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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 17)

Drill 17 · Reading & Writing · Hard Rhetorical Synthesis

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 17) 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 often true statements drawn from the notes that simply do not serve the stated goal, so read the goal with care.

Questions & Explanations

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • A salt pan is a shallow basin where seawater or briny water is left to evaporate so that its dissolved salt is left behind. • Workers guide water through a chain of basins, letting the sun and wind thicken the brine as it moves from one to the next. • In the final basins the brine grows so concentrated that salt crystals form on the surface and are raked into heaps. • Coastal salt pans have supplied towns with salt for preserving fish and meat since long before refrigeration existed. • The pink tint of some pans comes from salt-loving microbes that thrive in the most concentrated brine.

Question 1. The student wants to give historical context for why coastal salt pans mattered to nearby towns. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Some salt pans take on a pink tint from salt-loving microbes that flourish in the most concentrated brine.
  • B) Long before refrigeration, coastal salt pans gave nearby towns the salt they needed to preserve fish and meat. ✓
  • C) Workers move the water through a series of basins so that sun and wind can thicken the brine along the way.
  • D) In the last basins the brine grows concentrated enough that salt crystals form on top and are raked into heaps.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. The sentence supplies the historical reason the pans mattered, the salt that let towns preserve fish and meat before refrigeration existed. Choice A notes the color of certain pans, a detail unrelated to their importance to towns. Choice C walks through the evaporation process rather than the pans' role in the life of a town. Choice D describes how the salt is gathered, again process rather than historical significance.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • The cochlea is a coiled, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear that sorts incoming sound into separate pitches. • Running along its length is the basilar membrane, which is narrow and stiff at one end and wider and more flexible at the other. • The narrow, stiff base responds most to high-pitched sounds, while the wide, flexible apex responds most to low-pitched sounds. • Because each spot along the membrane answers to its own pitch, the ear maps sound frequency onto position. • Damage that begins at the base is one reason aging ears often lose high-pitched sounds before low ones.

Question 2. The student wants to compare how the two ends of the basilar membrane respond to sound. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) The basilar membrane runs the length of the cochlea, the coiled, fluid-filled tube that sorts sound into pitches.
  • B) Damage starting at the base is one reason that aging ears tend to lose high-pitched sounds earlier than low-pitched ones.
  • C) The stiff, narrow base of the membrane responds most to high-pitched sounds, while the flexible, wider apex responds most to low ones. ✓
  • D) The flexible, wider base of the membrane responds most to high-pitched sounds, while the stiff, narrow apex responds most to low ones.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence contrasts the two ends correctly, the stiff narrow base answering high pitches and the flexible wide apex answering low ones. Choice A describes the membrane's setting without comparing how its ends respond. Choice B reports a consequence for aging ears rather than contrasting the two ends. Choice D makes the right kind of contrast but swaps the facts, calling the base flexible and wide and the apex stiff and narrow, which the notes reverse.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Coppicing is a way of managing woodland in which certain trees are cut close to the ground so they regrow many new stems. • The cut stump, called a stool, sends up a cluster of straight poles that are harvested again after some years of growth. • Because the roots already run deep, the regrowth comes up faster than a seedling planted in the same spot would. • Hazel and willow take well to coppicing and have long supplied poles for fencing, baskets, and tool handles. • A wood divided into sections and cut in rotation can yield poles every year without the trees being replanted.

Question 3. The student wants to introduce coppicing to readers who already know basic gardening terms. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Coppicing is a woodland-management method in which trees are cut close to the ground so each stump regrows a cluster of stems. ✓
  • B) Hazel and willow both respond well to coppicing and have long supplied slender poles for fencing, baskets, and small tool handles.
  • C) A wood split into sections and cut in rotation can produce poles every year without any of the trees being replanted.
  • D) Because the roots are already deep, the new stems rise faster than a seedling planted in that same spot would grow.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence introduces the practice by saying plainly what it is, cutting trees low so the stump regrows many stems, suited to a reader who knows garden basics. Choice B names trees that suit coppicing without first saying what coppicing is. Choice C describes a rotation yield, a benefit that assumes the reader already knows the practice. Choice D explains why regrowth is fast, a mechanism detail rather than an introduction.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Oyster reefs are dense banks of living oysters and old shell that build up in shallow coastal water. • As waves pass over a reef, the rough mass of shell slows the water and saps some of the energy the waves carry. • Calmer water behind the reef lets fine sediment settle instead of washing away, which helps marshes hold their ground. • A report found that shorelines backed by healthy oyster reefs lost less marsh edge during storms than bare shorelines did. • Each oyster also filters water as it feeds, drawing in particles that would otherwise cloud the shallows.

Question 4. The student wants to convey the main significance of oyster reefs for nearby shorelines. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Each oyster filters the water as it feeds, pulling in particles that would otherwise cloud the surrounding shallows.
  • B) Oyster reefs are dense banks of living oysters and old, weathered shell that gather in shallow stretches of coastal water.
  • C) As waves move across a reef, the rough mass of shell slows the water and drains some of the energy the waves carry.
  • D) By blunting waves and trapping sediment, oyster reefs help nearby marshes resist erosion during storms. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is the best answer. The sentence states the central significance for the shore: by blunting waves and trapping sediment, the reefs help marshes resist storm erosion. Choice A notes the filtering each oyster does, a side benefit rather than the main shoreline effect. Choice B defines what a reef is without saying why it matters to the shoreline. Choice C describes one step, the slowing of waves, without reaching the larger payoff for the marsh.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • A sundial tells the time of day from the position of a shadow cast by the sun, so it shows nothing once the sun has set. • A water clock instead measures time by the steady flow of water from one vessel into another, marking the hours as the level rises. • Because its flow does not depend on the sun, a water clock can keep marking the hours through the night and in any weather. • Early water clocks ran somewhat unevenly, since the flow slowed as the upper vessel emptied and pressure dropped. • Both devices were used for centuries before mechanical clocks with gears and weights became widespread.

Question 5. The student wants to point out a drawback of the sundial for someone who needs to tell time after dark. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) A water clock marks time by the steady flow of water between vessels, so it can keep running all through the night.
  • B) Because a sundial reads time from a sun-cast shadow, it shows nothing to someone trying to tell time after dark. ✓
  • C) Both the sundial and the water clock were in use for centuries before geared mechanical clocks became widespread.
  • D) Early water clocks ran somewhat unevenly, because the flow slowed as the upper vessel emptied and its pressure fell.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. The sentence names the drawback that matters to a nighttime user, that a shadow clock shows nothing once the sun is down, which is exactly the goal. Choice A gives the water clock's strength rather than the sundial's drawback the goal asks about. Choice C notes that both devices were long in use, with no drawback for a nighttime user. Choice D points out a flaw in early water clocks, not the sundial limitation the goal targets.