A student notes question about a similarity tests whether you can show what two subjects share. Read the student’s goal first, and name both subjects and what they must share. If no specific trait is named, any fact true of both can work. Set aside sentences that don’t make the comparison the goal asks for, then check each detail against the notes. A true fact about one subject still won’t show a similarity unless the notes support it for the other subject too.
Hints
- Hint 1
In the student’s goal, identify which filters to compare and what kind of comparison to make.
- Hint 2
Compare the notes for the two filters, looking for what is true of each filter.
Step-by-step
Find what the filters share
Step 1Name the comparison
The goal asks us to emphasize a similarity between Patel’s filter and Diaz’s filter. What must our sentence say about those two filters? It must describe something true of both, rather than a feature of only one or a difference between them. The goal doesn’t name a specific trait, so any shared feature backed by the notes can work.
- Step 2
Set aside sentences that miss the goal
Do the choices show a similarity between the filters? The sentence about locally available materials describes Patel’s filter alone, and the sentence about being repaired easily describes Diaz’s alone. Neither compares the filters. The sentence with 2010 and 2018 gives different dates, so it shows a difference, not the requested similarity.
- Step 3
Check the shared result
What result appears in both sets of notes? Patel’s filter reduced contaminants in rural wells, and Diaz’s reduced contaminants in storm-affected areas. Those are different settings, but both filters reduced contaminants. The sentence with both reduced contaminants reports this shared result in water supplies. Choice C.