How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will add support for the conclusion.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

it is likely that this society was still a hunter-gatherer society.

[BACKGROUND]. [BACKGROUND]. But [SUPPORT]. Therefore, [CONCLUSION].

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) …had agriculture before they began using fire…

Cool story, but the author’s argument happens entirely after the fires. This doesn’t add any support for the society being a “hunter-gatherer society.”

(B) Hunter-gatherer societies used fire…

That might sound helpful, but it’s not reasonable to assume that’s what the fires mentioned in the passage were for. The test expects you to know “fire for cooking and for heat” doesn’t map to “burned large areas of land”, since you’d collect wood first for that instead of just burning the land itself.

(C) Many plants and trees have inedible seeds…

Stop. What the hell does this have to do with anything in the passage? You’d have to add in several steps of your own reasoning to make any connection between this and the people in the passage being “a hunter-gatherer society”.

(D) …used fire to move animal populations from one area to another.

I honestly don’t love this, since it stretches the boundary of common sense. But they expect us to recognize this is a reasonable explanation why the people in the passage “burned large areas of land”. I could see you only coming back to this when you realize there’s nothing better on this list.

(E) Few early societies were aware…

If that’s true, then this doesn’t help explain the fires in the passage. And thus, it can’t really add support for the author’s conclusion.

(D) is the correct answer.