TOEFL integrated writing: Chaco housing

The professor in the lecture casts doubts on the theories that are mentioned in the reading passage, in regard to the virtual use of the large Chaco houses in New Mexico.

First of all, the lecturer refutes the first theory that is mentioned in the reading passage, which states that those houses were used for residential purposes for the fact that they resemble the apartment buildings from the outside. He mentions that only few fire places were found inside those houses, which could be sufficient only for ten families. However, the rooms that were found would suffice much more families. Therefore, according to the lecturer those houses could not have been used for residential purposes.

Secondly, The lecturer also explains that neither maize, nor big containers were found in those houses, which contradict the point that is mentioned in the reading passage, of how those houses might have been used as a storage for food supplies and major corps like grain maize.

Finally, The lecturer also adds that these houses could not also have been used as ceremonial centres because unlike what the reading passage claims of how large no. of pots were found following the excavations that had been made. nevertheless, according to the lecturer, a trash pile of construction materials had existed in addition to the pots which indicates that these pots were were only a part of the regular trash.