Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardSupport and Cause-Effect Clues

Which word best completes the passage below to preserve the logical cause-and-effect relationship established by the context clues?

Answer:Because the decipherment of the damaged bronze tablets unequivocally established that the kingdom's agrarian economy relied heavily on seasonal irrigation networks, long-held hypotheses regarding the civilization's vulnerability to flash droughts were decisively 【substantiated】.

Answer

substantiated (or corroborated / validated)
The sentence opens with the causal subordinate conjunction 'Because', indicating that the finding in the first clause directly supports or validates the claim in the second clause. Since the newly deciphered tablets 'unequivocally established' the society's dependence on seasonal irrigation, this empirical proof directly backs long-held theories regarding their susceptibility to flash droughts. Therefore, a term meaning supported with evidence or verified—such as 'substantiated' or 'corroborated'—logically completes the sentence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the structural signal and logical direction.
The sentence begins with the causal conjunction 'Because', establishing that the premise in the dependent clause provides direct rationale or proof for the outcome in the main clause.
Recognizing 'Because' ensures that the missing word must logically align with and reinforce the premise rather than introduce a contrast or contradiction.
2
Analyze the context clue in the dependent clause.
The discovery 'unequivocally established' that the agrarian economy depended on seasonal irrigation networks.
Evaluating the strength of 'unequivocally established' shows that the empirical evidence strongly supports theories linked to drought vulnerability.
3
Determine the required lexical meaning for the blank.
Since the premise provides strong supporting evidence, the blank requires a verb meaning 'supported with evidence', 'verified', or 'confirmed'.
Words such as 'substantiated' or 'corroborated' accurately fulfill the positive causal continuation required by the context.

Key Concept

Support and Cause-Effect Clues in Text Completion
Rate this question

Topics

Support and Cause-Effect Clues

More questions from this topic