GRE Reading Comprehension

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Source: CHP

Researchers of the Pleistocene epoch have developed all sorts of more or less fanciful model schemes of how they would have arranged the Ice Age had they been in charge of events. For example, an early classification of Alpine glaciations suggested the existence there of four glaciations, named the Gunz, Mindel, Riss, and Wurm. This succession was based primarily on a series of deposits and events not directly related to glacial and interglacial periods, rather than on the more usual modern method of studying biological remains found in interglacial beds themselves interstratified within glacial deposits. Yet this succession was forced willy-nilly onto the glaciated parts of Northern Europe, with hopes of ultimately piecing them together to provide a complete Pleistocene succession. Eradication of the Alpine nomenclature is still proving a Herculean task.

Question List: 1 2

Which of the following does the passage imply about the "early classification of Alpine glaciation" ?

  • A It should not have been applied as widely as it was.
  • B It represents the best possible scientific practice, given the tools available at the time.
  • C It was a valuable tool, in its time, for measuring the length of the four periods of glaciation.
  • D It could be useful, but only as a general guide to the events of the Pleistocene epoch.
  • E It does not shed any light on the methods used at the time for investigating periods of glaciation

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