Some historians have interpreted nearly identical bronze weights recovered from several ancient ports as evidence that a central authority imposed a common trading standard. Yet merchants without central oversight can gradually align their weights by checking them against one another during repeated exchanges. In experiments using replica weights, this informal process produced sets as uniform as the excavated ones. _____ a central authority could still have imposed the excavated standard; the experiments show that the uniformity alone cannot establish that it did.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
For difficult transition questions, determine the function of the entire sentence after the blank, not merely the clause that sounds most like a conclusion. When a sentence acknowledges a possibility before limiting it, choose the transition that captures that concession rather than one that describes only the later clause.
Hints
Track the competing explanations
Identify what the historians originally inferred and what alternative process the experiments demonstrate.
Read the entire final sentence
Do not select a transition based only on the clause after the semicolon. Determine how the opening clause relates to both the experiment and the qualification that follows.
Notice the wording of the acknowledgment
The phrase “could still” signals that the writer is allowing one possibility before explaining why the evidence does not prove it.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the original interpretation
Some historians regard the weights’ uniformity as evidence that a central authority imposed a common standard.
Consider the experimental result
The experiments demonstrate that informal exchanges among merchants can produce the same degree of uniformity, so centralized enforcement is not the only possible explanation.
Analyze the full final sentence
The first clause concedes that a central authority could still have imposed the standard, while the second clause explains the evidence’s limitation. A transition that introduces an acknowledgment before a qualification is therefore needed, making “To be sure,” the most precise choice.