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SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 4)

Drill 4 · Reading & Writing · Hard Rhetorical Synthesis

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Rhetorical Synthesis (Drill 4) 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 hiking app uses GPS signals from satellites to show a hiker's position on a trail map. • GPS works best where the device has a clear, open view of the sky. • In a deep, narrow canyon, the surrounding rock walls block much of the sky. • With part of the sky blocked, the app receives fewer satellite signals and the location drifts. • A drifting location can place a hiker far from where they actually stand on the map.

Question 1. The student wants to explain a disadvantage of relying on a GPS hiking app to hikers heading into deep canyons. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) In a deep canyon, the rock walls block much of the sky, so the app gets fewer signals and can place a hiker far from where they really are. ✓
  • B) A GPS hiking app uses satellite signals to show a hiker's position on a trail map.
  • C) GPS location works best when the device has a clear, open view of the sky overhead, with nothing tall standing between it and the satellites.
  • D) In open terrain where the device has a clear, unobstructed view of the sky overhead, a GPS app can track a hiker's position on the trail map quite closely.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. The sentence explains the disadvantage that matters for canyon hikers: blocked sky means fewer signals and a drifting position that can misplace the hiker on the map. Choice B explains what the app does in general and names no disadvantage. Choice C states the condition GPS needs to work well without explaining the problem canyons create. Choice D points to when the app works well, the opposite of the disadvantage the goal asks for.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Many plants spread their seeds away from the parent plant so the seedlings have room to grow. • The hooktail plant flings its seeds a short distance when its dry pods split open. • Most hooktail seeds land within a few feet of the parent plant. • The driftcap plant grows feathery seeds that the wind can carry across a field. • Driftcap seeds often land far from the parent plant.

Question 2. The student wants to make and support a generalization about how far these plants spread their seeds. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) The hooktail plant flings its seeds a short distance when its dry pods split open.
  • B) Many plants spread their seeds away from the parent so that the seedlings have room to grow.
  • C) How far a plant's seeds travel depends on how they are carried: the hooktail's flung seeds land nearby, while the driftcap's wind-borne seeds land far off. ✓
  • D) Both of these plants keep their seeds close: the hooktail and the driftcap alike drop their seeds within a few feet of the parent plant.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence makes a generalization, that spread distance depends on how the seeds are carried, and supports it with the close-landing hooktail and the far-traveling driftcap. Choice A gives only the hooktail example with no generalization or contrast. Choice B states a general fact about why plants spread seeds, not how far, and offers no support. Choice D is framed as a generalization about spread, the right task, but contradicts the notes, which say driftcap seeds are carried by the wind and often land far from the parent.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Freeze-drying removes water from food while keeping the food's structure intact. • First, the food is frozen solid so its water becomes ice. • The frozen food is placed in a chamber and the air pressure is lowered sharply. • Under low pressure, the ice turns straight into vapor without melting into liquid first. • With its water gone, the dried food resists spoiling and can be stored for a long time.

Question 3. The student wants to explain how freeze-drying preserves food. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Freeze-drying is used because dried food resists spoiling and can be stored for a long time.
  • B) Freeze-drying preserves food by freezing it, then lowering the pressure so the ice becomes vapor, leaving dried food that resists spoiling. ✓
  • C) The first step of freeze-drying is to freeze the food solid so that its water becomes ice.
  • D) Once the chamber's air pressure is lowered sharply, the ice in the frozen food turns straight into vapor without melting.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. The sentence explains how freeze-drying preserves food, tracing the steps from freezing to vapor and noting that the water loss is what keeps the food from spoiling. Choice A states why freeze-drying is useful but does not explain how the process works. Choice C describes only the first step and so does not explain the whole process. Choice D describes a single later step without connecting it to how the food is preserved.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Ancient Roman builders made a concrete that has lasted in harbors for two thousand years. • Roman concrete often contains small white lumps of lime scattered through it. • For years these lumps were dismissed as a sign of careless mixing. • A recent study argued the lumps instead let the concrete heal its own cracks when water seeps in. • A report on the study described the lumps as "a built-in repair system rather than a defect."

Question 4. The student wants to use a quotation to challenge the old view that the lime lumps were a defect. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Roman concrete has lasted in harbors for two thousand years, and it often contains small white lumps of lime scattered throughout it.
  • B) For many years, the small white lime lumps found in Roman concrete were dismissed as nothing more than a sign of careless mixing.
  • C) A report on the concrete recalled that for years the lime lumps were "dismissed as a sign of careless mixing."
  • D) A report called the lime lumps "a built-in repair system rather than a defect," challenging the careless-mixing view. ✓

Explanation: Choice D is the best answer. The sentence uses the report's quotation, that the lumps are "a built-in repair system rather than a defect," to challenge the old view that they were a defect or a sign of careless mixing, which is exactly the goal. Choice A gives background on the concrete and its lumps but uses no quotation and raises no challenge. Choice B states the old view itself without quoting anything that would challenge it. Choice C quotes the old view itself rather than challenging it; the goal wants a quotation that pushes back on the careless-mixing idea.

Notes
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Two muralists were each asked to paint a wall in the same town square. • Paz sketched her design alone and painted the finished mural over several quiet weeks. • She revealed the completed wall to the public only when it was done. • Orin worked in the open and invited townspeople to add their own brushstrokes to his wall. • His mural changed shape from day to day as more hands joined in.

Question 5. The student wants to emphasize a difference between the two muralists' approaches. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

  • A) Both Paz and Orin were asked to paint a wall in the same town square.
  • B) Orin worked in the open and invited townspeople to add their own brushstrokes to his wall.
  • C) Paz designed and painted her mural alone and unveiled it only when finished, while Orin worked in the open and let townspeople help shape his. ✓
  • D) Paz sketched her mural's design entirely by herself and then painted the finished wall over several quiet weeks, revealing it to the public only once it was completely done.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. The sentence draws the difference between the two approaches: Paz worked privately and revealed a finished wall, while Orin worked publicly and let others help shape his. Choice A states what the two muralists had in common, the same commission, rather than how their approaches differed. Choice B describes only Orin's approach and so draws no contrast. Choice D covers only Paz's approach and leaves Orin out of the comparison.