Historical documents have revealed that among the Timucua of Florida,

Hi davidbeckham,

1. According to the passage, which of the following statements regarding earthen mounds in the Dallas communities is accurate?

(A) They sewed primarily as burial grounds.
(B) They were constructed in key locations on the perimeter of the village.
(C) They were elements in important structures in the community.
(D) They were used as storehouses for keeping valuable possessions safe.
(E) They contained utilitarian items made of nonlocal materials.

Explanation: can be inferred from the lines: "In the largest Dallas communities, some individuals were buried in the earthen mounds that sewed as substructures for buildings important to civic and religious affairs.", implying that earthen moulds served as substructures for important buildings.
Option A is incorrect, as no earthen mounds did not serve as burial grounds.
Options B, D cannot be inferred from the passage.
Option E is incorrect as what's mentioned in the passage is: "These burials included quantities of finely crafted items made of nonlocal material,", but these were not utilitarian items at least we cannot infer that from the passage.

Hope This Helps.
Thanks.

For Question (4), why can't D be the answer?

4. The passage suggests which of the following about the diet of the Dallas communities?
(D) The diet was obtained entirely from local food sources.

Excavations indicate that three food categories made up the bulk of the population's diet: agricultural crops cultivated in the fertile alluvial soils where the communities were located

Kindly help resolve!

Take a closer look at (D):


The passage states that THREE food categories made up the bulk of the communities’ diet. ONE of these sources is known to be local: the agricultural crops you mentioned. But we have no idea where the TWO other sources (game and wild edible plants) came from. Even if we did, these three sources do not make up the entirety of the communities’ diet. So, the passage definitely suggests that part of the communities’ diet was obtained from local sources, but not the entirety of their diet. Eliminate (D).

I hope that helps!

This incorrect answer choice was actually a very close call between the words - entirely & bulk. Thanks GMATNinja for specifically pointing it out. Totally missed it!

Question 1

Everything we need to answer this question is in the second paragraph. We're told that some people were buried in "earthen mounds that served as substructures for buildings important to civic and religious affairs."

The paragraph then describes the burials, the contents of the mounds, and the pattern of their distribution within the settlement. We'll use the information in this paragraph when examining the answer choices.

This question asks us which of the statements about the burial mounds is accurate. Let's take a look at (A) first:

As mentioned in the quote above, the earthen mounds served as substructures for important buildings in the community. So, we cannot say that they primarily served as burial grounds.

(A) is out.


We know that the tallest skeletons -- the highest-status individuals -- were buried in the mounds. We also know that these mounds "served as substructures" for important buildings in the community. However, there is still no information on the location of these structures and mounds.

We are told that the skeletons of lower-status individuals (who were NOT buried in mounds, but instead in some other, non-specified type of burial) were placed in "more remote sections of the settlements." From this, we can infer that the mounds were located in a LESS remote section of the village.

That doesn't give us much, and we certainly can't say that the mounds were constructed in key locations on the perimeter of the village.

Eliminate (B).


The start of the second paragraph tells us the mounds "served as substructures for buildings important to civic and religious affairs." In other words, the mounds were elements in the civic and religious buildings that were important structures in the community.

(C) is looking good -- let's keep it while we examine (D) and (E).


While the second paragraph tells us that the mounds contained valuable possessions, it suggests these possessions were laid there as part of the burial. The people who put the possessions there did not expect to get them back, so it's not accurate to say these mounds were used as "storehouses."

This rules (D) out.


There are separate references to utilitarian items and items made of nonlocal material in the second paragraph. The lower-status individuals were buried with utilitarian items. The higher-status individuals were buried with "quantities of finely crafted items made of nonlocal material."

Since there is no reference to any people being buried with utilitarian items made of nonlocal material, we cannot say (E) is an accurate statement.

This means we can eliminate (E), leaving us with (C) as the only answer not crossed out. So, (C) is the answer to this question.

Question 4

There is a little context for what "game" might mean in this passage. The start of the third paragraph gives us three elements of the diet in the Dallas communities:

• Agricultural crops
• Game
• Wild edible plants, primarily nuts

Later in the paragraph, we're given some indication that higher-status individuals in the community had access to more meat than lower-status individuals. The evidence for this is discussed further in this post. Since we know agricultural crops and wild edible plants are not meat, that gives us a clue that game is some type of meat or animal.

Obviously, it would be easier to simply know the definition of the word but there are some contextual clues in the passage. As it's being used here, the definition of game is any meat from an animal that can be hunted, such as deer, rabbit, or pheasant.

However, it's still possible to answer this question without knowing the definition of game. This post gives an explanation of why (A) can be eliminated without using the definition of game. While it also gives an explanation of why (B) is the right answer, we're going to look at how to eliminate (C), (D), and (E) without knowing the definition of game here.


The start of the third paragraph tells us about the three elements in the diet of these people. However, it gives us no information on the PROPORTION of each element in the diet.

From the information in the passage, we don't know if the diet was composed primarily of agricultural crops when game was scarce. It might have been composed primarily of wild edible plants.

