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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 23)

Drill 23 · Reading & Writing · Hard Rhetorical Synthesis

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 23) 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: • A chameleon's skin contains a layer of cells holding tiny crystals arranged in an orderly lattice. • A 2015 study reported that the animal changes color not by moving pigment but by actively adjusting the spacing between these crystals. • When the crystals sit close together, the lattice reflects shorter wavelengths, and the skin appears blue or green. • When the animal stretches the spacing wider, the same lattice reflects longer wavelengths, shifting the skin toward yellow and red. • A deeper layer of larger crystals reflects heat-carrying infrared light, which may help the animal cope with strong sun.

Question 1. The student wants to present the main finding of the 2015 study on how chameleons change color. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) The 2015 study found that a chameleon changes color by actively tuning the spacing of crystals in its skin, with tighter spacing reflecting blue and wider spacing reflecting red. ✓
  • B) A chameleon's skin holds a layer of cells containing minute crystals set in an orderly lattice.
  • C) A deeper layer of larger crystals in the skin reflects infrared light, which may help the chameleon manage intense sun.
  • D) When a chameleon draws its skin crystals close together the lattice reflects shorter wavelengths and the skin looks blue or green, a structural effect rather than a movement of any pigment.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence reports the study's central finding, color change by tuning crystal spacing, with the direction of the effect, which is the finding the goal wants. Choice B describes the crystal lattice but states no finding about how color changes. Choice C gives the secondary infrared result, a real but lesser point rather than the main finding. Choice D explains the blue end of the effect in detail, leaving out the shift toward red and so reporting half the finding.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Letterpress and lithography are both old methods of printing, but they place ink on paper in fundamentally different ways. • In letterpress, the printing areas stand up in relief above the surface; ink coats the raised type and is pressed directly onto the paper. • In lithography, the surface is flat, and printing relies on a chemical fact: grease and water repel each other. • The image areas of a lithographic plate are treated to hold greasy ink while the blank areas are kept wet, so ink sticks only where it should. • Letterpress leaves a faint bite in the paper from the pressure, while lithography leaves a flat, even surface.

Question 2. The student wants to convey how letterpress and lithography differ in placing ink on the page. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Letterpress and lithography are both long-established printing methods that transfer ink to paper.
  • B) A lithographic plate's image areas are prepared to hold greasy ink while its blank areas are kept wet, so that ink adheres only where intended and the design prints cleanly.
  • C) Letterpress presses ink onto paper from type that stands in relief, while lithography keeps a flat surface and uses the mutual repulsion of grease and water so ink clings only to the image areas. ✓
  • D) Letterpress leaves a slight impression in the paper from its pressure, whereas lithography leaves a flat and even surface.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence contrasts the raised, directly pressed type of letterpress with lithography's flat, grease-and-water chemistry, drawing the core contrast in how each lays down ink. Choice A notes only that both are printing methods, the shared category rather than the difference. Choice B explains how a lithographic plate works in detail but never contrasts it with letterpress, describing one side alone. Choice D compares the marks each leaves in the paper, a true side effect rather than the difference in how ink is placed.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Felt is a dense fabric made by matting loose animal fibers together rather than weaving or knitting them. • Wool felts so readily because each fiber is covered in microscopic overlapping scales, like the shingles of a roof. • When the fibers are pressed and agitated with moisture and warmth, these scales catch on one another and ratchet together, locking the tangle permanently. • The scales tend to move in one direction, so the fibers migrate and bind ever tighter and cannot easily be pulled apart. • Felt was among the earliest fabrics people made, predating both weaving and the spinning of thread.

Question 3. The student wants to define what felt is for readers who have not encountered the term. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) The overlapping scales on a wool fiber tend to move in a single direction, so when the fibers are worked, they migrate and bind ever more tightly and resist being pulled back apart.
  • B) Felt is a dense fabric made by matting loose animal fibers into a tangle that locks together, rather than by weaving or knitting them. ✓
  • C) Wool mats so easily because each of its fibers is wrapped in tiny overlapping scales, resembling the shingles on a roof.
  • D) Felt ranks among the oldest fabrics humans produced, coming before both weaving and the spinning of thread.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. The sentence states plainly what felt is and how matting sets it apart from woven or knitted cloth, the definition the task asks for. Choice A describes the one-way movement of the scales in detail, a mechanism rather than a definition of the fabric. Choice C explains why wool mats readily, accounting for a property without defining felt itself. Choice D notes felt's age, a historical aside that says nothing about what felt is.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • An igloo is a shelter built from blocks of wind-packed snow cut and stacked into a dome. • The builder lays the blocks in a continuous rising spiral, each ring tilted slightly inward so the wall closes overhead without any internal support. • The dome's curve channels the weight of each block downward and outward into its neighbors, so the structure presses itself together rather than collapsing. • Trapped air in the snow makes the blocks good insulators, and a low entry tunnel keeps the coldest air from flowing in. • Body heat and a small lamp can raise the inside temperature far above the outdoor air while the snow walls hold their shape.

Question 4. The student wants to introduce the igloo to readers and explain how its dome stays up. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Trapped air within the snow blocks makes them effective insulators, and a low entrance tunnel keeps the coldest air from pouring inside.
  • B) An igloo is built from blocks of wind-packed snow that are cut and then stacked into the shape of a dome.
  • C) Body heat together with a small lamp can lift the inside temperature well above the freezing outdoor air, and the snow walls keep their shape rather than melting as the space warms.
  • D) An igloo is a dome of wind-packed snow blocks set in a rising spiral, each ring leaning inward so the curve directs every block's weight into its neighbors and the dome holds. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is the best answer. The sentence introduces the snow-block dome and explains the inward-leaning spiral that makes it self-supporting, meeting both halves of the goal. Choice A covers the snow's insulation and the entry tunnel, useful but unrelated to how the dome holds itself up. Choice B identifies the igloo as a snow-block dome but stops before explaining why it stands, satisfying only the first half. Choice C notes how warm the interior can get, an effect of the shelter rather than an account of its structure.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • A quipu is a recording device of knotted cords used by Inca administrators to store numbers and records. • A quipu has one main cord from which many smaller strings hang, and the position, type, and number of knots on each string encode information. • Color and the way cords branch are thought to mark categories, such as the kind of goods being counted. • The student is drafting a fictionalized scene, modeled on historical accounts, of an Inca accountant at work. • The accountant in the scene is checking a storehouse tally against the knots before a royal inspector arrives.

Question 5. The student wants to begin a narrative with a scene of the Inca accountant at work. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) In the gray light before the inspector arrived, the accountant ran a thumb down the cords, pausing at each knot to check it against the goods stored in the storehouse. ✓
  • B) A quipu is a device of knotted cords that Inca administrators used to store numbers and other records.
  • C) On a quipu, the position of each hanging string, the type of knot, and the number of knots tied along it together encode the information being recorded.
  • D) Color and the branching of the cords are believed to indicate categories, such as the type of goods being tallied.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence opens with the accountant in a specific moment, fingers on the cords before the inspector comes, the concrete scene the task asks for. Choice B defines the quipu in general terms, exposition rather than a scene. Choice C explains in detail how knots encode data, an informational note with no character or moment. Choice D describes what color and branching mean, again background rather than an opening scene.