单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that Van West notes the severe droughts which affected the Anasazi prior to the Great Drought primarily in order to

• (A) establish that enough food could have been grown to support the Anasazi's survival
• (B) argue that the Anasazi's past behavior would indicate their likely future behavior in the case of a Great Drought
• (C) suggest that the repetition of droughts was taking a cumulative toll on the fertility of the Plateau
• (D) argue that the evidence which points to the existence of a Great Drought may actually be related to earlier droughts
• (E) affirm the notion that the Great Drought may have been exponentially more severe than prior droughts