We don't need to know what game means to eliminate (C) because we're eliminating it based on a lack of knowledge about the proportions of each element in the diet.


This may well be true, but remember the question asks us which of the answer choices is suggested by the information in the passage. In the passage, there is no indication of where the diet was obtained from. Therefore, we cannot say the passage suggests the diet was obtained entirely from local sources.

This means we can eliminate (D).


There is one mention of balance in a diet in the passage, but that is from a general point about people with low concentrations of vanadium as evidence of meat consumption.

There is no suggestion that the diet of everyone in the community was "well balanced". There is also no suggestion in the passage that the diet changed as the year progressed, so we cannot say the diet was particularly well balanced at harvest time.

This gives us enough justification to eliminate (E).

Therefore, we can use a process of elimination to rule out all the answer choices except (B), even though we didn't know what "game" meant.

If you find yourself struggling with a single word, first look for contextual clues in the passage. If that doesn't work, see if you can eliminate some answer choices without needing to use that word or its definition -- you could make it all the way to the end of the question without needing it!

I hope that helps!

This is definitely not a 600 or 650 level RC

In (D), it is also challenging the arguing against the convectional. What's the difference between (C) and (D)?

I have doubt should not the option include " discovered a height differential among skeleton of members of subgroups in the Dallas community" for correct inference as they found difference in height among skeletons.

I totally agree. I had no idea that game is actually a meat.
However, maybe we can approach this with the main idea of the passage.
It is showing us the relationship between status and diet.
(B) is the only option that deals with both status and diet.

Someone can help me?
Why is not D in Q.3

Hello

Read the explanation in the posts in the link below

https://gmatclub.com/forum/historical-d ... l#p2110197

https://gmatclub.com/forum/historical-d ... l#p2260626

Best.

Question 3

Here's question 3:

The "relationship" in question is the "relationship between social status and diet in the Dallas communities of eastern Tennessee."

To find when this relationship was initially recognized, read further on in the first paragraph: "The first real clue came when archaeologists discovered that skeletons of higher-status individuals tended to be several centimeters taller than those of people of lower status."

Which answer choice captures this initial clue? Here's (D):

We know from the passage that the Dallas communities were "prehistoric Native American groups with a social organization and economy similar to that of the Timucua."

But who, exactly made this comparison? It could have been archeologists, or it could have been someone else (historians, etc). Question 3 asks specifically about what archeologists did, so that's one mark against (D). And even if it was archeologists making this comparison, when did they do so? Was it before or after they recognized the relationship between social status and diet in the Dallas communities? We just don't know.

So, while we can infer that someone made a comparison between these two groups, we can't say that this comparison led to the initial recognition of tyeh relationship between diet and status.

Eliminate (D) for question 3.

Compare that to (B):

This fits beautifully with the "first real clue" mentioned in the passage.

(B) is the correct answer to question 3.

I hope that helps!

For question 4, it's imperative to understand, especially if you are a non-native speaker, what "game" refers to. But with GMAT passages, it tries to give information that we need to correlate.

The biggest deception here is "edible plants" in the sentence, "Higher than normal levels of manganese, strontium, and vanadium probably indicate a less nutritious diet heavily dependent on edible plants." One may refer to "edible plants" as "wild edible plants which include nuts," and then the next sentence "Very low concentrations of vanadium, which is scarce in meats and somewhat lower in nuts than in other plant resources, are good evidence of meat consumption and thus a better balanced-diet" may seem contradictory. So it's essential to understand that "edible plants" don't just refer to "wild edible plants." It refers to plants in general that are edible, and it includes crops as well.

Now we have that behind us, so the clue is in this sentence "Very low concentrations of vanadium, which is scarce in meats and somewhat lower in nuts than in other plant resources, are good evidence of meat consumption and thus a better balanced diet." Put your SC hat on. "lower in nuts than in other plant resources" compares wild plants with other plant resources, influencing crops. Earlier in the paragraph, the author mentions three broad categories, so "game" has to refer to "meat."

Office, if you are a native speaker or know that game cropping is the practice of raising game animals for meat and other products, then this may be a cakewalk, and thus this explanation is not helpful, but if not, then let's develop a practice to keep looking for pointers. Now, with this understanding, let's look at the options.

The passage suggests which of the following about the diet of the Dallas communities?

(A) Wild edible plants were a relatively minor element in the diet. - We don't know. Not mentioned in the passage.
(B) Game was less likely to be available to lower-status individuals than were edible plants. - Yes. True. Meat was not available to lower-status individuals.
(C) The diet was composed primarily of agricultural crops when game was scarce. - We know know. The author just uses some familiar words from the passage to create a wonderful distortion.
(D) The diet was obtained entirely from local food sources. - May be or may not be. We don't know. The passage earlier denotes that "burials included quantities of finely crafted items made of nonlocal material." This choice tries to create a trap from the familiar words but nonlocal materials have nothing to do with the diet. The passage never mentioned that it is "ENTIRELY" local food.
(E) The diet was well balanced, especially at harvest time. - Not mentioned.