Rhetorical Synthesis sample question 1

Much of the Great Wall that stands today was built during the Ming dynasty.

Rhetorical Synthesis sample question 2

A collective founded by three neighbors in Tbilisi in 2018 keeps beehives on the roofs of apartment buildings.

Rhetorical Synthesis sample question 3

Most biologists accept that mitochondria descended from bacteria engulfed by an ancestral cell, though how the partnership began is still debated.

Rhetorical Synthesis sample question 4

After the three most widely visited plants were removed, insect species visiting the cleared plots fell from 37 to 17, and most of those lost were specialists that had visited only a few plants.

Rhetorical Synthesis sample question 5

Under alternate attendance, lords lived in Edo every other year, and their travel spurred roads, inns, and trade.

SAT · Reading and Writing · Expression of Ideas

Rhetorical Synthesis

Rhetorical Synthesis is part of Expression of Ideas in the SAT Reading and Writing section. The questions below are written in the style of the real test, each with the answer and a worked explanation.

Question types you will see here include emphasize a specific feature, compare two things, explain to an unfamiliar audience and introduce a person or work.

Common traps: sentence that includes the fact but not as the emphasis; sentence that emphasizes a different note; sentence adding facts not in the notes.

Sample questions

Question 1
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications. • Its construction took place over many centuries. • Much of the existing wall was built during the Ming dynasty. • The walls were built to protect against invasions from the north.
The student wants to emphasize when the event or achievement took place. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- A.
  Much of the Great Wall that stands today was built during the Ming dynasty.
- B.
  The Great Wall stretches across northern China.
- C.
  The Great Wall's fortifications were built to protect against invasions from the north.
- D.
  The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications built over many centuries.
Answer: A. Much of the Great Wall that stands today was built during the Ming dynasty.
The goal is to emphasize when the event or achievement took place. The correct choice does exactly that: "Much of the Great Wall that stands today was built during the Ming dynasty." The other choices focus on different details and do not accomplish the stated goal.
Question 2
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • A beekeeping collective in Tbilisi keeps hives on the roofs of apartment buildings. • It was founded in 2018 by three neighbors. • The collective now manages 70 hives on 22 rooftops. • Each building receives a share of the honey. • City honey contains pollen from more plant species than honey from nearby farms.
The student wants to introduce the collective to an audience unfamiliar with it. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- A.
  Honey from the city's rooftops contains pollen from more plant species than honey produced on nearby farms does.
- B.
  Each building that hosts hives receives a share of the honey.
- C.
  The collective now manages 70 hives on 22 rooftops.
- D.
  A collective founded by three neighbors in Tbilisi in 2018 keeps beehives on the roofs of apartment buildings.
Answer: D. A collective founded by three neighbors in Tbilisi in 2018 keeps beehives on the roofs of apartment buildings.
Readers meeting the collective for the first time need to know what it is and where, which only the founding choice supplies. The 70-hives choice and the honey-share choice speak of "the collective" and "hives" as already known, and the pollen choice reports a finding without introducing the group.
Question 3
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Mitochondria are structures inside cells that produce most of a cell's usable energy. • They contain their own small circular DNA, which resembles bacterial DNA. • Many biologists think mitochondria descended from free-living bacteria that were engulfed by an ancestral cell more than a billion years ago. • This idea is widely accepted. • How the partnership between the two began is still debated.
The student wants to state the idea accurately, keeping the one limit that the notes give. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- A.
  Mitochondria, which produce most of a cell's usable energy, descended from free-living bacteria that were engulfed by an ancestral cell more than a billion years ago.
- B.
  How the partnership between early cells and bacteria began is still debated, and biologists remain unsure where mitochondria came from at all.
- C.
  Biologists have proven that mitochondria were once free-living bacteria, because the small circular DNA inside them resembles bacterial DNA.
- D.
  Most biologists accept that mitochondria descended from bacteria engulfed by an ancestral cell, though how the partnership began is still debated.
Answer: D. Most biologists accept that mitochondria descended from bacteria engulfed by an ancestral cell, though how the partnership began is still debated.
The goal needs the accepted idea and its one stated limit, and (D) gives both. (A) drops the caveat and states the idea as settled fact. (B) keeps the debate but loses the accepted descent from bacteria and overstates the uncertainty. (C) strengthens the verb to "proven," which the notes do not support.
Question 4
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Ecologists recorded every insect species that visited flowers in a hillside meadow in two successive summers. • Between the summers, they removed the three most widely visited plant species from some plots and left other plots untouched. • In the plots where the three plants were removed, the number of visiting insect species fell from 37 to 17. • In the untouched plots, the number rose slightly, from 38 to 39. • Most of the insect species that vanished from the cleared plots were specialists that had visited only a few plant species.
The student wants to show how the number of insect species visiting the cleared plots changed between the two summers and to say which kind of insect was mostly lost. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- A.
  After the three most widely visited plants were removed, insect species visiting the cleared plots fell from 37 to 17, and most of those lost were specialists that had visited only a few plants.
- B.
  After the three most widely visited plant species were removed from some plots, the number of insect species visiting those plots fell from 37 to 17 between the first summer and the second.
- C.
  Most of the insect species that stopped visiting the cleared plots were specialists that had visited only a few plant species before the removal.
- D.
  In the plots left untouched, the number of visiting insect species rose slightly, from 38 to 39, and most of the insects that disappeared from the cleared plots were specialists that had visited only a few plants.
Answer: A. After the three most widely visited plants were removed, insect species visiting the cleared plots fell from 37 to 17, and most of those lost were specialists that had visited only a few plants.
The goal asks for the change in the cleared plots and the kind of insect lost. (A) gives the drop from 37 to 17 species and says most losses were specialists. (B) gives the drop but not the kind. (C) names the kind but gives no change. (D) reports the untouched plots, the wrong group for the first requirement.
Question 5
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868), Japan's regional lords had to live in the capital, Edo, in alternate years. • The system was called sankin-kōtai, or "alternate attendance." • Lords travelled to and from Edo with large processions of retainers, at great cost. • The constant travel stimulated the growth of roads, inns, and trade along the routes.
The student wants to explain alternate attendance to readers unfamiliar with it, stating what the system required and one of its effects on the wider economy.
Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- A.
  Alternate attendance, or sankin-kōtai, was a system used in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate from 1603 to 1868.
- B.
  Under alternate attendance, lords lived in Edo every other year, and their travel spurred roads, inns, and trade.
- C.
  Lords travelling to Edo brought large processions of retainers with them, which cost the lords a great deal.
- D.
  Roads, inns, and trade along Japan's main routes grew because of constant travel during the Tokugawa period.
Answer: B. Under alternate attendance, lords lived in Edo every other year, and their travel spurred roads, inns, and trade.
(B) states the requirement (living in Edo every other year) and an economic effect (roads, inns, trade). (A) names and dates the system but says neither what it required nor its effects. (C) describes the cost to lords but not the requirement or the wider economy. (D) gives the effect without explaining the system.

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