Question 42·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas
Economists sometimes use nighttime light intensity as a proxy for local economic activity where income records are incomplete. They may calibrate the proxy using regions with reliable income data and then describe the calibrated measure as more accurate. Accuracy here, however, can refer either to the proxy's average relationship with output or to the validity of each local estimate. ______ calibration can strengthen the estimated average relationship without showing that a brightness change in any particular place reflects economic growth.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
For a difficult transition question, identify not only the broad relationship between sentences but also the exact rhetorical function of the new sentence. Distinguish a refinement that narrows the scope of an earlier claim from a concession, reversal, or consequence, then substitute the strongest competing options and test the assumptions each one introduces.
Hints
Track the scope of accuracy
Identify the two different claims that the word “accuracy” could represent in the third sentence.
Examine the final sentence's role
Ask whether the final sentence opposes the preceding distinction, follows from it as a result, or states the exact limitation on an earlier description.
Test the strongest alternative
A concessive transition requires an expectation that the next statement overturns. Check whether the third sentence creates such an expectation or instead introduces a distinction that the final sentence resolves.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the distinction
The third sentence distinguishes two meanings of accuracy: a reliable average relationship between light and output and the validity of each individual local estimate.
Determine the final sentence's function
The final sentence specifies which kind of accuracy calibration can strengthen. It supports the average relationship but does not establish that every local change in brightness represents economic growth.
Choose the precise relationship
The final sentence refines the earlier description of the calibrated measure as “more accurate.” Therefore, “More precisely,” best signals its function; the sentence is not primarily a concession, reversal, or consequence.