Question 75·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas
In evaluating an unsigned 1972 assemblage, curators first noted that its braided copper and charred cedar were characteristic of Lidia Okafor's work. Archival research then showed that several artists in Okafor's cooperative used those materials. A newly digitized photograph depicts the assemblage beside an inventory card bearing a numbering sequence found in Okafor's notebooks, and no other cooperative member is known to have used that sequence. However, the card gives a crate number rather than an artwork number. Moreover, shipping logs show that works by multiple cooperative members were sometimes packed in one crate, and the surviving logs are incomplete. _____ the photograph carries more evidentiary weight than the materials alone do, though it cannot decisively identify the maker.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
For a difficult transition question, determine both the logical relationship and its scope. When a passage presents evidence pointing in different directions, distinguish a transition that introduces an overall assessment from one that makes the conclusion appear to result only from the immediately preceding detail.
Hints
Sort the evidence
Identify which details increase confidence in the attribution and which details limit that confidence.
Consider the transition's scope
Ask whether the final sentence follows from only the immediately preceding limitations or evaluates the full set of evidence presented in the paragraph.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the supporting evidence
The materials alone provide limited evidence because several artists in the cooperative used them. The photograph provides stronger evidence because its inventory card bears a numbering sequence found in Okafor's notebooks, and no other cooperative member is known to have used that sequence.
Identify the limiting evidence
The card lists a crate number rather than a number assigned to an individual artwork. Because a crate could contain works by multiple cooperative members and the shipping logs are incomplete, the card cannot establish who made the assemblage.
Determine the scope of the conclusion
The final sentence evaluates the combined force of the supporting and limiting evidence. “On balance,” introduces precisely this kind of judgment after competing considerations have been weighed.