SAT Rhetorical Synthesis Practice — Drill 6

The student wants to support the claim that Maathai's movement combined environmental and economic goals. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A In 2004, Maathai became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
2. B In addition to planting trees, the Green Belt Movement trained rural women in forestry, beekeeping, and other environmentally sustainable trades, combining ecological restoration with economic opportunity.
3. C Maathai's organization planted over 50 million trees across Kenya during her lifetime.
4. D Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977.

The student wants to explain what makes the Pando colony noteworthy from a biological standpoint. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A Quaking aspen trees often grow in large colonies connected by a shared root system.
2. B Because all of its trees share identical DNA, the Pando colony is considered, biologically, to be a single organism, despite covering over 100 acres.
3. C Pando is estimated to be thousands of years old, making it one of the oldest known organisms.
4. D Pando is a colony of quaking aspen trees located in Utah that covers over 100 acres of land.

The student wants to support the claim that Johnson helped establish trust in early NASA computing systems. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A Katherine Johnson worked as a mathematician at NASA beginning in the 1950s.
2. B Johnson calculated the trajectories for several early crewed spaceflights, including John Glenn's 1962 orbital mission.
3. C Before agreeing to fly, John Glenn specifically requested that Johnson personally verify the electronic computer's calculations, illustrating the trust placed in her work.
4. D Katherine Johnson is often credited as a key figure in NASA's early computing history.

The student wants to emphasize the scale of the population's recovery since its lowest point. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A From a low of fewer than 1,000 individuals in the late 1800s, the total bison population had grown to over 500,000 by 2020.
2. B Careful breeding and habitat protection allowed the population to slowly recover over the following century.
3. C Conservationists established protected herds on private ranches and in newly created national parks.
4. D The American bison population fell to fewer than 1,000 individuals by the late 1800s due to overhunting.

The student wants to contrast an older view of sign languages with current research. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A American Sign Language has its own independent grammar system, distinct from spoken English grammar.
2. B Although once mistakenly viewed by some educators as a simplified, gesture-based version of spoken language, sign languages are now understood by researchers to possess grammatical complexity equivalent to spoken languages.
3. C Linguistic research on sign languages has continued since the 1960s.
4. D Sign languages include complex grammatical structures such as tense, syntax, and poetic wordplay.

The student wants to contrast gene drives with standard genetic modification. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A Unlike standard genetic modification, which does not affect inheritance patterns, gene drives increase the likelihood a gene will be passed to offspring far beyond the normal 50% chance.
2. B Researchers are studying gene drives as a possible tool to control disease-carrying mosquito populations.
3. C Gene drives could potentially spread a trait like infertility through an entire wild population.
4. D Genetic engineering techniques have advanced rapidly over the past several decades.

The student wants to state how long the boycott lasted and why it ended. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days, ending only after the Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
2. B The Montgomery Bus Boycott began after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat.
3. C Rosa Parks's arrest in 1955 sparked a boycott that drew national attention to segregation.
4. D The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began on December 5, 1955, became a major event in the civil rights movement.

The student wants to highlight the most surprising result of the lab experiment. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A Researchers have studied cleaner wrasse behavior in both wild and laboratory settings.
2. B Cleaner wrasse are widely regarded as an ecologically important species on coral reefs.
3. C Several wrasse, upon seeing a mark in a mirror, tried to scrape it off against a rock rather than reacting as though it were another fish.
4. D Cleaner wrasse fish remove parasites from the skin of larger client fish, benefiting both species.

The student wants to summarize a surprising finding of the Finnish pilot program. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

1. A Universal basic income provides a fixed, unconditional cash payment to all citizens of a country.
2. B Although recipients of Finland's UBI pilot reported higher wellbeing, the program did not significantly change their employment rates.
3. C Finland's pilot program gave a monthly payment to 2,000 unemployed citizens over several years.
4. D Universal basic income has been debated by economists and policymakers for decades.