Question 59·Medium·Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Yellowstone National Park was established by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1872, making it the first national park in the world.
• The park is located primarily in present-day Wyoming.
• Geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden led a government survey of the Yellowstone region in 1871.
• In his official report to Congress, Hayden urged that Yellowstone be preserved as “a great national park where the people of the whole nation could go and see for themselves the grandeur of [its] scenery.”
The student wants to include a sentence in her paper that explains why Congress decided to create Yellowstone National Park, incorporating a quotation from Hayden’s report. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For rhetorical synthesis questions like this, first restate the task in your own words (for example, “I need a sentence that explains why Congress created the park and uses Hayden’s quote”). Then scan the notes to find the one or two bullets that answer that specific goal. Eliminate any answer that introduces information not in the notes, misquotes or partially quotes the source, or attributes the quote to the wrong speaker. Among the remaining choices, pick the one that most directly and clearly connects the relevant note(s) to the exact purpose described in the question.
Hints
Focus on the question’s goal
Underline the words in the question that describe the student’s goal. What exactly does the sentence need to explain about Congress’s decision?
Find the note that shows a reason
Among the four notes, which one actually tells you why Yellowstone should be preserved or what purpose the park would serve, instead of just giving facts like dates and locations?
Check quotations and attribution
For each answer choice, ask: does the quoted phrase appear exactly in the notes, and is it attributed to the same person who said it in the notes?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the task
The question asks for one sentence that:
- Explains why Congress decided to create Yellowstone National Park (the reason or motivation), and
- Uses a quotation from Hayden’s report in doing so. So the correct answer must show a cause-and-effect connection between Hayden’s words and Congress’s action.
Identify the key note about Congress’s reason
Look at the notes and ask: which bullet tells us why Congress should create the park?
- The first three bullets give facts (when, where, who surveyed) but not the reason.
- The fourth bullet has Hayden’s recommendation: he urged that Yellowstone be preserved as “a great national park where the people of the whole nation could go and see for themselves the grandeur of [its] scenery.” This bullet explains the purpose of preserving Yellowstone and is the quotation that needs to be incorporated.
Test each choice against the notes and the goal
Now check each option to see whether it:
- Clearly states why Congress created the park (not just when or where), and
- Uses a quotation accurately from the notes, and
- Attributes the quotation to the correct source (Hayden, not Congress).
- Choice A introduces a phrase (“a pleasure-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people”) that does not appear in the notes and doesn’t show Hayden influencing Congress.
- Choice B changes the wording of the quote to “grand” scenery (not the exact wording in the notes), and only loosely says this “led to” the designation without clearly explaining Congress’s decision.
- Choice C wrongly suggests the quoted words are “according to Congress,” even though the notes say those words came from Hayden’s report, and it doesn’t clearly show Hayden’s influence on Congress.
Select the sentence that matches the notes and the purpose
The remaining choice is D, which:
- States that Congress was influenced by geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden (connecting his report to Congress’s action),
- Uses the quotation exactly as in the notes, and
- Correctly attributes the quotation to Hayden, not Congress, while ending with Congress establishing the park in 1872. Therefore, the best answer is D) Influenced by geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden, who urged that Yellowstone be preserved as “a great national park where the people of the whole nation could go and see for themselves the grandeur of [its] scenery,” Congress established the park in 1872.