A transition question at the end of a discussion tests how the last sentence connects to the reasoning before it. Cover the choices and shrink the sentences around the blank to a few words each. Look back at earlier claims if those sentences refer to them. Then name how the sentences connect: does the last sentence add a point, follow from a reason, contrast with a point, or place events in time? Smooth wording alone doesn't prove a link is right.
Hints
- Hint 1
Shrink the last two sentences. What does each say about how the studies should be compared?
- Hint 2
Look for how much clock time and sunrise-relative time differed in each study. Use the recording periods and sunrise changes to compare them.
- Hint 3
What role does the difference between the studies play in the writer’s final view of the findings?
Step-by-step
Compare the timing gaps
Step 1Shrink the final link
The sentence before the blank points to different degrees of divergence between clock time and sunrise-relative time. What does the final sentence do? It describes the findings as identifying a condition under which clock-time sampling is dependable, rather than as conflicting. This transition needs to show how that difference connects to the writer’s final view.
- Step 2
Compare what the studies tested
How large were those gaps in each study? The first covered three weeks, with sunrise times differing by no more than 12 minutes, and changing the time scale barely affected the estimates. The year-long study had seasonal shifts in sunrise, so recordings at fixed clock times sampled different parts of dawn singing, which changed the estimated trends. Small timing gaps and larger seasonal gaps gave different results.
- Step 3
Name how the sentences connect
Do these different results have to be incompatible? A finding from three weeks doesn't have to describe a whole year. Clock-time sampling can work with close alignment with sunrise and become unreliable when that alignment changes, so both findings can hold. The timing difference supports the conclusion: the different timing gaps explain why the findings needn't conflict.
- Step 4
Test the transition meanings
For example introduces a case, and In addition adds another point; neither draws a conclusion from a reason. Nevertheless means despite that, but the timing difference supports the conclusion rather than working against it. Accordingly means as a result, so it shows the conclusion follows from the studies’ different timing gaps. Choice C.