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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 13)

Drill 13 · Reading & Writing · Hard Rhetorical Synthesis

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 13) is a Reading & Writing practice drill covering Hard Rhetorical Synthesis. It contains 5 original questions created 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: • Lacquerware is made by coating a wooden or paper base with sap from the lacquer tree. • The sap dries into a hard, glossy, water-resistant layer once it cures in a warm, humid space. • A single coat is very thin, so an artisan brushes on many coats, letting each one cure and then smoothing it before the next. • Building up dozens of layers this way can take months, but it yields a deep, durable surface. • Some finished pieces are carved or inlaid with shell to add decoration.

Question 1. The student wants to explain why making lacquerware takes so long. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Lacquerware is produced by coating a base of wood or paper with sap drawn from the lacquer tree.
  • B) Once cured in warmth and humidity, the tree sap hardens into a glossy layer that resists water.
  • C) Certain finished lacquer pieces are further decorated by carving designs into the hardened surface or inlaying it with polished shell.
  • D) Because each thin coat must cure and be smoothed before the next, building up the many needed layers can take months. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is the best answer. The sentence names the cause of the long timeline, thin coats that each must cure and be smoothed before the next, across many layers. Choice A states what lacquerware is made from, giving no reason for the time it takes. Choice B describes the cured surface's qualities, not why the process is slow. Choice C covers optional decoration applied at the end, unrelated to the length of the core process.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • A leafcutter ant colony grows its own food underground instead of eating the leaves it gathers. • Worker ants snip off pieces of leaf and carry them back to the nest along well-worn trails. • Inside, the ants chew the leaves into a pulp and press it onto a spongy fungus they tend in chambers. • The fungus feeds on the leaf pulp and grows, and the ants in turn eat parts of the fungus. • A colony can strip a great deal of foliage from nearby plants in a single night.

Question 2. The student wants to draw a comparison between how leafcutter ants get food and how a farmer does. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Worker leafcutter ants cut pieces from leaves and carry them home to the nest along well-established trails.
  • B) Like farmers raising a crop, leafcutter ants cultivate fungus on gathered leaves and then eat the fungus. ✓
  • C) Like farmers who gather wild plants and eat them straight from the field, leafcutter ants feed on the fresh leaves they carry back to the nest.
  • D) Leafcutter ants do not eat the leaves they collect; instead the colony raises its own food beneath the ground.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. The sentence draws the explicit comparison the goal asks for, likening the ants' fungus cultivation to a farmer raising a crop rather than foraging. Choice A describes how workers gather leaves but never connects the behavior to farming. Choice C draws a farmer comparison, the right task, but contradicts the notes, which say the colony grows its own food and does not eat the leaves it gathers. Choice D states that the ants grow their own food, which hints at farming but stops short of making the comparison explicit.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Papyrus was a writing material made in ancient Egypt from a tall reed that grew along the Nile. • The reed's inner pith was cut into thin strips, which were laid side by side in one direction. • A second layer of strips was placed crosswise on top, and the whole thing was pressed and dried. • As it dried, the natural sap in the reed bonded the layers into a single smooth sheet for writing. • Sheets could be glued end to end into a long roll, sometimes many feet in length.

Question 3. The student wants to introduce papyrus to readers unfamiliar with it. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Papyrus was an ancient Egyptian writing material made from the pith of a tall reed that grew along the Nile. ✓
  • B) Individual papyrus sheets could be glued end to end to form a long roll, sometimes many feet in length.
  • C) A second layer of pith strips was laid crosswise over the first, then the whole arrangement was pressed and left to dry.
  • D) As the pressed strips dried, the natural sap within the reed bonded them into a single smooth sheet ready for writing.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence introduces papyrus for a newcomer by naming what it was, where it came from, and what it was made of. Choice B describes how sheets were joined into rolls, a detail past the basic introduction. Choice C reports one step in making papyrus rather than introducing what papyrus is. Choice D explains how the sheet held together, useful background but not an introduction to papyrus itself.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Buon fresco is a wall-painting method in which pigment is applied to fresh, still-wet plaster. • As the plaster dries, the colors become part of the wall itself and last a very long time. • Because the plaster dries within hours, the painter must finish each section quickly, before it sets. • In the secco method, by contrast, paint is applied to plaster that has already dried. • Secco lets the painter work slowly and fix mistakes, but its colors sit on the surface and flake off more easily over time.

Question 4. The student wants to point out a drawback of the buon fresco method for a painter who works slowly. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) In secco painting, color is laid onto plaster that has already dried rather than onto wet plaster.
  • B) In buon fresco the colors bind permanently into the wall itself as the fresh plaster dries, which is the very reason that work done this way endures for so long.
  • C) Because buon fresco plaster sets within hours, a slow painter is forced to finish each section before it dries, with little room to rework it. ✓
  • D) Buon fresco is a technique in which pigment is laid directly onto fresh, still-wet plaster on a wall.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence names the specific drawback for a slow worker, the few-hour window that forces fast completion and leaves little room to rework, matching both parts of the compound goal. Choice A describes the secco method, not a drawback of buon fresco for the painter in question. Choice B states an advantage of buon fresco, its durability, which is the opposite of the drawback the goal seeks. Choice D defines buon fresco without identifying any drawback.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Dendrochronology is a method of dating wood by studying the rings a tree adds each year. • In a good year a tree grows a wide ring; in a hard year a narrow one, so a stretch of years leaves a distinctive pattern. • No single tree lives long enough to reach far into the past, so researchers overlap samples to extend the record. • Researchers match overlapping ring patterns among successively older wood samples to extend the record far back in time. • Simply counting a single tree's rings can mislead, since some years add a faint extra ring or none at all.

Question 5. The student wants to summarize how dendrochronology dates wood from long ago. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) By matching the ring patterns of overlapping samples, researchers date wood older than any single tree. ✓
  • B) A tree adds a wide ring in a favorable year and a narrow one in a difficult year, leaving a distinctive sequence over time.
  • C) Counting the rings of one tree alone can mislead, because some years add a faint extra ring and others add none.
  • D) Dendrochronology dates wood by examining the growth rings a tree lays down once each year.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence summarizes the core method, overlapping samples by their shared ring patterns to reach dates beyond any one tree's lifespan. Choice B explains why ring widths vary, one input to the method, not a summary of how dating works. Choice C warns about a pitfall of naive ring counting rather than summarizing the method. Choice D gives a one-line definition of the field but omits the overlapping-sample method the goal asks to summarize.