Question 98·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas

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While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

In 1893, composer Celia Navarro published a piano reduction of an orchestral work.
Letters Navarro wrote in 1894 report that she substantially revised the work’s finale while preparing for its premiere.
The only surviving full orchestral score, which is entirely in Navarro’s handwriting, has a finale different from the one in the piano reduction.
The full score bears a paper watermark first manufactured in 1896, so the score could not have been written during the 1894 rehearsals.
Music historian Dev Malik proposes that Navarro copied the full score after the rehearsals from a working manuscript that is now lost, thereby preserving the 1894 revisions.
No surviving document directly connects the musical details in the full score to those in the lost working manuscript.

The student wants to evaluate specifically Malik’s claim about the source from which the surviving score was copied, acknowledging both the claim’s plausibility and its uncertainty. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

For rhetorical synthesis questions, translate the stated goal into exact requirements before comparing the choices. Here, the response must address a specific source claim, explain why that claim is plausible, and preserve the uncertainty created by missing evidence. Distinguish what the notes establish directly from what a researcher has inferred.

Hints

Hint 1
Focus on the source claim
Separate the claim that the finale was revised from the more specific claim about which manuscript served as the source for the surviving score.
Hint 2
Distinguish two dates
Consider the difference between when musical changes may have been developed and when they were written onto the surviving paper.
Hint 3
Look for a balanced evaluation
Choose an option that identifies circumstantial support for Malik’s proposal while also recognizing the missing documentary link.

Step-by-step

Step 1
Identify the precise claim
Malik is not merely claiming that Navarro revised the finale. He is proposing that she later copied the surviving score specifically from a lost rehearsal manuscript.
Step 2
Find the evidence supporting plausibility
The full score is in Navarro’s handwriting, and its paper dates from after the rehearsals. These facts are consistent with the possibility that she produced a later copy of earlier material.
Step 3
Identify the evidentiary limitation
No surviving document connects the full score’s musical details directly to the lost manuscript. Therefore, the proposed source remains possible but unconfirmed, as choice C accurately explains.

Question 98·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas

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