#24 - New evidence suggests that the collapse of Egypt’s

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Strengthen—CE. The correct answer choice is (C)

In this stimulus the author draws a causal conclusion regarding the collapse of Egypt’s old kingdom. Based on an indication of that era’s global cooling, which can cause drought, the author concludes that the collapse was caused by the environment rather than by social upheaval. As we know, most causal arguments have some weakness. The correct answer choice here will either rule out such a weakness, or bolster the causal claim is some other way.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. Answer choice (C) strengthens the claim in the stimulus by pointing to other nearby collapses that took place around the same time. If similar events took place at roughly the same time, there is a greater chance of some big picture cause like the environment (rather than specific, localized cause such as social upheaval).

Answer choice (A) clearly fails to strengthen the author’s argument that external factors were to blame. Answer choice (B) weakens the argument by providing more reason to believe that the environment was not the real culprit. Answer choice (D) is similar to answer choice (B); it weakens the environmental-cause argument by providing evidence that the culprit may have been a deteriorating society. Answer choice (E) fails to strengthen the author’s claim. If anything, the author’s claim would be weakened by the fact that the civil war didn’t happen until after the collapse.

[avengingangel]

i'm really having trouble visualizing me reading answer choice c and thinking the same things as pointed out in the explanation... i shall break it down:

1) several isolated - that throws me off... that makes it sound like whatever happens in this answer choice is about to be an exception.. which is NOT what i'm looking for...

2) well-established civilizations - that does not necessarily mean there's no social upheaval in these civilazations?! so that [the social upheaveal] could have still totally been the cause.. even if it does happen to be nearby & experiencing the same environmental catastrophe. doesn't rule anything out

3) near egypt - ok i feel less strongly abt my point here.. but i did not read this answer choice and automatically think that bc it's near it is going thru the dry spell... but, uh, i guess i should? .

4) underwent sudden declines - what the heck does that even mean. how would i know that equates/is similar to a collapsing of an entire kingdom ??

ok so those are all the things i had a problem with and which totally made me not pick this answer. if someone could address these, that'd be great. since i had several problems with this answer choice (as opposed to maybe ONE word that might of thrown me of..) you can see why I am highly concerned with this question !! as always, thanks.

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi avengingangel,

Thanks for your very detailed question! You taking the time to spell out what you're struggling with definitely helps us provide a better answer.

Isolated is actually a point in favor of C; if they weren't isolated, they could be impacted by Egypt's social upheaval, or by each other's. That they are isolated suggests that there could be a common cause for all of these that is not the social upheaval of the others.

Well-established isn't critical wording here, but suggests they may be more like both each other and Egypt.

Youre right that n'er Egypt is definitely tipping you off that the same rainfall conditions impacting Egypt would also be impacting these other civilizations.

Decline and collapse are perhaps different in degree (one suggests total destruction, one suggests partial) but have the same general meaning.

Taken as a whole, I think the key here is to remember that you are not looking for a perfect answer; you are looking for the best answer. A number of the other answer choices weaken the argument, and the rest have no impact; even if C doesn't feel perfect, the goal is to be able to recognize it as better than the other options.