SAT OwlQuestion bank / Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site in Newfoundland, Canada.
• It was discovered in 1960 by Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad.
• Earlier researchers had dated the Norse settlement there to roughly 1000 CE.
• A 2021 study examined wood at the site that had been cut with metal tools, which local Indigenous peoples did not use at the time.
• Using tree-ring evidence of a solar storm, the researchers determined that the wood was cut in exactly 1021 CE.
The student wants to emphasize how the 2021 study refined earlier estimates. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
L'Anse aux Meadows, a Norse site in Newfoundland, was discovered in 1960 by Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad.
A 2021 study examined wood that had been cut with metal tools at L'Anse aux Meadows.
The Norse were present in Newfoundland around 1000 CE.
Whereas earlier researchers had dated the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows to roughly 1000 CE, a 2021 study determined that wood there was cut in exactly 1021 CE.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
To show that the study refined earlier estimates, the sentence has to put the old estimate next to the new one. Choice D sets the rough earlier date (about 1000 CE) against the exact year from the 2021 study (1021 CE). Choice B mentions the study but not its result, and choice C gives only the older, less exact date.
Choice B describes the 2021 study but never gives the more precise date, so it can't show how the estimate was refined.
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