SAT OwlQuestion bank / Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• The Rosetta Stone is a stone slab inscribed in 196 BCE.
• It was found in 1799 near the town of Rashid (Rosetta), Egypt.
• It bears the same decree written in three scripts: hieroglyphic, Demotic, and ancient Greek.
• Scholars in the early 1800s could read ancient Greek but not hieroglyphs.
• In 1822, Jean-François Champollion announced that he had deciphered hieroglyphs.
The student wants to explain why the Rosetta Stone was useful for deciphering hieroglyphs. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
The Rosetta Stone, found in 1799 near Rashid, Egypt, was inscribed in 196 BCE.
In 1822, Jean-François Champollion announced that he had deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Because the Rosetta Stone presents the same decree in hieroglyphs and in ancient Greek, which scholars could already read, it gave them a key to deciphering hieroglyphs.
The Rosetta Stone bears a decree written in three scripts: hieroglyphic, Demotic, and ancient Greek.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
The goal asks why the stone was useful, so the answer has to connect its contents to the decipherment. Choice C makes that connection: the same text appears in hieroglyphs and in Greek, and scholars could already read the Greek. Choice D lists the three scripts but doesn't explain why that helped, and choice B reports the result without the reason.
Choice D gives the key fact about the three scripts but never says that scholars could read the Greek, which is why the stone was useful.
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