Question 238·Medium·Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
- Honeybees perceive ultraviolet (UV) patterns on flowers that human eyes cannot detect.
- These UV patterns function like landing strips, guiding bees to the nectar.
- In laboratory experiments, researchers masked the UV patterns on certain flowers.
- Bees largely ignored the flowers with masked UV patterns, even though the flowers’ visible colors were unchanged.
The student wants to explain why the bees avoided some flowers during the experiments. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For rhetorical synthesis questions with notes, start by underlining exactly what the question asks you to do (explain a cause, describe a trend, compare ideas, etc.). Then scan the notes to find all bullets directly related to that task and mentally combine them into one clear sentence that shows the needed relationship (often cause-and-effect). Eliminate choices that merely repeat attractive phrases from the notes but (1) ignore the experimental setup, (2) fail to state the needed relationship, or (3) add details that twist the meaning. The best answer will accurately blend multiple relevant notes into a single, focused explanation that directly answers the question.
Hints
Focus on the question
Underline what the student wants to explain: it’s not just what bees can see, but why the bees avoided some flowers during the experiments.
Locate the experimental detail
Look back at the notes about what researchers changed in the lab and how bees responded to that change.
Connect cause and effect
Ask yourself: Which choice clearly links the masking of UV patterns to the bees’ ignoring or avoiding those flowers, showing why that happened?
Step-by-step Explanation
Clarify the task
The question asks: Why did the bees avoid some flowers during the experiments?
So the right answer must:
- Refer to the experiments, not just general facts about bees.
- Explain the reason (cause) that bees avoided some flowers, not just restate what happened.
Pull the relevant notes
From the notes, focus on what changed in the experiment and how bees reacted:
- UV patterns on flowers guide bees to nectar (like landing strips).
- In the lab, researchers masked the UV patterns on some flowers.
- Bees largely ignored those flowers even though visible color was unchanged.
Putting these together: bees avoided the flowers whose UV guides were covered, so they could not be guided to the nectar even though the flowers still looked the same to humans.
Match an answer to the cause-and-effect
Now choose the option that clearly states this cause-and-effect:
- It should mention the experiments.
- It should say that bees ignored or avoided flowers with masked UV patterns.
- It should connect that masking to the idea that bees lacked their usual guides to nectar.
Choice D does all of this: "In experiments, honeybees ignored flowers whose ultraviolet patterns were masked, showing that without these unseen guides they could not locate nectar." That directly explains why bees avoided those flowers in the experiments.