Question 40·Easy·Rhetorical Synthesis
While compiling notes for a science report, a student has recorded the following facts:
- The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of Earth's oceans.
- Challenger Deep, its deepest point, reaches nearly 11,000 meters below sea level.
- The trench lies in the western Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines.
- In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste made the first crewed descent to Challenger Deep.
- Microbes and other organisms live there despite extreme pressure.
The student wants to indicate the trench's geographic location. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For questions that ask which sentence best meets a specific goal (such as indicating location, explaining cause, or summarizing a passage), first underline or mentally highlight the task words in the question. Then quickly categorize each note or answer choice by what kind of information it gives (location, time, depth, purpose, etc.). Eliminate any choices that do not match the requested category, and select the one that most directly and completely fulfills the stated goal without adding unrelated information.
Hints
Clarify what the question is asking for
Focus on the phrase "indicate the trench's geographic location." Think about what kind of information counts as geographic location.
Distinguish location from other types of information
Some notes describe depth, a historical expedition, or life forms in the trench. Which note is different because it tells you where on Earth the trench is?
Match note type to choice type
Once you know which bullet point in the notes gives location information, choose the answer option that restates that same kind of information.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the task in the question
The question says the student "wants to indicate the trench's geographic location." Focus on the phrase "geographic location"—this means where it is in the world, not how deep it is, what lives there, or historical events.
Find the note that gives location information
Look back at the bullet-point notes and ask: which fact tells me where on the globe the Mariana Trench is located? You are looking for a region (like an ocean) and/or its position relative to land.
Match that note to an answer choice
Now compare the answer choices to the notes and select the one that directly states the trench’s position on Earth (ocean + relative to a nearby country). That choice is: "The Mariana Trench lies in the western Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines."