Expression of Ideas

The following passage is about the socioeconomic effects of the Black Death in medieval Europe. Complete the passage by entering the transition word or phrase that most logically connects the ideas. Which transition word or phrase best completes the passage?

While preparing a presentation on marine ecology, a student takes the following notes:
* Marine biologist Elena Vance investigated the diet of green sea turtles (*Chelonia mydas*) in the Mediterranean Sea.
* Green sea turtles are known to consume both seagrasses and small marine animals.
* Vance analyzed chemical markers in the turtles' shells to determine their primary food source.
* High levels of the marker carbon-13 indicate a diet consisting mainly of the seagrass *Posidonia oceanica*.
* The analysis of the turtles' shells revealed very high levels of carbon-13 and no markers associated with marine animals.

The student wants to use information from the notes to support the claim that the turtles in the study eat seagrass rather than marine animals. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

While researching ancient cities buried by volcanic eruptions, a student took the following notes:
* Pompeii is an ancient Roman city located in modern-day Italy.
* It was buried under volcanic ash during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.
* Joya de Cerén is an ancient Maya farming community located in modern-day El Salvador.
* It was buried under volcanic ash during the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano in approximately 600 CE.

The student wants to contrast the geographical locations of the two sites. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

While researching early photographic processes, a student took the following notes:
* Introduced in 1839, the daguerreotype process creates a highly detailed image directly on a polished, silver-coated copper plate.
* Because daguerreotypes do not use a negative, each image is a unique, non-reproducible artifact.
* Introduced in 1841, the calotype process involves exposing paper sensitized with silver iodide to create a negative.
* The calotype negative allows for the creation of multiple paper positive prints, though it lacks the sharp clarity of the daguerreotype.

The student wants to contrast the reproducibility of the daguerreotype and the calotype. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

In cognitive linguistics, the conceptual metaphor theory posits that abstract domains are systematically structured in terms of concrete source domains; for instance, people frequently conceptualize the passage of time as physical movement through space. ______ researchers have observed that social hierarchy is represented using vertical spatial orientation, with higher status mapped to upward positions and lower status mapped to downward positions.

Which choice completes the passage with the most logical transition?

The following sentences describe the historical scientific process of determining the structure and function of DNA. Arrange the sentences in the correct chronological and logical order to form a coherent paragraph.

While preparing a presentation on marine ecology, a student takes the following notes:
* Dr. Elena Vance and her team studied juvenile blue crab survival in Chesapeake Bay.
* They compared crab populations in low-density and high-density seagrass habitats.
* The survival rate of juvenile blue crabs was 15% in low-density seagrass and 60% in high-density seagrass.
* Striped bass, a major predator of blue crabs, were found in equal numbers in both types of seagrass habitats.
* High-density seagrass provides dense physical cover that makes it difficult for striped bass to locate and capture juvenile blue crabs.

The student wants to support the claim that higher seagrass density increases juvenile blue crab survival by hindering predators' ability to hunt them. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to support this claim?

For decades, epigraphers studying Mayan hieroglyphs adhered to the view of Sir Eric Thompson, who argued that the script was purely ideographic rather than phonetic. Because of Thompson's immense influence, researchers were widely discouraged from pursuing phonetic analyses of the glyphs. _______ Soviet linguist Yuri Knorozov published a seminal paper in 1952 proposing that the writing system was logo-syllabic, combining logograms with phonetic signs.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

For centuries, farmers in the Andes mountains cultivated hundreds of varieties of potatoes to ensure crop survival in unpredictable weather. ______ modern industrial agriculture focuses on just a few uniform varieties optimized for high yield, making potato crops far more vulnerable to disease outbreaks.

Which choice completes the passage with the most logical transition?

In the nineteenth century, structural engineers favored wrought iron for its high tensile strength, which allowed it to support heavy loads. ______ they valued the material's resistance to corrosion, which ensured the longevity of exposed bridges.

Which choice completes the passage with the most logical transition?

While researching bioluminescent insects, a student took the following notes:

* *Photinus pyralis* is a North American firefly species that flashes to attract mates.
* The light-producing reaction in *Photinus pyralis* is ATP-dependent, requiring the enzyme luciferase.
* *Arachnocampa luminosa* is a cave-dwelling gnat species endemic to New Zealand.
* The larvae of *Arachnocampa luminosa* glow continuously to lure prey into sticky webs.
* The bioluminescent pathway in *Arachnocampa luminosa* is ATP-independent and utilizes a novel luciferase enzyme.

