Question 172·Easy·Transitions
During daylight hours, honeybees communicate using the "waggle dance" to indicate where food can be found. _____, when night falls, the insects rely on scent trails instead of movement to share this information.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
For transition questions, first ignore the answer choices and decide how the ideas in the sentence or paragraphs relate: Are they similar, contrasting, cause-and-effect, or a restatement? Then check each option against that relationship and eliminate any choice whose meaning (similarity, contrast, cause, clarification, etc.) does not match. Always reread the sentence with your chosen transition in place to confirm it sounds logical and consistent with the passage.
Hints
Identify what changes between the two clauses
Compare what bees do during the day with what they do at night. What important difference is introduced by the phrase “instead of movement”?
Determine the relationship type
Ask yourself whether the second part is similar to, caused by, or different from the first part. That relationship will tell you what kind of transition you need.
Test each transition in context
Read the sentence with each option inserted and see whether it accurately reflects the relationship between day and night behavior. Eliminate any option that suggests similarity, cause-effect, or simple restatement if that doesn’t match the passage.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand what each part of the sentence says
Read the two parts of the sentence and restate them in your own words:
- First part: During the day, honeybees use a waggle dance (movement) to communicate where food is.
- Second part: At night, they use scent trails instead of movement to share the same kind of information.
So the sentence is comparing how bees communicate in the day versus at night.
Decide how the two ideas are related
Ask yourself: Is the second part
- showing something similar to the first part?
- giving a result or consequence of the first part?
- explaining or restating the first part?
- or contrasting (showing a difference from) the first part?
The key phrase is “instead of movement,” which signals that nighttime behavior is different from daytime behavior. This points to a contrast between the two times of day.
Match the relationship to the type of transition
Now think about what kind of transition word would best connect two ideas that are different from each other. Eliminate choices that:
- show similarity (for ideas that match)
- show cause-and-effect (for result relationships)
- or simply restate or clarify the same idea.
You want the option that signals a difference between daytime and nighttime behavior.
Select the transition that shows contrast
Among the choices, “However” is the transition that clearly signals a contrast between two opposing or differing ideas, which fits the shift from using a waggle dance by day to using scent trails at night. The completed sentence reads smoothly and logically: “During daylight hours, honeybees communicate using the ‘waggle dance’ to indicate where food can be found. However, when night falls, the insects rely on scent trails instead of movement to share this information.”