Question 65·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas
While researching acoustics in historical architecture, a student has taken the following notes:
- In 2017, acoustic engineer Mara Lian tested replicas of perforated bronze screens in an empty reconstruction of a twelfth-century assembly hall.
- Lian detected no measurable change in speech clarity when the screens were present.
- She interpreted this result as evidence that the screens were probably decorative rather than acoustic.
- In 2024, Chidi Okafor tested the same screen design under both empty-hall conditions and conditions simulating an audience with sound-absorbing panels.
- Like Lian, Okafor found that the screens had no effect in an empty hall.
- With a simulated audience, however, the screens improved speech clarity near the rear of the hall by redirecting reflected sound.
- Okafor argued that an acoustic function can depend on conditions created by a hall’s occupancy.
The student wants to explain how Okafor’s study qualifies Lian’s interpretation rather than simply contradicting Lian’s experimental result. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
For rhetorical synthesis questions, break the stated goal into required parts and test every option against all of them. Here, the answer must preserve the earlier experimental result, limit the interpretation drawn from that result, and avoid unsupported conclusions about historical design or intent.
Hints
Distinguish evidence from inference
Identify what Lian directly observed and what broader conclusion she drew from that observation.
Compare like conditions
Determine whether Okafor obtained the same result as Lian when he tested the screens under the same conditions.
Avoid claims about intent
Look for a choice that limits what the earlier evidence can establish without claiming more about the screens’ design or purpose than the notes support.
Step-by-step Explanation
Separate the result from the interpretation
Lian measured no change in speech clarity in an empty hall. From that result, she inferred that the screens were probably decorative rather than acoustic.
Compare Okafor’s two conditions
Okafor reproduced Lian’s result in an empty hall, confirming that the two studies do not conflict under the same conditions. However, when he simulated an audience, the screens improved clarity near the rear of the hall.
Identify the appropriate qualification
Okafor’s evidence shows that Lian’s empty-hall result can be accurate while her broader inference remains too sweeping. Choice A states this distinction without making unsupported claims about the screens’ intended purpose or asserting that they were decorative under certain conditions.