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Question

Difficulty: MediumMeeting Specific Rhetorical Goals

Passage Excerpt:
In 1945, engineer Percy Spencer was working on active radar sets when he noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had suddenly melted. Intrigued by this phenomenon, Spencer decided to investigate the heating effect of magnetrons. He placed various foods near the radar equipment, including popping corn, which quickly began to pop and scatter across the lab. [X] Realizing that microwave energy could cook food rapidly, Spencer and his employer, Raytheon, filed a patent for the first commercial microwave oven.

The writer wants to add a sentence at point [X] to emphasize that the food Spencer tested became increasingly complex as his experiments progressed. Given that all the choices are true, which choice best accomplishes this goal?

  1. A
    Realizing the potential of this technology, Spencer decided to test a few other household items to see how they reacted to the radiation.
  2. B
    The popcorn experiment was so successful that his colleagues in the lab gathered around to watch the kernels pop.
  3. Next, he graduated from simple kernels to a raw egg in its shell, observing how the waves cooked the yolk and whites from the inside out until the shell exploded.Answer
  4. D
    He then tested a raw egg in its shell, the egg quickly exploded under the pressure of the heat.

Answer

The option that describes graduating from simple kernels to a raw egg in its shell is correct because it directly addresses the rhetorical goal of showing a progression in complexity by moving from simple popcorn kernels to a raw egg, while maintaining proper grammar and past-tense consistency with the rest of the passage.
The option that describes graduating from simple kernels to a raw egg in its shell is correct because it directly addresses the rhetorical goal of showing a progression in complexity by moving from simple popcorn kernels to a raw egg, while maintaining proper grammar and past-tense consistency with the rest of the passage.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the rhetorical goal specified in the prompt, which is to emphasize that the food Spencer tested became increasingly complex as his experiments progressed.
Identify that the correct sentence must explicitly show a transition from a simple food item to a more complex food item.
This establishes the criteria needed to evaluate each of the answer choices.
2
Evaluate the choices to see which ones are grammatically correct and consistent with the passage's tense.
Eliminate the choice containing a comma splice ('He then tested a raw egg...').
ACT English requires all sentences to be grammatically correct, even if they appear to meet the rhetorical goal.
3
Evaluate the remaining grammatically correct choices against the specific rhetorical goal.
Select the choice starting with 'Next, he graduated...' because it compares popcorn kernels to a raw egg with distinct parts (yolk and whites), showing a clear progression in complexity.
This choice is the only one that successfully meets the rhetorical requirement of indicating increasingly complex food items.

Key Concept

Meeting Specific Rhetorical Goals
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Topics

Meeting Specific Rhetorical Goals

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