SAT OwlQuestion bank / Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• The Voynich manuscript is a handwritten, illustrated book.
• Radiocarbon dating places its vellum pages in the early 1400s.
• It is written in an unknown script that no one has deciphered.
• It contains drawings of plants, many of which have never been identified.
• It is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a book dealer who acquired it in 1912.
The student wants to introduce the Voynich manuscript to an audience unfamiliar with it. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Radiocarbon dating places the Voynich manuscript's vellum in the early 1400s.
The book dealer Wilfrid Voynich acquired the manuscript in 1912.
The manuscript's script has never been deciphered, and many of its plant drawings remain unidentified.
The Voynich manuscript, a handwritten book dating to the early 1400s, is written in a script that no one has deciphered.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
An unfamiliar audience first needs to know what the manuscript is. Choice D identifies it as a handwritten book from the early 1400s and gives its most notable feature, the undeciphered script. Choice C refers to "the manuscript" as if the reader already knows which one is meant, and choices A and B give single facts without explaining what the object is.
Choice C has interesting details, but it assumes the reader already knows what the manuscript is.
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