Question 22·Easy·Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
- In 2019, the city installed 200 bee hotels across 45 parks.
- Over the next two years, native bee sightings increased by 35%.
- The project cost $60,000 and relied on community support.
- A total of 300 volunteers helped install and monitor the bee hotels.
- Parks within 0.5 miles of schools saw the largest increases in bee sightings.
The student wants to emphasize community participation in the project. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For questions that ask which choice best uses notes to achieve a goal (such as emphasizing a certain idea), first underline the goal words in the question (for example, "community participation," "cost," or "environmental impact"). Then quickly scan the notes and label each bullet in your mind (people, money, results, location, etc.). Next, eliminate any answer choices that do not match the goal category, even if they contain interesting or precise information. Finally, pick the choice that most directly and clearly expresses the targeted idea, avoiding options that are only loosely related or that focus on different aspects of the topic.
Hints
Focus on the key phrase in the question
Underline or mentally highlight the words "emphasize community participation". Ask yourself: what kind of detail would show that people in the community took part in the project?
Look back at the notes for people-related details
Scan the bullet points and separate them into categories: results (what happened to the bees), money (cost), locations (which parks), and people (who helped). Which bullet points clearly describe what people did?
Eliminate off-topic answer choices
Remove any answer choices that talk mainly about bee population changes, cost, or specific park locations. The remaining choice should highlight how community members were involved in the project.
Step-by-step Explanation
Restate what the question is asking
The prompt says the student wants to emphasize community participation in the project. That means the best choice must focus on how people in the community were involved or helped, not on money, results, or locations.
Find the relevant note(s) about community involvement
Look back at the notes and pick out anything about people:
- "The project cost $60,000 and relied on community support." (mentions community support)
- "A total of 300 volunteers helped install and monitor the bee hotels." (gives a specific number of people and what they did)
These are the clearest details about community participation. Now we need the answer option that uses this kind of information.
Match the goal to the best answer choice
Check each option:
- A talks about bee sightings increasing (a result, not people helping).
- B talks about cost (money, not people helping).
- C talks about which parks had the biggest increases (location and results, not people helping).
- D talks about 300 volunteers and describes how they helped with the bee hotels (installing and monitoring them across the parks).
Only choice D directly emphasizes community participation by highlighting the volunteers and their work, so the correct answer is: The project enlisted 300 volunteers to install and monitor 200 bee hotels across 45 city parks.