Question 35·Hard·Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has gathered the following notes:
- The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 on Spitsbergen Island, Norway.
- The Norwegian government financed its construction at a cost of $9 million.
- The vault stores duplicates of more than 1 million seed varieties collected from gene banks worldwide.
- American agriculturalist Cary Fowler, executive director of the Crop Trust (2005–2012), conceived the idea for the vault.
- The vault is engineered to survive natural disasters, rising sea levels, and extended power failures.
The student wants to craft a sentence that emphasizes both the global significance of the vault’s collection and the security of its design. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For rhetorical synthesis with notes, first translate the goal into a short checklist (here: global collection + secure design). Then locate the exact bullets that match each checklist item and choose the option that combines those details accurately. Eliminate choices that (1) omit one required idea, (2) replace specific details with vague wording, or (3) add claims not supported by the notes.
Hints
Restate the goal in two parts
The question asks for a sentence emphasizing two things. What are they?
Find one note for each part
Which bullet supports the global collection idea, and which bullet supports the secure design idea?
Watch for unsupported add-ons
Eliminate any option that claims something not stated in the notes (for example, who financed the project).
Prefer specific over vague
A strong synthesis sentence will use the notes’ specific details (like “more than 1 million” and “engineered to survive …”).
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the two required emphases
The sentence must emphasize both of these ideas:
- The global significance of the collection (large scale and worldwide sources)
- The security of the vault’s design (built to survive serious threats)
Pull the exact supporting notes
From the notes, the key details are:
- Global collection: “duplicates of more than 1 million seed varieties … from gene banks worldwide”
- Secure design: “engineered to survive natural disasters, rising sea levels, and extended power failures”
Choose the option that includes both ideas accurately
Select the choice that states both the worldwide, million-variety collection and the engineered safety features without adding unsupported details. The best choice is:
“The Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects duplicates of more than 1 million seed varieties from gene banks worldwide in a facility engineered to survive natural disasters, rising sea levels, and extended power failures.”