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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 19)

Drill 19 · Reading & Writing · Hard Rhetorical Synthesis

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 19) 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: • Suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges both hang their roadway from steel cables, yet they route the load differently. • In a suspension bridge, the deck hangs from vertical rods that drop from two great main cables draped between tall towers. • In a cable-stayed bridge, straight cables run directly from the towers down to the deck, with no draped main cable at all. • In both designs, the towers carry most of the deck's weight down to the foundations through the cables above. • The longest spans yet built are suspension bridges, whose draped cables can reach across especially wide gaps.

Question 1. The student wants to emphasize a similarity between suspension and cable-stayed bridges. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) In both bridge types, the towers carry most of the deck's weight down to the foundations through the cables. ✓
  • B) In a suspension bridge, the deck hangs from vertical rods dropped from two main cables draped between the towers.
  • C) In a cable-stayed bridge, straight cables run directly from the towers to the deck, with no draped main cable.
  • D) The longest spans yet built are suspension bridges, whose draped main cables can cross especially wide gaps.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence names what the two designs share, towers that carry the deck's weight down to the foundations through the cables. Choice B describes only the suspension design, a feature of one bridge rather than a shared one. Choice C describes only the cable-stayed design, again a single type rather than a similarity. Choice D singles out suspension bridges for their record spans, a contrast rather than a shared trait.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • It was once widely said that a goldfish remembers nothing for more than a few seconds. • A study trained goldfish to push a lever for food, and the fish kept performing the trick when tested days later. • In other trials, goldfish learned to swim a short maze and still recalled the route after weeks had passed. • The fish also learned to avoid a part of a tank where they had once received a mild shock, and they kept avoiding it. • Goldfish do have small brains, which may have made the short-memory story easy to believe.

Question 2. The student wants to refute the claim that goldfish remember things for only a few seconds. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Goldfish do have rather small brains, a fact that may have made the old short-memory story easy to believe.
  • B) In one study, goldfish learned to swim a short maze in search of a food reward.
  • C) Goldfish were also given a mild shock in one region of the tank during a separate trial.
  • D) Trained goldfish still pushed a lever for food days later, far longer than a memory of seconds would allow. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is the best answer. The sentence refutes the few-seconds claim head on, citing fish that still performed a learned task days later. Choice A offers a true reason the myth spread rather than evidence against it, the wrong purpose for this goal. Choice B reports that the fish learned a maze but, without any mention of lasting recall, does not address the few-seconds claim. Choice C reports a single narrow trial detail that makes no claim about lasting memory, so it cannot refute the few-seconds idea.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • A sourdough starter is a living mix of flour and water in which wild yeast and bacteria grow together. • The yeast feed on sugars in the flour and give off carbon dioxide gas, which leavens the dough. • The bacteria give off acids at the same time, and these acids are what lend sourdough its faintly tangy taste. • A baker keeps a starter alive by discarding part of it and feeding in fresh flour and water on a regular schedule. • A well-kept starter can be passed down for years, its character shaped by the kitchen where it is fed.

Question 3. The student wants to explain how a sourdough starter both raises the dough and gives it a tangy flavor. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) A baker keeps a starter going by throwing out part of it and feeding in fresh flour and water on a steady daily schedule.
  • B) A sourdough starter is a living blend of flour and water in which wild yeast and bacteria grow alongside each other.
  • C) In a starter, the yeast give off carbon dioxide that raises the dough, while the bacteria give off acids that make it tangy. ✓
  • D) A well-tended starter can be handed down for many years, gradually taking on the distinct character of the kitchen where it is fed.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence explains both effects at once, the yeast's gas raising the dough and the bacteria's acids giving the tang, which the goal asks for. Choice A covers how a starter is maintained rather than how it leavens and flavors the bread. Choice B defines what a starter is without saying how it raises or flavors the dough. Choice D notes that a starter can be kept for years, unrelated to how it works on the dough.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Migratory songbirds appear to draw on more than one cue to find their way across great distances. • Researchers propose that a light-driven reaction in the birds' eyes acts as a compass, sensing the direction the field lines run. • A separate, still-debated cue, possibly involving magnetic particles linked to the beak and trigeminal region, may register the field's strength as a kind of map. • In one test, birds whose beak nerve was blocked could still hold a heading but seemed less able to judge where they were. • The exact workings remain debated, and researchers caution that much about the mechanism is still unsettled.

Question 4. The student wants to compare the two proposed magnetic cues by the navigational job each is thought to do. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Researchers caution that much about how birds sense the magnetic field remains debated and is still far from settled.
  • B) The eye's light-driven reaction is thought to provide a direction compass, while a possible beak-linked cue may provide a position map. ✓
  • C) Migratory songbirds appear to rely on more than a single magnetic cue as they find their way across very long distances.
  • D) A possible beak-linked cue is thought to provide a direction compass, while the eye's light-driven reaction may provide a position map.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. The sentence matches each cue to its proposed job, the eye reaction as a direction compass and the possible beak-linked cue as a position map. Choice A stresses how unsettled the science is rather than comparing the two cues. Choice C says only that birds use more than one cue, without pairing each cue to its job. Choice D makes the right kind of comparison but swaps the roles, assigning the compass to the beak and the map to the eyes, which the notes reverse.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Across many crafts, a maker who repeats one form by hand still leaves small, telling variations from piece to piece. • A potter throwing a row of bowls turns out vessels that match in size yet differ slightly in the sweep of each rim. • A smith forging a set of nails makes them serviceable and alike, though no two carry quite the same hammer marks. • A weaver running off lengths of plain cloth produces yardage of even width with tiny shifts in the beat of the weft. • Such variation is often prized today as a sign that a human hand, not a machine, shaped the object.

Question 5. The student wants to make a general point that handwork leaves small variations even when a maker repeats one form. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) A potter throwing a row of bowls makes vessels of matching size that still differ slightly in the sweep of each rim.
  • B) Such small variation is prized today as a sign that a human hand, rather than a machine, shaped the finished object.
  • C) A smith forging a set of nails turns out serviceable, closely matching pieces, though no two share the same hammer marks.
  • D) Even when a maker repeats a single form by hand, the pieces still carry small variations that set each one apart. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is the best answer. The sentence states the general point the goal asks for, that repeated handwork still leaves each piece slightly different. Choice A gives a single example from pottery rather than the broad claim. Choice B explains why the variation is valued rather than stating that handwork produces it. Choice C gives a single example from smithing, again one case rather than the generalization.