A student notes question about an apparent contradiction tests whether you can show how two facts seem to conflict. Read the goal first and list what it asks for, including what is being compared in each part. Set aside sentences that leave out part of the goal, even if the facts they give are true. Then check which has more in each comparison by finding the amounts in the notes. Showing an apparent contradiction means stating both facts, not leaving the reader to add one.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with the student’s goal and split it into its two comparisons. What is being compared in each one?
- Hint 2
In the notes, look for what each caffeine amount measures. Which numbers describe the brewed drink, and which describe the beans or leaves?
- Hint 3
Check which has more in each comparison. How do the two comparisons create the apparent contradiction named in the goal?
Step-by-step
Match both comparisons to the goal
Step 1Name the sentence’s shape
The phrase highlight the apparently contradictory fact calls for two facts that seem to clash. What are those two parts of the goal? One compares caffeine in brewed cups; the other compares caffeine in the beans and leaves themselves. The sentence needs to show both comparisons together.
- Step 2
Set aside sentences that miss the goal
Which sentences do that whole job? Each 8-ounce serving gives the amounts in brewed drinks but leaves out the beans and leaves. The sentence with both naturally contain compounds lists what the ingredients share, rather than showing how caffeine amounts compare in the ingredients and the drinks. Set them aside because neither shows the apparent contradiction.
- Step 3
Check which has more caffeine
Now check which drink and which ingredient has more caffeine. The beans contain 1–2% caffeine by weight, while the leaves contain 3–4%, so tea leaves have the higher concentration, meaning more of their weight is caffeine. What about brewed cups? For equal 8-ounce cups, coffee has about 95 mg of caffeine and tea about 26 mg, so coffee is higher per cup. These are different measures, a percentage of the ingredient’s weight and a total amount in the drink.
- Step 4
Select the sentence that shows the conflict
The Because tea leaves have more caffeine sentence reverses the cup amounts. Which sentence shows the apparently contradictory fact without getting either comparison backward? The version with Although coffee delivers far more caffeine pairs coffee’s higher amount per cup with tea leaves’ higher concentration by weight. Its although signals the apparent conflict, so that sentence does the full job. Choice D.