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Difficulty: MediumSupporting Claims with Evidence and Details

The following sentences are from a draft of an essay about ancient maritime navigation. To ensure that the paragraph logically builds its claim that navigators could locate islands using ocean swells, what is the most logical order for these sentences?

  1. 1Ancient Polynesian navigators relied on the behavior of ocean swells as a primary tool to detect the presence of distant, unseen islands.
  2. 2When open-ocean swells strike an island, they are disrupted, reflecting off the shore and refracting around the landmass to create complex wave interference patterns.
  3. 3Navigators trained themselves to sense these subtle deviations in water movement, sometimes even lying down inside the canoe's hull to isolate the vibrations of intersecting swells.
  4. 4By interpreting these distinct directional shifts in the waves, wayfinders could accurately determine the exact bearing of an island hours before it became visible.

Answer

The correct sequence of sentences starts with the claim about Polynesian navigators, followed by the explanation of wave interference patterns, then the method of sensing these deviations, and finally the successful navigational outcome.
The paragraph flows logically from a broad claim to specific physical evidence, followed by the wayfinders' detection method, and finally the successful navigational result. The logical progression is reinforced by cohesive references: the wave interference patterns in the second sentence are referenced as 'these subtle deviations' in the third, which are then summarized as 'these distinct directional shifts' in the final sentence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the topic sentence that establishes the main claim.
The sentence introducing the navigators' reliance on ocean swells to detect distant islands must be placed first.
It sets the context and states the central claim that the rest of the paragraph supports.
2
Find the explanation for the claim's physical mechanism.
The sentence explaining how islands disrupt open-ocean swells to create wave interference patterns should be placed second.
It provides the scientific basis of the claim and introduces the concept of wave disruption.
3
Connect the detection method to the physical mechanism using pronoun cues.
The sentence describing how navigators sensed 'these subtle deviations' must be placed third.
The demonstrative pronoun 'these subtle deviations' directly refers to the wave interference patterns introduced in the second sentence.
4
Determine the concluding sentence that shows the result of this method.
The sentence stating that wayfinders could determine an island's bearing by interpreting 'these distinct directional shifts' must be placed last.
It summarizes the outcome of the navigation technique and uses the phrase 'these distinct directional shifts' to refer back to the physical sensations described in the third sentence.

Key Concept

Supporting Claims with Evidence and Details
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Topics

Supporting Claims with Evidence and Details

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