A transition question with a writer answering criticism tests how the sentence after the blank connects to the writer’s point. Cover the choices and shrink the sentences around the blank to a few words each. Then ask whether the second sentence supports the first, gives its result, pushes against it, or places events in time. Swap in each choice’s plain meaning and ask whether it tells the truth about that link, rather than relying on sound.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the sentence beginning “Some reviewers” and the sentence after the blank. Shrink each to one claim so you can see what the transition has to connect.
- Hint 2
The final sentence talks about process and purpose instead of naming spectroscopy or the murals. What is the job of that general point in the writer’s response to the reviewers?
Step-by-step
Shrink the claims, then test the link
Step 1Find the point being defended
Read Shah’s position depends on the claims addressing different questions. What point does the writer make about the reviewers’ criticism? Shah’s claims can stand together because they answer separate questions, so the transition must link that defense to the final sentence.
- Step 2
Translate process and purpose
Spectroscopy can explain pigment changes but cannot show whether she intended the works to acquire their muted colors. How does the final sentence describe that split? It calls how the colors changed the process that produced an effect, and whether Velez wanted that change the purpose behind that effect. Evidence of the process doesn’t prove the purpose.
- Step 3
Trace the reasoning
What does that general rule do for Shah’s particular claims? It explains why we can accept spectroscopy’s findings without assuming Velez wanted the fading. The final sentence supports Shah’s point by giving a reason. Accordingly means as a result, which would wrongly make the general rule follow from Shah’s claims. For that matter means here’s another related point, but this sentence backs the defense already made.
- Step 4
Test the remaining meanings
At the same time means while that is happening or despite that, but the final sentence neither says when something happens nor pushes against Shah’s point. Which phrase introduces a reason instead? After all means here’s a reason to accept the previous point, so it uses the difference between process and purpose to support Shah’s defense. Choice C.