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Difficulty: HardSelecting Concluding Sentences and Transitions

The following passage is an excerpt from an essay about digital audio preservation.

In the late 1990s, physicist Carl Haber attended a lecture detailing the inevitable decay of historical audio media. Intrigued by the challenge of preserving fragile wax cylinders and shellac discs, Haber realized that the same optical scanning techniques used in subatomic particle physics could be applied to sound. This insight led to the development of IRENE, a non-contact system that uses high-resolution cameras to capture 3D digital images of a record's physical grooves. Specialized software then translates these visual maps back into audio files, completely bypassing the need for a physical needle. By avoiding physical contact with the fragile media, researchers have successfully reconstructed audio from severely damaged cylinders that were once considered unplayable.

The writer wants to conclude the paragraph with a sentence that emphasizes how IRENE's optical technology has rescued historical recordings that were previously thought to be permanently lost. Which choice best accomplishes this goal?

  1. NO CHANGEAnswer
  2. B
    However, the system was expensive to maintain, and many archives will continue to use traditional needles.
  3. C
    Consequently, the non-contact method preserves the physical integrity of the discs, researchers are now listening to voices from the nineteenth century.
  4. D
    On the other hand, the system scans the fragile grooves, which allowed researchers to retrieve audio from broken pieces of shellac.

Answer

The choice that remains unchanged ('NO CHANGE') is the correct answer.
The original sentence ('NO CHANGE') is grammatically correct and directly fulfills the writer's goal. It highlights the retrieval of audio from damaged cylinders (rescuing recordings) that were once considered unplayable (thought to be permanently lost), reinforcing the main theme of the paragraph.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the writer's specific rhetorical goal.
The goal is to select a concluding sentence that emphasizes how IRENE's optical technology has saved historical recordings that were previously considered permanently lost.
Understanding the exact goal helps filter out choices that introduce irrelevant details or fail to address the core prompt.
2
Evaluate the grammatical correctness of each choice.
The option starting with 'Consequently' contains a comma splice, and the option starting with 'On the other hand' contains an inappropriate tense shift from present to past.
Standardized test questions require the correct option to be both rhetorically effective and grammatically correct.
3
Analyze the transitions and logical flow of the remaining choices.
The option starting with 'However' uses a contrasting transition that disrupts the flow and introduces unrelated information about cost. The original sentence maintains a logical flow and directly addresses the prompt.
A good conclusion must tie back to the main thesis without introducing unsupported arguments or using misleading transition words.

Key Concept

Selecting Concluding Sentences and Transitions
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Topics

Selecting Concluding Sentences and Transitions

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