SAT Reading & Writing · Cross-Text Connections
**Text 1** Excavators at the Shanidar Cave site in Iraq found dense clusters of ancient pollen surrounding a Neanderthal burial. The…
**Text 1**
Excavators at the Shanidar Cave site in Iraq found dense clusters of ancient pollen surrounding a Neanderthal burial. The original excavator proposed that Neanderthals had deliberately placed flowering plants with the body, suggesting a symbolic or ceremonial dimension to Neanderthal burial practices that had rarely been considered before this discovery.
**Text 2**
Later researchers studying the same site noted that burrowing rodents are common in the cave sediment and are known to collect and store seeds and plant material in underground caches. Because ancient pollen can become concentrated wherever plant material accumulates and decays, a natural, non-human process could account for the same pollen clusters without requiring any deliberate human action.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the "deliberate placement" claim in Text 1?
Excavators at the Shanidar Cave site in Iraq found dense clusters of ancient pollen surrounding a Neanderthal burial. The original excavator proposed that Neanderthals had deliberately placed flowering plants with the body, suggesting a symbolic or ceremonial dimension to Neanderthal burial practices that had rarely been considered before this discovery.
**Text 2**
Later researchers studying the same site noted that burrowing rodents are common in the cave sediment and are known to collect and store seeds and plant material in underground caches. Because ancient pollen can become concentrated wherever plant material accumulates and decays, a natural, non-human process could account for the same pollen clusters without requiring any deliberate human action.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the "deliberate placement" claim in Text 1?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A: By agreeing that pollen was present at the burial, but questioning whether its presence proves the flowers were placed there on purpose.
Text 2 doesn't dispute the pollen data itself; it disputes what caused it to be there. A captures that precisely: agreement on the observation, disagreement on the inference drawn from it. B misstates Text 2, which never questions that the pollen existed. C overreaches into a much broader claim about Neanderthal cognition that Text 2 doesn't make; the rodent explanation only targets this one piece of evidence. D introduces a mechanism (wind-blown pollen from outside) that isn't in Text 2, which specifically points to rodent caching.
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