SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Transitions (Drill 24)

Question 1. The painter Sonia Delaunay is often remembered first for her abstract canvases of overlapping, brightly colored discs that seem to spin on the surface of the picture. ______ a great deal of her working energy went into fabrics, book bindings, and stage costumes that galleries long treated as a separate, somehow lesser activity. She herself saw no such divide, designing a bolt of patterned cloth and a finished painting by the very same principles of rhythm and contrast that guided all her work.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) As a result,
• B) In particular,
• C) Equally important, ✓
• D) Meanwhile,

Explanation: (C) "Equally important" adds the applied work to the disc paintings as a second, co-equal part of Delaunay's output, which the closing sentence treats as governed by the same principles; the blank places the two bodies of work side by side rather than ranking or opposing them. "As a result" would make the applied work a consequence of her reputation, but no such causation is stated. "In particular" would narrow the disc paintings into a detail, when the sentence turns to a separate body of work. "Meanwhile" would mark a simultaneous but unrelated event, while the two strands are presented as one unified practice.

Question 2. A house cat can hear sounds well above the upper range that a person is able to follow, catching the faint, high squeaks that mice use to communicate with one another in the dark; ______ many moths perceive frequencies higher still, their bodies finely tuned to the ultrasonic clicks of the bats that hunt them through the night air. The cat's keen ears, impressive enough beside a human's, sit only partway up a scale that some small insects climb a good deal further.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) in response,
• B) for that reason,
• C) instead,
• D) by that measure, ✓

Explanation: (D) "By that measure" uses the cat's high-frequency hearing as the baseline against which the moth's even higher range is gauged, which the closing sentence states outright; the blank draws a comparison along one shared scale. "In response" would make the moth's hearing a reaction to the cat's, which is not the relationship. "For that reason" would make the moth's range a consequence of the cat's hearing, but the two are independent facts set on one scale. "Instead" would replace the cat's hearing with the moth's, when both are kept and ranked.

Question 3. Hoping to make astronomical measurements useful beyond the observatory, the astronomer Maria Mitchell worked as a computer for the U.S. Nautical Almanac, calculating the positions of Venus so that navigators could rely on them at sea. ______ she reduced long runs of raw observation into clean, finished tables, carrying out by hand the patient, exacting arithmetic that turned scattered sightings into figures other people could simply look up. The ephemeris entries produced this way were meant to be consulted, not recomputed.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) All the same,
• B) In contrast,
• C) Toward that end, ✓
• D) As it happens,

Explanation: (C) "Toward that end" connects Mitchell's goal of usable tables to the reduction work she carried out in order to produce them; the blank moves from stated aim to chosen method. "All the same" signals concession, but the calculation work serves the goal rather than resisting it. "In contrast" sets the calculation work against the goal, but it serves that goal rather than opposing it. "As it happens" would mark a coincidence, when the method is a deliberate means to the stated end.

Question 4. A levada, the contour channel that carries mountain water across the steep hillsides of Madeira, moves its flow by gravity alone, so the bed must descend without pause, and yet the slope has to stay gentle enough that the current neither stalls in the flat stretches nor races fast enough to scour the lining away; ______ the builders had to lose height steadily but very slowly across the entire route. A drop of a few feet per mile, held over many miles, was the narrow target they aimed for.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) instead,
• B) if anything,
• C) for example,
• D) put plainly, ✓

Explanation: (D) "Put plainly" recasts the technical balance between stalling and scouring as the plain rule of losing height steadily but slowly; the blank restates a complex point in simpler terms. "Instead" would correct the prior sentence, but the second sentence agrees with and simplifies it. "If anything" would strengthen a point by pushing past it, while the sentence simply rephrases the rule more plainly. "For example" would offer an instance, while the sentence restates the principle rather than illustrating it.

Question 5. Grafting a fruit tree lets a grower fix a prized variety in place, since every tree grown from that union bears fruit closely matching the parent rather than the unpredictable mix that planting seeds would yield. The method can fill an entire orchard with reliably excellent fruit. ______ that same orchard carries a quieter liability: built from one graft, it shares a single set of vulnerabilities, and a pest or blight that happens to breach one tree finds every other tree equally undefended.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) At the same time, ✓
• B) In sum,
• C) By comparison,
• D) For example,

Explanation: (A) "At the same time" holds the method's advantage in view while turning to the offsetting drawback; the blank sets the orchard's reliability against its shared vulnerability, two sides of the same uniformity. "In sum" would gather the advantage into a summary, but a new and opposing point is introduced rather than a recap. "By comparison" would weigh two separate cases on one scale, when the sentence stays with a single method and names its downside. "For example" would offer the vulnerability as an instance of the benefit, yet it cuts against the benefit rather than illustrating it.