Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumSupporting Claims with Evidence and Details

Passage

[1] In the early twentieth century, agricultural chemist George Washington Carver revolutionized Southern farming methods by promoting the cultivation of peanuts. [2] He argued that planting peanuts would restore nitrogen to soil depleted by decades of continuous cotton cultivation. [3] To convince skeptical farmers to adopt this new crop, Carver developed and publicized a wide variety of practical applications for the peanut. [4] His efforts successfully transformed the agricultural economy of the South.

Given that all the choices are true, which one provides the most specific and concrete examples of the peanut-based applications Carver developed?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. more than three hundred peanut-based products, including cooking oils, cosmetics, and wood stains.Answer
  3. C
    hundreds of peanut products; which ranged from soaps and paints to various food items.
  4. D
    dozens of items, he created these products in his laboratory to show their usefulness.

Answer

The correct choice is the option that replaces the underlined text with 'more than three hundred peanut-based products, including cooking oils, cosmetics, and wood stains.'
The correct option provides specific, named examples of Carver's products (cooking oils, cosmetics, and wood stains), which directly satisfies the prompt's request for concrete details. It is also grammatically correct.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the prompt's specific rhetorical goal.
The prompt requires selecting the choice that provides the most specific and concrete examples of the peanut-based applications Carver developed.
Identifying the target goal ensures that the chosen option directly answers the question rather than just being grammatically correct.
2
Evaluate the choices for specificity and concreteness.
The option listing 'cooking oils, cosmetics, and wood stains' provides clear, concrete examples, whereas the original phrasing and other choices remain vague or general.
Comparing details allows us to determine which choice contains the highest level of descriptive specificity.
3
Verify the grammatical correctness of the selected choice.
The option containing the specific examples integrates smoothly and grammatically into the sentence, whereas other choices introduce punctuation errors like comma splices or semicolon errors.
ACT English questions require that the correct rhetorical choice must also be grammatically correct.

Key Concept

Supporting claims with specific evidence and details
Rate this question

Topics

Supporting Claims with Evidence and Details

More questions from this topic