A transition question with phrase choices tests how ideas connect and what each phrase refers to. Cover the choices and shrink both sides of the blank to their main points. Ask how the ideas connect: does the second idea continue, follow from, or turn against the first, or mark time? Then find what a phrase points back to; it must name an earlier idea and describe its link to what follows. Wrong phrases can name the right idea but give it the wrong link.
Hints
- Hint 1
Shrink the administrators' interpretation and the later finding. What does each say about researchers' engagement with the collection?
- Hint 2
Look for which manuscripts received the new citations. Read what happened to both the well-known manuscripts and the less familiar works.
- Hint 3
Compare the later finding with the administrators' interpretation. What relationship must the transition express between them?
Step-by-step
Shrink and test the link
Step 1Separate the fact from the claim
The opening reports that the digitized works were cited in scholarly publications more often, but the administrators go further: they say digitization had broadened researchers' engagement with the collection. Which earlier idea must the transition link to the later analysis? We're linking the claim of broader engagement to the finding, not only the fact that citations increased.
- Step 2
Read where the increase happened
Where did those new citations go? Almost all referred to a small group of manuscripts that had already been well known, while citation rates for less familiar works remained nearly unchanged. Shrink the finding to: extra attention went to already familiar works. A larger citation total doesn't by itself show broader engagement, because the total can grow while attention stays on the same small group. The later analysis questions what the increase means, not whether it happened.
- Step 3
Cross out the wrong links
The later finding limits the administrators' broad claim. Confirming the breadth of that interpretation supports that claim, so it doesn't fit the later finding. Drawing a parallel with another archive needs a second archive, while Extending that pattern beyond the collection needs findings from outside this collection. The analysis provides neither; it tracks citations within the same library.
- Step 4
Check the meaning and reference
Qualifying means adding a limit to a claim. What does that conclusion point back to? It refers to the administrators' claim about broader engagement, so Qualifying that conclusion, says the later finding limits that claim without denying the citation increase. Choice D.