SAT OwlQuestion bank / Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Leafcutter ants grow gardens of fungus inside their nests and feed the fungus with leaves they cut.
• Biologist Mariela Quispe wanted to know how the ants decide which leaves to cut.
• She offered colonies leaves from plants that were safe for the fungus and from plants that were toxic to it.
• At first, the ants cut both kinds of leaves.
• Within a day, they stopped cutting the toxic leaves, even though the leaves did not harm the ants themselves.
• Quispe concluded that the ants detect chemical signals from the fungus indicating which leaves harm it.
The student wants to explain how Quispe's results support her conclusion. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Quispe offered leafcutter ant colonies leaves from plants that were safe for their fungus and from plants that were toxic to it.
Leafcutter ants grow gardens of fungus inside their nests and feed the fungus with leaves that the ants cut from nearby plants.
Quispe concluded that leafcutter ants detect chemical signals from the fungus in their nests that indicate which leaves harm the fungus.
Because the ants stopped cutting leaves that harmed their fungus but not themselves, Quispe concluded that they rely on signals from the fungus.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
To show how results support a conclusion, a sentence needs both and a link between them. Choice D gives the result (the ants stopped cutting leaves that harmed only the fungus) and connects it with "Because" to the conclusion (the ants rely on signals from the fungus).
Choice C states the conclusion accurately but leaves out the results that support it.
Why the other choices are wrong
- A. This describes the setup of the study but neither the results nor the conclusion.
- B. This gives background about the ants and doesn't mention Quispe's results or conclusion.
- C. This states the conclusion without the results behind it, so it can't show how they support it.
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