Question 144·Hard·Rhetorical Synthesis
While preparing a presentation, a student compiled the following notes:
- Many species of coral are threatened by rising ocean temperatures.
- Researchers at the University of Queensland developed synthetic coral mucus to study disease resistance.
- The synthetic mucus replicates the complex sugars found in natural coral mucus.
- Beneficial bacteria thrived in the synthetic mucus, whereas pathogenic bacteria did not.
- Mucus composition might be crucial to coral health and could guide conservation strategies.
The student wants to highlight how the study's findings could impact coral conservation efforts. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For rhetorical synthesis questions, first restate the task in your own words (e.g., “I need the sentence that shows how the results affect conservation”). Then scan the notes to identify which bullets match that goal (usually one or two that pair a result with its significance). Next, eliminate answer choices that only give background, only describe methods, or restate partial information without the required connection (such as to conservation, cause/effect, or implications). Choose the option that both accurately reflects the notes and directly fulfills the stated purpose.
Hints
Clarify the goal
Underline the words in the question that state the goal: the sentence must show how the study’s findings could impact coral conservation efforts.
Locate relevant notes
From the bullet points, which ones describe what happened in the experiments, and which ones talk about coral health or conservation strategies?
Connect findings to impact
Look for an answer choice that doesn’t just restate a fact from the notes, but also explains why that fact matters for protecting or conserving corals.
Watch for incomplete answers
Be cautious of options that mention only background (like threats to corals) or only methods (how the mucus was made) without explaining how the results could guide conservation.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the task in the question
Focus on the goal in the prompt: “highlight how the study's findings could impact coral conservation efforts.” That means the best sentence must (1) state the study’s key results and (2) connect those results to conservation or protecting corals.
Determine the key findings from the notes
Look at the notes for what the researchers actually discovered:
- "Beneficial bacteria thrived in the synthetic mucus, whereas pathogenic bacteria did not."
- "Mucus composition might be crucial to coral health and could guide conservation strategies." These two bullets together give both the experimental result and its importance for coral health and conservation.
Eliminate options that miss conservation impact
Check each option:
- Any sentence that only describes methods (how they made the mucus) or background (coral threatened by heat) without explaining how the findings affect conservation does not meet the goal.
- Any sentence that mentions results but does not connect them to protecting corals is also incomplete for this question.
Match the option that combines findings + conservation
The only choice that both (1) states that synthetic mucus let helpful bacteria flourish while hindering harmful bacteria and (2) explains that understanding mucus composition could help protect vulnerable corals is:
D) The University of Queensland team found that synthetic mucus allowed beneficial bacteria to flourish and hindered harmful bacteria, indicating that understanding mucus composition could help protect vulnerable corals.