For a difficult words-in-context question, identify not only the broad idea but also what each option presupposes. When two choices both suggest organization, determine whether the passage describes uncovering a structure already present or adding a structure from a later perspective.
Hints
- Hint 1
Use the contemporary evidence
Consider what the laboratory notebooks indicate about whether the failed trials were originally parts of one deliberate progression.
- Hint 2
Locate the source of the unity
Ask whether retrospection uncovers a pattern already supported by the events or supplies an organizing pattern after the outcome is known.
Step-by-step
- Step 1
Compare the two accounts
The memoir presents the failed trials as stages in one progression, but the notebooks indicate that Voss pursued them for separate reasons before conceiving the successful procedure.
- Step 2
Identify the effect of hindsight
According to the historian, knowing the endpoint can make independent events appear to be phases of a single plan. The apparent unity therefore comes from the retrospective perspective rather than from a plan evident at the time.
- Step 3
Choose the precise phrase
“Imposes a pattern on” means applying an organizing structure to something. This fits the account of retrospection making separate experiences appear unified, whereas “distills a pattern from” would suggest that the pattern was already present and merely needed to be extracted.