A transition question tests how the ideas on either side of a blank connect. Cover the choices and shrink both sentences, keeping both parts if the second sentence has a semicolon. Does the next sentence continue the thought, follow from it, push against it, or place it in time? Name the exact job, then swap in each choice’s plain meaning to test that link. A word that sounds smooth can still name a link the text doesn’t make.
Hints
- Hint 1
Shrink the sentence beginning “This experiment” to a few words. What claim does it make about the candidate variant?
- Hint 2
The final sentence names a controlled setting and natural populations. Look for what the experiment can and cannot show in those settings.
- Hint 3
Read the part before the semicolon first, then ask what it does with the claim before the blank.
Step-by-step
Shrink the ideas, then test the job
Step 1Shrink the claim and the finding
Read the claim before the blank: the experiment strengthens the case that the candidate variant itself helps plants survive drought. What does the next sentence say the experiment shows? Changing the variant can affect survival when genetic background is held constant, meaning the plants have the same other genes. Both sentences support a role for the candidate variant.
- Step 2
Work out what the limit does
How does the limit after the semicolon fit? The experiment does not establish how strongly the variant affects survival in natural populations, where conditions vary. Showing that the variant can help is different from measuring how much it helps under those changing conditions. That limit doesn't weaken the earlier claim; it explains how far the claim goes, so the thought continues.
- Step 3
Set aside the wrong directions
Which transitions name a different link? Nevertheless means despite that, but the clause immediately after the blank supports the earlier claim instead of holding true despite it. As a result means because of that, but the claim doesn't cause the evidence; the sentence reports what the experiment shows.
- Step 4
Pick the exact job
How does the next sentence continue the thought? Similarly means the same is true of something else, but we're still discussing one experiment and one variant. More precisely means to say something more exactly, so it makes the earlier claim more exact by spelling out the test's controlled setting and the limit on its findings. Choice B.