A words in context question about evidence tests whether you can tell what a finding does to a claim. Read the sentence with the blank to find the exact claim, then find the evidence used to judge it. Contrast words set the next idea against the previous one, so ask which idea the blank follows. Predict in plain words whether the evidence supports, weakens, or rules out that claim. Similar words can differ in how much they say the evidence proves.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the inference after the blank. What would have to be true for writing to be confined to officials?
- Hint 2
Read the sentence about the small number of notes and the words Even so. Ask how those words connect the two sentences.
- Hint 3
Compare who wrote the securely attributed personal notes with the final claim about who wrote. Ask whether the claim leaves room for those writers.
Step-by-step
Test the exact inference
Step 1Identify the claim
The last sentence names an inference that writing was confined to officials. What does that claim say about who wrote? It says only officials wrote, so the missing word must tell us how the notes affect that claim. We're judging who wrote, not how widespread writing was.
- Step 2
Check who wrote the notes
The key finding is that several personal notes are securely attributable to laborers. Could writing be limited to officials if laborers wrote some notes? No, because a claim that only one group wrote is ruled out by even one known writer outside that group. The passage gives us known writers who weren't officials, so this isn't a guess about who might have written.
- Step 3
Separate existence from frequency
The number of notes is too small to establish how common nonofficial writing was. Does that leave us unsure whether nonofficial writing existed? No: we can't measure how common it was, but the laborers' notes show that it happened. Even so turns from that limit to what the notes still prove. Predict rule out the claim that only officials wrote, without claiming that nonofficial writing was common.
- Step 4
Match the meaning
Which word means to rule out an inference? Preserve means keep unchanged, warrant means give a good reason for, and substantiate means back up with evidence, so they keep or support the inference. Preclude means prevent or rule out, which describes ruling out the inference. Choice C.