. However, given the Camarnian administrative system of that era, it is unclear whether he served them simultaneously, as a traveling administrator living for part of the year in each provincial capital, or else did so sequentially, leaving one magistrate after several years to join another.

Which of the following would, if found in the excavation, most likely help reveal the pattern of the official's administrative service?

This is a fairly unique question. It's a type of Evaluate the Argument question, but the passage and answer choices work somewhat differently from what we're used to.

So, the key to getting the question correct is noting exactly what the correct answer has to do, which is to somehow indicate whether the official worked in the four cities "simultaneously, as a traveling administrator living for part of the year in each provincial capital," or "sequentially, leaving one magistrate after several years to join another."

In other words, the correct answer must somehow be connectable to and indicate the timing of his work in the four cities.

(A) Maps and documents describing each of the four provincial capitals

This choice doesn't indicate when he worked where because he could have used maps and documents of the cities regardless of whether he worked in them simultaneously or sequentially.

Eliminate.

(B) A cache of the official's documents related to work from early in his career

This choice is interesting, and pretty tricky.

We might think that documents related to work from early in his career would not indicate how he spent time in different cities over the course of his entire career, but there's a clue indicating that this choice may be correct. The clue is that it's the only choice related to a time period.

Having picked up on that clue, we can examine this choice carefully and see that it works as follows.

If he worked in the cities sequentially, then documents from early in his career would be related to work in only one, or possibly two, cities in which he worked early in his career. On the other hand, if he worked in all the cities simultaneously, then the documents from early in his career would be related to work in all four cities.

So, even though documents from early in his career would be limited in terms of the time period to which they were directly related, the information provided by those documents would help to confirm whether he worked in all four cities simultaneously throughout his career or worked in them sequentially.

Keep.

(C) A set of cups of a type made only in the city of the first magistrate whom the official is known to have served

He could have acquired these cups at any point in his career. So, their presence doesn't indicate when he worked in the city they are from.

Eliminate.

(D) Several pieces of furniture in the styles of two of the provincial capital cities

He could have acquired these pieces of furniture at any point in his career. So, their presence doesn't indicate when he worked in the cities they are from.

Eliminate.

(E) Heavy clothing appropriate only for the coldest of the four cities

We might think the presence of this clothing indicates that the worked in the coldest city, or cities, toward the end of his career since there's a good chance he have disposed of such clothing if he didn't need it toward the end of his career.

However, the presence of this clothing doesn't really indicate when he worked in the coldest cities. After all, he could have used this clothing in the coldest city, or cities, at the end of his career if he had been working there only toward the end of his career or used it throughout his career if he had been working in all four cities simultaneously.

So, it could have made sense for him to have this clothing either way.

Eliminate.

Correct answer: B
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