Question 69·Hard·Text Structure and Purpose
Many travel blogs portray the ancient Silk Road as an uninterrupted highway of commerce running straight from imperial China to the Mediterranean world. Historian Lila Ahmed contends that this notion oversimplifies the reality. She points out that what modern scholars group under the label “Silk Road” was in fact a shifting lattice of regional markets—its traffic rising or falling with the collapse of dynasties, the redirection of rivers, or the arrival of epidemics, rather than proceeding along a single continuous route. For Ahmed, acknowledging this instability is crucial for grasping how ideas and goods actually moved across Eurasia.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
For SAT function-of-a-part questions, first identify the main claim or contrast in the surrounding sentences, then ask what the target sentence is doing in that context: giving an example, adding evidence, qualifying, opposing, or summarizing. Paraphrase its role in your own words, then match that paraphrase to the answer choices, eliminating options that describe a different move (like explaining why something matters, which may belong to a different sentence) even if they reuse the same topic words.
Hints
Locate the key contrast in the passage
Look at how the first sentence describes the Silk Road and then how Ahmed responds in the next sentence. How does the underlined portion relate to that disagreement?
Ask what kind of sentence this is
Is the underlined portion mainly giving support/details, explaining why something matters, narrowing a claim to one cause, or avoiding taking a position?
Use the examples as a clue
Why mention dynasties collapsing, rivers redirecting, and epidemics? What do those examples suggest about whether the route was stable?
Eliminate answers that match other sentences
One option describes the job of the final sentence (why acknowledging instability is crucial). Another focuses too narrowly on a single cause. Cross-check which sentence each option best fits.
Step-by-step Explanation
Clarify the overall structure of the passage
First, notice how the passage is organized:
- Sentence 1 describes how many travel blogs portray the Silk Road: "an uninterrupted highway of commerce" running straight across Eurasia.
- Sentence 2 introduces Historian Lila Ahmed's view: she says this idea "oversimplifies" reality.
- The underlined portion comes immediately after that claim.
So the underlined part is likely explaining or backing up Ahmed's claim that the popular picture is too simple.
Understand what the underlined portion actually says
In the underlined portion, Ahmed explains that what scholars call the “Silk Road” was really a shifting lattice of regional markets, with trade increasing or decreasing due to events like dynasty collapses, river redirection, and epidemics, rather than moving along one continuous route.
That information directly complicates the earlier “uninterrupted highway” image.
Identify the function in context
Because it follows Ahmed’s statement that the popular notion “oversimplifies” reality, the underlined portion is functioning as supporting detail: it provides reasons and examples that show how and why the Silk Road was not a single stable path.
Match to the best answer choice
The choice that matches this role is: It supports Ahmed’s critique by describing the Silk Road as a changing network whose activity rose and fell for several reasons.