LSAT 146 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q16

RC Question 16 Explanation

DISCUSSION: On this sort of question, the right answer will be directly supported by the passage. You should look through the answers to find the most likely one before you spend time thinking about any of them.

Then, confirm the answer using the passage. Only if you can’t do that should you spend time deciding between answers. The wrong answers are just traps that use words from the passage to make misleading statements: they aren’t sources of information.

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1. The passage doesn’t say this. The closest reference is to “temple-based grain and livestock pools.” (lines 31-33)
    
   But that doesn’t imply a single strong authority. True power could lie with aristocrats, for example, who use the temple as neutral ground.
2. Schmandt-Besserat makes no comment on rituals, nor on which aspects of society are more important. She’s merely interpreting writing.
3. Schmandt-Besserat doesn’t say this. The closest reference is to “temple-based grain and livestock pools.” (lines 31-33). But that doesn’t imply pure communism. The temple might organize distribution, but that doesn’t mean all distribution is equal.
4. CORRECT. Lines 38-40 suggest this. The tokens were replaced by marks on clay tablets.
    
   (The tokens were just representations of, say, bushels of wheat. So you could just as easily represent those with marks on a tablet.)
5. Schmandt-Besserat doesn’t imply this. Perhaps society could have used wood tokens, for example.