Question 129·Medium·Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
- In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin when mold contaminated one of his petri dishes.
- Penicillin entered widespread clinical use in the early 1940s.
- By 1942, Staphylococcus aureus strains resistant to penicillin had already been identified.
- In his 1945 Nobel Prize lecture, Fleming warned that overuse of penicillin could encourage bacterial resistance.
The student wants to highlight a cause-and-effect relationship between the early use of penicillin and the emergence of resistant bacteria. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For rhetorical synthesis questions, restate the goal as a formula (for example, “X causes Y”). Then locate the specific notes that provide X and Y, and pick the option that uses those facts and signals the intended relationship with the right logical connector (for example, “because” for cause-and-effect rather than “even though” for contrast).
Hints
Clarify the goal
Ask yourself: what exact relationship does the student want to show—just a timeline of discoveries, or a specific cause-and-effect link?
Match notes to ‘cause’ and ‘effect’
Which note describes the early use of penicillin, and which note describes what happened afterward with bacterial resistance?
Look for causal language
Which choice uses words that clearly indicate cause and effect (for example, “because,” “therefore,” or “as a result”) while also using the relevant timeline facts?
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the goal
The student wants a sentence that emphasizes cause and effect between:
- Cause: penicillin’s early widespread clinical use (early 1940s)
- Effect: resistant bacteria appearing soon after (by 1942)
So the best option should include both facts and use clear causal wording.
Pull the key notes
Relevant notes:
- “Penicillin entered widespread clinical use in the early 1940s.”
- “By 1942, Staphylococcus aureus strains resistant to penicillin had already been identified.”
Other notes (1928 discovery; 1945 warning) can be included, but they are not the core cause/effect pair the student is trying to highlight.
Evaluate each choice’s connection
- Choice A focuses on Fleming’s 1945 warning; it does not state that resistance actually appeared following early widespread use.
- Choice B includes both the early-1940s use and 1942 resistance, but frames them with “even though,” which signals contrast/surprise, not a cause-and-effect relationship.
- Choice C describes discovery and widespread use but leaves out resistant bacteria, so it cannot show the effect.
- Choice D uses both key notes and explicitly links them with “Because,” clearly presenting early use as the cause and resistance as the effect.
Select the choice that states cause → effect
The best answer is:
Because penicillin entered widespread clinical use in the early 1940s, penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains were identified as early as 1942, showing resistance can arise quickly.