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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 28)

Drill 28 · Reading & Writing · Hard Rhetorical Synthesis

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 28) is a Reading & Writing practice drill covering Hard Rhetorical Synthesis. It contains 5 original questions developed by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

Hard Rhetorical Synthesis questions present a set of research notes and a specific writing goal, then ask you to choose the sentence that best accomplishes that goal using only the notes. The wrong answers are usually accurate statements that serve a different purpose than the one asked for, or that subtly misstate the notes. Match the rhetorical task exactly.

Questions & Explanations

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Both parchment and vellum are writing surfaces made from animal skin that has been limed, scraped, and dried under tension. • Neither is tanned, which is what sets them apart from leather. • Ordinary parchment was usually made from the skin of sheep or goats. • Vellum was traditionally distinguished as calfskin, and the word itself comes from an old term for calf. • Calfskin vellum was generally thinner and smoother, which is why it was prized for the finest manuscripts.

Question 1. The student wants to convey the difference in which animal's skin distinguishes vellum from ordinary parchment. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Both parchment and vellum are limed, scraped, and dried under tension, and neither one of them is tanned the way that leather is.
  • B) Calfskin vellum was generally thinner and smoother to write upon, which is why scribes often prized it above ordinary parchment for their finest manuscripts.
  • C) Vellum was traditionally distinguished as calfskin, whereas ordinary parchment was usually made from sheep or goat skin. ✓
  • D) Neither parchment nor vellum is ever tanned, and that absent tanning step is precisely what sets both of them apart from ordinary leather.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence names the animal-source distinction the goal asks for, calfskin for vellum versus sheep or goat for ordinary parchment. Choice A gives shared preparation, a similarity rather than the difference. Choice B points to thinness and smoothness, a quality difference rather than the animal-source one named. Choice D separates both from leather, a different contrast than vellum versus parchment.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Bell casting forms a bell by pouring molten bell metal, a bronze of roughly four parts copper to one part tin, into a shaped mold. • The mold has an inner core and an outer shell, with a removable "false bell" between them that leaves a bell-shaped gap. • The metal is poured into that gap, then left to cool slowly, often in a pit, before the mold is broken away. • The rough bell is then tuned by shaving thin layers of metal from its inside on a lathe. • Shaving at different points raises or lowers the separate tones a single bell sounds until they fall into harmony.

Question 2. The student wants to introduce bell casting and explain how a cast bell is brought into tune. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Bell metal is a bronze of roughly four parts copper to one part tin, poured molten into the shaped mold.
  • B) Bell casting pours molten bronze into a core-and-shell mold, then tunes the cooled bell by shaving metal from inside until its tones fall into harmony. ✓
  • C) After the pour, the bell is left to cool slowly, often down in a casting pit, before its mold is finally broken away.
  • D) Bell casting forms a finished bell by pouring a molten bronze of copper and tin into a carefully shaped two-part mold and then letting the metal set hard.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. The sentence introduces the casting and explains the lathe-shaving that tunes the bell's tones, meeting both parts of the goal. Choice A defines the alloy, a single fact rather than the tuning explanation. Choice C reports the cooling step, one stage rather than the tuning the goal asks for. Choice D names the casting but stops before explaining how the bell is tuned.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • In the 1730s, John Kay's flying shuttle let a single weaver weave roughly twice as fast as before. • Faster looms used up thread faster than spinners working one wheel at a time could supply it. • Around 1764, the weaver James Hargreaves built a frame that let one worker spin eight threads on eight spindles at once. • His machine eased the thread shortage the faster looms had created. • Later, larger versions outgrew the home workshop and helped move spinning into purpose-built factories.

Question 3. The student wants to set the spinning jenny in the context of the thread shortage that prompted it. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Hargreaves's frame of about 1764 let a single worker spin eight threads at once, easing the very thread shortage that the faster looms had opened up after Kay's flying shuttle sped weaving. ✓
  • B) Later on, the much larger versions of the jenny outgrew the home workshop altogether and helped move the spinning of thread out of cottages and into purpose-built factories.
  • C) Around the year 1764, the weaver James Hargreaves built a frame that let a single worker spin eight separate threads on eight spindles all at the same time.
  • D) John Kay's flying shuttle, which had been introduced back in the 1730s, let a single weaver work at roughly twice the speed that weavers had managed before.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence places the jenny against the shuttle-driven thread shortage that prompted it, the historical context the goal asks for. Choice B describes the move to factories, a later consequence rather than the originating context. Choice C states what the machine did but omits the shortage that called it forth. Choice D recounts the flying shuttle alone, the earlier cause without connecting it to the jenny.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • A natural rind forms as a wheel of cheese ages in open air on a shelf. • Salting the surface and circulating air pull moisture from the outer layer, drying it into a thin protective crust. • The same open, moist surface that becomes the rind also invites stray molds from the cellar air to land and grow. • A maker must therefore brush, turn, and check the wheels often to keep unwanted mold from taking hold during the months of aging. • Once finished, a well-formed natural rind seals the interior and gives the cheese a firm outer layer.

Question 4. The student wants to convey a production risk the cheesemaker must manage while a natural rind is forming. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) A natural rind forms slowly while a wheel of cheese sits aging in open air on a cellar shelf.
  • B) Salting the outer surface and circulating the cellar air draw moisture steadily out of the cheese's outer layer, drying it into a thin protective crust.
  • C) Once the wheel has finished aging, a well-formed natural rind seals the moist interior of the cheese and gives the whole wheel a firm, protective outer layer.
  • D) The drying surface that becomes the rind also invites stray cellar molds to settle and grow, so the maker must brush and check the wheels often. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is the best answer. The sentence names the during-aging risk the goal asks for, that the same surface invites unwanted mold and so demands constant tending. Choice A states where the rind forms, the setting rather than the risk to manage. Choice B explains the normal drying that forms the rind, the mechanism rather than a hazard. Choice C describes the finished rind's benefit, a property rather than a production risk.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • An abacus is a counting frame holding rows of beads that slide along rods. • Each rod stands for one place in a number: the rightmost rod the ones, the next the tens, then the hundreds, and so on. • A bead counts only once it is slid to the dividing bar; beads pushed away from the bar do not count. • A user represents and adds numbers by sliding beads, carrying to the next rod when one place fills up. • With practice, the abacus lets a skilled user calculate quickly entirely by hand.

Question 5. The student wants to define what an abacus is for readers unfamiliar with the term. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) With enough practice at sliding the beads, an abacus lets a skilled user carry out arithmetic quickly and entirely by hand.
  • B) A user adds numbers up on the abacus by sliding the beads along their rods and then carrying over to the next rod up whenever one place value happens to fill completely.
  • C) An abacus is a counting frame of beads that slide along rods, where each rod stands for one place in a number, such as the ones, the tens, or the hundreds. ✓
  • D) A bead on the abacus is counted only once it has been slid all the way to the dividing bar, and never while it sits pushed away from that bar.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence gives the defining features, a bead-and-rod frame whose rods stand for place values, which is what the goal calls for. Choice A states what skilled use achieves, a function rather than a definition. Choice B explains the adding procedure, a use rather than the core definition. Choice D gives one counting rule, a detail rather than the definition of the term.