Question 120·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure
For years, critics described the smoky halos on Nia Calder’s stoneware vessels as deliberate citations of open-pit pottery. Calder’s studio ledgers record clay batches and electric-kiln temperatures in unusual detail, but they contain no mention of smoke firing or pit-fired models. The silence of those meticulous records is therefore evidence of a peculiar kind: more useful for unsettling the established account than for replacing it. Conservators subsequently found that manganese-rich particles in Calder’s early clay could migrate toward vessel surfaces during electric firing, creating halos without special intervention. Yet after Calder changed to purified commercial clay, she reproduced the halos with a manganese wash. The evidence thus suggests that a feature originating as a material effect became an intentionally retained motif.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
For a function question, determine what the text establishes before the underlined material, what the underlined material changes or qualifies, and how the discussion develops afterward. Favor an answer that captures both the sentence’s immediate role and its connection to the passage’s later evidence, while avoiding options that overstate what the sentence proves.
Hints
Examine the initial interpretation
Determine what the critics believe about Calder’s intentions throughout her career.
Focus on the contrast
Consider the difference between evidence that can “unsettle” an account and evidence that can “replace” one.
Track the chronology
Notice how the evidence treats the early vessels differently from the vessels Calder produced after changing clay.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the established account
The opening presents the critics’ view that Calder consistently created the halos as deliberate references to open-pit pottery.
Interpret the underlined sentence
The absence of any relevant mention in Calder’s unusually detailed ledgers makes the critics’ account less secure. However, the contrast between “unsettling” and “replacing” emphasizes that this absence cannot establish a different explanation by itself.
Connect the sentence to the later evidence
The conservation findings supply a possible explanation for the early halos, while Calder’s later use of a manganese wash shows intentional reproduction. Thus, the underlined sentence serves as a provisional challenge that opens the way for a more precise account of how the motif developed.