TOEFL integrated writing: Chaco housing

The listening passage casts serious doubts on the reading passage about Chaco housing and says that it is not convincing.

Firstly, reading passage says that sure from outside the Chaco houses appear strikingly to the large, well-known "apartment buildings" at Taos, New Mexico, in which many people have been living for centuries. However, the speaker casts serious doubt on it and says that from inside these houses were not very big and explains further with an example that if 100 people are living there then there would be fire housing places where each family can cook there food daily but there were very few fire places for cooking even in the largest houses there were fire places only for 10 families and there is not enough rooms available for more than a 100 families. So, the primary purpose of the houses couldn’t have been residential.

Secondly, the idea that Chaco structures were used to store grains is unsupported by evidence. The large empty rooms were used for storage of grain maize but excavation for these grains were not used properly. If the great houses were used for storage and the grain was split on the floor than why are not big containers be used for the storing that material.

Thirdly, the speaker says that houses were used, as ceremonial centre is not supported. It further says that Pueblo Alto, archaeologists identified an enormous mound formed by a pile of old material but the speaker says that there must be lot of other material besides broken pots for example large quantities of building material like sand, stones even construction tools which suggest that the mound heap is just a trash heap of construction material stuff that is not used up for construction. The pots in the pile could be a just regular trash, which is left over by the construction workers after eating their meal. Thus Pueblo Alto mound was not good evidence, which can say that the rooms are used for special ceremonies.