Question 161·Medium·Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• 1939: Swiss chemist Paul Müller discovers that the insecticide DDT kills mosquitoes and crop pests.
• 1940s: DDT is used by Allied forces during World War II to curb malaria and typhus.
• Late 1940s–1950s: DDT becomes a standard agricultural pesticide in the United States.
• 1962: Biologist Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, describing DDT’s harmful effects on wildlife and ecosystems.
• 1972: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bans most uses of DDT.
The student is writing an essay about turning points in US environmental policy and wants to show how a single book helped bring about regulatory change. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to achieve this purpose?
For rhetorical synthesis questions with notes, start by underlining the writing goal (for example, show how a single book helped bring about regulatory change). Then scan the notes and pick out only the details that directly support that goal (here, the note about Silent Spring describing harms and the note about the EPA banning DDT). Finally, eliminate any answer choices that are factually incomplete, leave out either the cause (the book) or the effect (the policy change), or add details that do not serve the stated purpose; choose the option that clearly and efficiently connects the key pieces of information in a cause-and-effect way.
Hints
Focus on the purpose stated in the question
Underline the phrase about turning points in US environmental policy and showing how a single book helped bring about regulatory change. Any good answer must clearly support that purpose, not just restate random facts from the notes.
Find the notes that involve both a book and a policy decision
Which bullet points mention Silent Spring, and which mention a government action on DDT? Think about how those two types of notes might be connected in one sentence.
Check for a cause-and-effect connection
Among the choices, look for the one that not only includes Silent Spring and the EPA ban but also shows that what the book did led to that ban, rather than just listing events separately.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the writer's goal
The question says the student is writing about turning points in US environmental policy and wants to show how a single book helped bring about regulatory change.
So the best sentence must do two things:
- Mention the book (Silent Spring) and what it did.
- Show that this book led to a specific regulatory change (a government action or ban).
Locate the key notes that match this goal
From the notes, pull out the two items that match the goal:
- 1962: Silent Spring describes DDT’s harmful effects on wildlife and ecosystems.
- 1972: The EPA bans most uses of DDT.
These support a cause-and-effect idea: Silent Spring reveals harms, and later the EPA responds with a ban. A good answer must connect these two events to show a turning point in policy caused by the book.
Check which option links the book to the policy change
Now compare the answer choices to the goal and the key notes:
- Choice A talks about wartime success of DDT, not about harms or regulatory change.
- Choice B mentions that DDT was widely used and that Silent Spring pointed out its dangers, but it stops there and does not mention any policy action or ban.
- Choice C mentions the EPA ban and agricultural use of DDT, but says nothing about the book at all.
- Choice D explicitly states that Silent Spring revealed DDT’s environmental harms and that this helped lead to the EPA’s 1972 ban on most uses of DDT, directly linking the book to the regulatory change.
Therefore, the correct answer is: By revealing DDT's environmental harms in 1962, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring helped lead to the EPA's 1972 ban on most uses of the pesticide.