A transition question tests how ideas connect, even when the sentence after the blank has two parts. Cover the choices and shrink the sentences to what each says. Read through the semicolon, and ask how each part relates to the earlier claim. Then name how the ideas connect: whether the next idea adds to, follows from, or pushes against that claim. Test each transition’s plain meaning, because a word that sounds smooth can still describe the wrong link.
Hints
- Hint 1
Shrink the sentence before the blank and the clause right after it. What does each say about the estimates?
- Hint 2
Read both sides of the semicolon. Why does the writer include the final clause rather than stop after saying that the estimates can be tested?
- Hint 3
Work out which point the writer ends up defending. How does the ability to test the estimates fit into that thought?
Step-by-step
Shrink the claims, then follow the turn
Step 1Shrink the earlier claims
Some researchers call the images recovered versions of the original pages, yet the tools estimate missing pixels partly from patterns found in other documents. Let’s shrink those ideas: researchers call the images recoveries, but some details are estimates from elsewhere. The transition needs to carry that concern into the next sentence: filling gaps isn’t the same as seeing the original marks.
- Step 2
Read the admission and the limit
What does the clause right after the blank do? The estimates can be tested against visible traces and results produced by other tools, so researchers can check them. After the semicolon, though, they remain interpretations rather than direct observations of the damaged page. Testing gives the estimates some support, but it doesn’t erase the earlier concern. The writer uses this turn to concede, or admit a point before returning to the limit.
- Step 3
Test the other links
Which meanings go the wrong way? By contrast sets different things apart, but estimating and checking don’t oppose each other here. Accordingly means as a result of that, yet the text doesn’t say patterns found in other documents make testing possible. Moreover means in addition, which adds a point in the same direction. Since the estimates can be tested, they have support that the writer admits before stating their limit again.
- Step 4
Try the meaning in place
What word means I admit this is true? Granted does, so it presents the fact that the estimates can be tested as an admitted strength while leaving the final limit in place. Choice C.