Question 209·Medium·Rhetorical Synthesis
While preparing an article on coffee’s potential health advantages, a student has compiled the following notes:
- Harvard University study (2017): people who drank 3–5 cups of coffee per day had a 15% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Journal of Nutrition article (2019): caffeine temporarily boosts short-term memory performance.
- Coffee beans are rich in chlorogenic acid, an antioxidant.
- Excessive coffee intake may lead to jitteriness and sleep disturbance.
The student wants to add a sentence that introduces recent scientific evidence linking moderate coffee consumption with reduced risk of a chronic disease.
Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For rhetorical synthesis questions, restate the exact purpose of the new sentence (here: recent scientific evidence + moderate coffee + reduced risk + chronic disease). Then identify the one note that contains all required elements, and choose the option that accurately uses that note while directly meeting the stated goal.
Hints
Focus on the task words
Underline the key parts of the question: recent, scientific evidence, moderate coffee consumption, reduced risk, and chronic disease. Any correct answer must include all of these ideas, not just one or two.
Decide which note is relevant
Look at the four notes and ask: which one talks about a health risk changing (going down) and mentions an actual disease, not just a symptom or a short-term effect?
Check each answer against the goal
For each answer choice, ask: does this sentence both (1) come from the relevant note and (2) clearly show that drinking a moderate amount of coffee is linked to a lower chance of a chronic disease? Eliminate any that fail either part.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the writing goal
The question says the student wants to add a sentence that introduces recent scientific evidence linking moderate coffee consumption with reduced risk of a chronic disease.
So the correct sentence must clearly include all of these:
- It is based on scientific evidence (like a study or article).
- It is recent.
- It involves moderate coffee consumption (not excessive).
- It shows a reduced risk of a chronic disease (a long-lasting condition like diabetes).
Match the goal to the notes
Among the notes, only one describes a study showing that drinking a moderate amount of coffee is associated with a lower risk of a chronic disease:
- Harvard University study (2017): people who drank 3–5 cups of coffee per day had a 15% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The other notes focus on short-term memory, antioxidants, or negative side effects rather than reduced chronic disease risk.
Eliminate choices that don’t fit the goal
Eliminate any choice that doesn’t mention reduced risk of a chronic disease:
- Side effects (jitteriness/sleep disturbance) are not disease-risk reduction.
- Short-term memory improvement is not a chronic disease outcome.
- Antioxidant content alone doesn’t state a reduced risk of a specific chronic disease.
Select the choice that directly uses the relevant study note
The best choice is the sentence that restates the 2017 Harvard study linking 3–5 cups per day with a 15% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
A 2017 Harvard study found that drinking 3–5 cups of coffee per day was linked to a 15% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.