Explanation
In this question, we are asked
about snowfall. A glance at the answer choices reveals a theme: we care
specifically about the amount or frequency of this snowfall. That means we are
talking about the final paragraph, specifically lines 55-59. There are two key
points. One is that "periods bereft of snowfall" leave a gap in the record and
can mess up assigning a date to the records. The second key point is that the
problem is "mitigated," or partly solved, by extracting samples from an area.
We will look for one or both points, the drawback and the mitigation, in the
answer choices. Choices (A), (B) and (D) all fail to touch on either the
drawback or the mitigation. Meanwhile, choice (C) is relevant to the drawback,
and choice (E) to the mitigation. One of the two must have an objective error,
while the other is likely to be necessarily true. Choice (E) is necessarily true:
if snowfall were not consistent enough within an area to reduce dating errors,
then the mitigation described in the passage--taking multiple samples in an
area--would not be a mitigation at all. Choice (C) must have an objective error.
It slightly distorts the drawback described in the passage, because we are not
told that the dates in time are unknown, only "disrupted." Moreover, the fact that the disruption can be mitigated
means that the dates are ultimately not entirely unknown.
The correct answer is (E).
Passage 15
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