SAT OwlQuestion bank / Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Teodor Halle (1881-1955) was a Danish composer.
• Between 1908 and 1914, he recorded more than 300 folk songs on a portable phonograph in rural Jutland.
• His Symphony No. 3, completed in 1924, uses melodies from those recordings.
• The recordings are now kept in a national archive.
The student wants to explain the source of the melodies in Halle's Symphony No. 3 to an audience already familiar with Halle. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Danish composer Teodor Halle (1881-1955) completed his Symphony No. 3 in 1924.
Halle's Symphony No. 3 draws on folk songs that he himself recorded on a portable phonograph in rural Jutland.
Teodor Halle, a Danish composer who lived from 1881 to 1955, recorded more than 300 folk songs between 1908 and 1914.
Halle's recordings of more than 300 folk songs are now kept in a national archive.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
The audience already knows Halle, so the sentence doesn't need to introduce him. It needs to say where the symphony's melodies came from. Choice B does: they come from folk songs Halle recorded in rural Jutland.
Choice C mentions the recordings but spends its words introducing Halle, whom the audience already knows, and never connects the recordings to the symphony.
Why the other choices are wrong
- A. This identifies the symphony and its date but doesn't say where its melodies came from.
- C. This introduces Halle to readers who already know him and never links the recordings to the symphony.
- D. This says where the recordings are kept without linking them to the symphony's melodies.
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