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Difficulty: HardFulfilling Specific Rhetorical and Writing Goals

For decades, the scientific community believed the ocean floor was a featureless, flat expanse. In the early 1950s, geologist Marie Tharp began drafting detailed, hand-drawn maps of the Atlantic Ocean's bathymetry using sonar data collected by her colleague, Bruce Heezen. Because women were not permitted on research ships at the time, Tharp analyzed the data in her office, meticulously plotting the coordinates. [1] In doing so, she discovered a massive, continuous V-shaped valley running down the center of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This discovery provided crucial evidence supporting the theory of continental drift, which was highly controversial at the time.

The writer wants to insert a sentence at Point [1] that emphasizes the tedious and painstaking nature of Tharp’s work before she made her groundbreaking discovery. Which choice most effectively accomplishes this goal?

  1. A
    Although she spent years converting raw soundings from paper rolls into precise profiles of the seabed, which was a repetitive task.
  2. B
    She spent years converting raw soundings from paper rolls into precise profiles of the seabed, this repetitive task eventually revealed a pattern.
  3. She spent years converting raw soundings from paper rolls into precise profiles of the seabed; eventually, this repetitive task revealed a pattern.Answer
  4. D
    Because she spent years converting raw soundings from paper rolls into precise profiles of the seabed; this repetitive task eventually revealed a pattern.

Answer

She spent years converting raw soundings from paper rolls into precise profiles of the seabed; eventually, this repetitive task revealed a pattern.
The correct option is grammatically correct and successfully highlights the painstaking effort by mentioning the years of manual work and the repetitive nature of the task.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the prompt's rhetorical goal.
The goal is to emphasize the tedious and painstaking nature of Tharp’s work before her discovery.
This establishes the criteria for evaluating the choices based on their content.
2
Eliminate options that contain grammatical errors.
The option starting with 'Although' is a fragment. The option using only a comma between two independent clauses is a comma splice. The option starting with 'Because' followed by a semicolon is a semicolon fragment error.
ACT English requires all sentences to be grammatically correct, even if they fulfill the rhetorical goal.
3
Verify that the remaining option fulfills the rhetorical goal.
The option using a semicolon correctly connects two independent clauses and describes the long, repetitive process of converting sonar data, which emphasizes the tedious work.
The correct option must be both grammatically sound and rhetorically aligned with the prompt's request.

Key Concept

Fulfilling specific rhetorical goals while maintaining sentence structure and grammatical correctness
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Topics

Fulfilling Specific Rhetorical and Writing Goals

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