SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Transitions (Drill 4)

Question 1. The Roman concrete used in harbor structures and breakwaters two thousand years ago has survived punishing marine conditions that would crumble much modern concrete within a few decades. Far from merely enduring the relentless seawater that batters it, the ancient material seems somehow to benefit from the assault. ______ researchers analyzing core samples have found that, as seawater reacts with the concrete, new interlocking mineral crystals slowly grow inside its cracks, so that the cementing matrix can become more resilient over the passing centuries rather than weaker.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) Otherwise,
• B) In fact, ✓
• C) By contrast,
• D) For this reason,

Explanation: (B) The second sentence makes a surprising claim, that the concrete benefits from seawater, and the sentence after the blank confirms it with the finding about self-healing minerals. "In fact" fits because it introduces evidence that bears out and sharpens the striking claim just made. Choice (A), "Otherwise," means "if that were not so," introducing an alternative outcome. The sentence gives confirming evidence, not an alternative scenario. Choice (C), "By contrast," may seem right because seawater usually destroys concrete and a reader expects a contrast. But the finding supports the claim that this concrete benefits from seawater rather than opposing it, so no contrast holds. Choice (D), "For this reason," signals that the finding is caused by the preceding claim. The mineral growth is the evidence for the claim, not an effect produced by it.

Question 2. A museum that wishes to display a fragile medieval tapestry has to carefully limit the light that falls on it, since prolonged exposure gradually fades the delicate plant dyes beyond any hope of recovery. One common approach is to keep the gallery very dim and rotate the textile off display for long stretches of each year, storing it in darkness. ______ conservators can mount the tapestry behind specialized glass coated to filter out ultraviolet light, allowing it to remain on continuous display far longer without suffering the same irreversible damage.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) Consequently,
• B) Meanwhile,
• C) Similarly,
• D) Alternatively, ✓

Explanation: (D) The passage presents one method for protecting the tapestry, dimming and rotating it, and then offers a second, independent method using filtered glass. "Alternatively" fits because the second sentence gives a different option for achieving the same goal. Choice (A), "Consequently," signals that the second method results from the first. The filtered-glass approach is a separate choice, not an effect of the dimming approach. Choice (B), "Meanwhile," signals two things happening at the same time. The two methods are competing options a museum chooses between, not simultaneous events unfolding alongside each other. Choice (C), "Similarly," signals that the two methods are alike in approach. They are different solutions to the same problem, not parallel versions of one technique.

Question 3. Solar power has often been dismissed as hopelessly impractical for regions that endure long, cloudy winters, where the panels would seem to sit idle and useless for months on end. ______ several cloudy countries in northern Europe, among them Germany and the Netherlands, have built thriving solar industries, in part because photovoltaic panels actually operate more efficiently in cool air and can feed surplus summer power into shared regional grids that draw on wind and other sources during the months when the skies darken.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) For instance,
• B) Therefore,
• C) Even so, ✓
• D) Meanwhile,

Explanation: (C) The opening raises a common objection, that solar power is impractical in cloudy regions, and the second sentence answers it with a counterexample: cloudy northern European countries that have succeeded anyway. "Even so" fits because their success holds despite the objection just raised. Choice (A), "For instance," would make northern Europe an example of solar being impractical. It is the opposite, a case where cloudy regions succeeded, so an example transition points the wrong way. Choice (B), "Therefore," signals a conclusion drawn from the objection. The second sentence pushes against that objection rather than following from it. Choice (D), "Meanwhile," signals a parallel event occurring at the same time. The northern European success answers the objection rather than unfolding alongside it as an unrelated development.

Question 4. In the open ocean, schooling fish confuse and frustrate predators by moving together as a single shimmering mass, wheeling and contracting in unison so that no individual fish ever stands out long enough to become a target. ______ flocks of starlings wheel through the evening sky in dense, shifting clouds known as murmurations, their thousands of synchronized turns rippling outward in waves and making it nearly impossible for a pursuing hawk to lock onto any one bird among the swirling multitude.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) Similarly, ✓
• B) However,
• C) As a result,
• D) Specifically,

Explanation: (A) The two sentences describe parallel cases: fish and starlings both use coordinated group movement to keep predators from singling out one target. "Similarly" fits because the second case mirrors the first. Choice (B), "However," would set up a contrast, but the starling example matches the fish example rather than opposing it. Choice (C), "As a result," claims the starlings' behavior is caused by the fish's. The two are independent cases of the same strategy, not cause and effect. Choice (D), "Specifically," would make the second sentence a narrower detail of the first. Starlings are a separate parallel example, not a more precise version of the claim about fish.

Question 5. A base-editing technique can be remarkably precise, able to correct certain single-letter mutations in a genome of three billion letters without creating a double-strand break, which can occur with some earlier editing methods and can introduce new errors. ______ it remains stubbornly difficult to deliver the editing molecules into the right cells deep inside a living body, and until that delivery obstacle is solved, the technique's extraordinary precision cannot be put to full use in treating actual patients.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• A) Accordingly,
• B) In other words,
• C) Nonetheless, ✓
• D) For example,

Explanation: (C) The first sentence praises the technique's precision, and the second raises a limitation that holds despite that strength: the difficulty of delivery. "Nonetheless" fits because the drawback stands in tension with the advantage just described. Choice (A), "Accordingly," signals a result flowing from the precision. The delivery problem is not a consequence of the technique being precise; it persists in spite of that precision. Choice (B), "In other words," would restate the first sentence. The second introduces a new and opposing point rather than rephrasing the praise. Choice (D), "For example," would make the delivery problem an instance of the technique's precision. It is a separate limitation that runs counter to the precision, not an example of it.