SAT OwlIn the 1850s, many American newspapers began printing the latest prices of cotton, wheat, and other goods in distant markets, information that now arrived by telegraph within hours. Before the telegraph, merchants could profit by buying goods cheaply in one city and selling them at higher prices in another, since few people knew how much prices differed. Historian Joan Ebbett found that in the decade after telegraph lines linked major cities, price differences for the same goods between those cities shrank considerably. Ebbett's finding suggests that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
newspapers stopped printing prices once telegraph lines were built.
the prices of cotton and wheat rose steadily throughout the 1850s.
merchants abandoned trade between cities entirely after the telegraph arrived.
the telegraph made it harder for merchants to profit from price differences between cities.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
Merchants once profited because prices differed between cities and few people knew it. The telegraph spread price information, and the price gaps shrank. With smaller gaps, the old buy-low, sell-high strategy would yield less profit, so choice D follows.
Choice C overreaches: smaller price gaps would reduce one kind of profit, but nothing suggests trade between cities ended.
Got it wrong? On SAT Owl, Owl looks at the answer you chose and explains the exact mistake, then gives you similar questions until it sticks. Get your predicted SAT score free.