Question 227·Medium·Transitions
Petra worked for two years in a crowded city restaurant, where she learned to appreciate the fast pace of food service. _____ when she began volunteering at a rural community center's kitchen, she quickly noticed how much quieter and more deliberate the work felt.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
For SAT transition questions, always read the full sentence before and after the blank, then decide the exact logical relationship between the ideas: contrast, cause/effect, similarity, restatement, example, etc. Once you know the relationship, go to the choices and label what each transition usually shows (for example, “consequently” = result, “likewise” = similarity). Eliminate any word whose function does not match the relationship in the passage, then plug the remaining option back into the sentence to confirm it makes sense in both meaning and tone.
Hints
Compare the two settings
Look carefully at the descriptions of Petra’s city restaurant job and her volunteer work at the rural community center. How does the second experience relate to the first one?
Identify the logical relationship
Ask yourself: Is the second sentence showing a result of the first, restating it in a different way, describing something similar, or describing something different?
Test each transition’s meaning
Think about what each option usually does in a sentence (result, restatement, similarity, or something else). Eliminate any option whose usual meaning does not fit the way the two experiences are connected.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the first sentence
Read the first sentence and identify its key idea: Petra worked in a crowded city restaurant and learned to appreciate the fast pace of food service. This suggests a busy, quick, possibly hectic environment.
Understand the second sentence
Now read the second sentence: when she volunteered at a rural community center's kitchen, she noticed the work felt quieter and more deliberate. This describes a slower, calmer, more careful environment.
Decide how the ideas are related
Compare the two experiences:
- City restaurant: crowded, fast pace.
- Rural kitchen: quieter, more deliberate.
Ask: Is the second experience a result of the first, a repetition or clarification of the first, something similar to the first, or something different from it? Here, the two experiences clearly differ from each other.
Match the relationship to a transition word
Check each answer choice:
- “Consequently,” shows a result.
- “In other words,” introduces a restatement or clarification of the same idea.
- “Likewise,” shows similarity between two things.
- The remaining option is the one that signals a difference between ideas, which fits the contrast between fast and quiet work environments.
Therefore, the correct answer is “However,”.