I suggest applying a 4-step process to tackle this controversial problem.
Step 1 - Read carefully the QS (to canalize your reading)
We are asked to strengthen the following conclusion “Discovery of the fragments is an indication that Pueblos Tribes used the pottery wheel”.
We can address this kind of questions by strengthening a fact or an assumption on which the argument relies.
Step 2 - Understand the argument and its Logical Construction (visualization)
PbT : Pueblos Tribe,
PW : Pottery Wheel,
HP : Hand Pottery,
GdC : Golden Clay
The passage can be summarized as follows :
a)
Recent discovery: fragments of Urn, 1500 yo, in Mexico City Canyon
(Fact)b)
Before discovery, a certain opinion was held: PbT used HP
(Fact including opinion held)c)
Following recent discovery, it was concluded that
PbT used PW instead. Reason for new conclusion:
The GdC used to create the urn could have only been fashioned by using PW.
The underlying assumption is that :
PW is the only way the GdC could be used to create that urn.
Step 3 – Pre-thinking How can we strengthen that argument? --> By making connexions between the different pieces of the argument. This can be achieved through different options :
1) Supporting the assumption by showing that indeed "the GdC used to create the urn involves PW and not HP".
2) Making a strong connexion between the urn and the PbT : Showing that the PbT were familiar with the use of PW.
3) Eliminating the possibility of external factors : showing that the urn was created by the PbT and not by another tribe
(it could have been possible that the urn excavated was imported through trade and that the PbT were not even familiar with the use of PW).
Step 4 - Process Of EliminationA - The remains of a pottery wheel have been unearthed at a Pueblo site in Utah, a finding that predates the discovery of the urn fragments.Pay attention to
UTAH. Our scope is “PbT living in the area surrounding New Mexico Canyon", not those living in Utah.
Hadn’t it been for that geographic difference, Answer choice A would have been a good contender for correct choice.
Assuming we didn't have that geographic difference (New Mexico Canyon instead of Utah), we would have cemented our confidence in the fact that the PbT indeed could have used the PW (since the PW was available to them well prior to the creation of the urn, they could have used it to create the urn).
B. There is undeniable evidence that the Pueblo tribes who lived in the New Mexico area a millennium ago made frequent use of the pottery wheel.Answer choice B is interesting because it makes the connexion between the PW and the PbT. However, we are concerned about the PbT who lived 1,500 yrs ago and not those who lived 1,000 yrs ago. For this reason, B is out.
C. Flooding can soften the texture of clay to an extent that it can easily be moulded by hand, and there is evidence that the now-dry canyon once received a considerable amount of rainfall.C is out because it is irrelevant to the argument. In fact, it tends toward the possibility of using HP instead of PW. At the best, this choice weakens our argument.
D. Golden clay is commonly used by modern-day descendants of the Pueblos to create decorative pieces that can only be made by artists who have mastered the use of the pottery wheel.D is out because it talks about the modern descendants and not the PbT that lived 1500 years ago. It would have been interesting if the scope was the PbT living 1,500 yrs ago instead of their descendants.
E. An examination of the surface of the urn fragments has revealed traces of an iron oxide called hematite that was a common ingredient of the paint used in the Pueblo rock art found in caves.The kind of answer choices that leave you speechless and wondering :
However as always when selecting your answer choice, keep in mind the question statement and stick to fact, expressed in the argument and don’t eliminate an answer choice because you don't like it.
This answer choice basically associates the urn with the PbT. It makes it LIKELY that they were the ones who fashioned the GdC used to create the urn.
This answer choice isn’t perfect but it helps cement our belief that the urn wasn’t the results of external actors (
Cf step 3-pre-thinking). This answer choice would have been perfect it had made a link between hematite and PW (for example by showing that hematite painting is incompatible with HP).