LSAT 152, Section 3, RC Passage 1, Indus Valley

RC Passage 1 Explanation

PASSAGE TEXT: Along with Egypt and Sumer, the third major early Bronze Age civilization was …

Paragraph Summaries

1. The Indus Valley civilization was one of the major Bronze Age civilizations and was larger than ancient Egypt. It was once considered archaeologically boring, but recent excavations show that it had an unusual combination of features.
2. The people built well-planned brick cities with streets and sewer systems. There’s little evidence of dominant rulers, class divisions, armies, or weapon production.
3. They also cultivated rice and cotton, organized agricultural production, and traded widely. Standardized weights and Sumerian tablets show trade around the Arabian Sea and with Mesopotamia.
4. The cause of the civilization’s decline is uncertain. Wheeler’s invasion/massacre theory lacks written and archaeological support, while recent evidence suggests the people may have relocated because of environmental disasters like drought or earthquakes.

Analysis

The passage is pretty straightforward. Paragraphs 2 and 3 build up an impressive picture of the civilization. Paragraph 4 pivots to the most contentious issue: what ended it.

The main point, tested in Q1, captures both halves: recent evidence has both elevated the civilization’s standing and challenged prior theories about its decline.

Wheeler’s theory is dismantled. Three independent pieces of counter-evidence are listed in quick succession, and the passage notes that Wheeler’s theory “still inhabits history books” despite all of this, which is a backhanded way of criticizing how slowly scholarship updates.

The alternative environmental explanations (drought and earthquake) are deliberately left uncertain.

Notice the language: “most likely relocated”, “may have made some lands unfarmable”, etc. The author is more confident that Wheeler is wrong than confident about what actually happened. This matters for question 5, which tries to get you to overcommit to one of the two environmental theories. The correct answer should reflect what the passage actually supports: that archaeological investigation into earthquake damage could be fruitful, not that an earthquake is the definitive answer.