The student wants to contrast both the biological purposes and the biochemical mechanisms of bioluminescence in the two species. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

The following passage describes early twentieth-century Swedish architecture. Fill in the blank with a transition word or phrase that best establishes a relationship of similarity between the work of Ragnar Östberg and Carl Westman.

During the mid-twentieth century, urban planner Jane Jacobs argued that active street life promotes neighborhood safety by ensuring natural surveillance, or 'eyes on the street.' Jacobs observed that streets with mixed-use zoning attract continuous pedestrian traffic throughout the day. These busy public spaces, ________, experience lower rates of crime, as the persistent presence of observers deters illicit behavior.

Which choice completes the passage with the most logical transition?

While preparing a presentation on space exploration, a student took the following notes:
* Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are robotic space probes launched by NASA in 1977.
* Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977, to study the outer Solar System.
* Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977, also to study the outer Solar System.
* Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012.
* Voyager 2 entered interstellar space in 2018.

The student wants to contrast when Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 entered interstellar space. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

While preparing a presentation on medieval economic history, a student takes the following notes:
* Economic historian Dr. Aris Thorne investigated the economic impact of paving roads in medieval England between 1200 and 1350 CE.
* He compared towns that paved their main access roads with towns that kept unpaved dirt roads.
* Towns with newly paved roads saw a 25% increase in market tax receipts, which Thorne used as a measure of trade volume.
* Towns with unpaved roads showed no change in market tax receipts during the study period.
* Critics suggest that a general increase in regional population, rather than the paved roads, caused the trade volume growth.
* Thorne's data revealed that both groups of towns experienced the same rate of regional population growth.

The student wants to present Thorne's study and support the claim that the paving of roads, rather than general population growth, drove the increase in local trade volume. Which choice most effectively uses information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

In 1912, meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift, suggesting that Earth's continents were once joined in a single landmass. Because he could not identify a mechanism for how the continents moved, his ideas were widely dismissed. ______ in the 1950s, researcher Marie Tharp mapped the ocean floor using sonar data, revealing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and providing the crucial evidence of seafloor spreading. This discovery validated Wegener's concepts, cementing the modern theory of plate tectonics.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

While preparing a presentation on Maya archaeology, a student takes the following notes:
- Tatiana Proskouriakoff was an art historian and archaeologist who studied Maya hieroglyphic writing.
- Before her research in the 1960s, most scholars believed Maya hieroglyphs depicted only calendar dates and astronomical events.
- Proskouriakoff analyzed sequences of dates carved on monuments at the site of Piedras Negras.
- She demonstrated that the span between the earliest and latest dates on a single monument never exceeded a human lifespan.
- Based on this finding, she argued that the hieroglyphs recorded the historical biographies of Maya rulers rather than astronomical events.

The student wants to support the claim that Proskouriakoff’s work changed how archaeologists understood the primary function of Maya hieroglyphs. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given notes to accomplish this goal?

While preparing a presentation on plate tectonics, a student took the following notes:
* Ophiolites are fragments of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that have been uplifted and exposed on land.
* These geological structures are typically preserved within continental mountain ranges, such as the Alps or the Himalayas.
* The term "ophiolite" was first introduced by French mineralogist Alexandre Brongniart in 1813.
* Geologists study ophiolites because they offer a rare opportunity to examine the deep oceanic lithosphere without drilling.

The student wants to introduce ophiolites and define what they are. Which choice uses information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

In many preindustrial agrarian communities, informal cooperative labor networks, such as barn raisings or communal harvests, reinforced social cohesion by distributing the intensive physical burdens of large-scale projects across the neighborhood. ______ the mutual aid societies that emerged in early industrial cities served to buffer migrant workers against systemic economic precarity by pooling financial resources to cover medical emergencies and funeral expenses.

Which choice completes the passage with the most logical transition?

While preparing a presentation on indigenous language preservation, a student takes the following notes:
* The Haida language is an indigenous language traditionally spoken in Haida Gwaii, Canada.
* In $2018$, linguist Dr. Clara Sterling began documenting fluent speakers to create a digital dictionary.
* The project recorded audio of over $1{}500$ unique Haida words spoken by elder community members.
* In $2021$, the digital dictionary was launched online, offering free pronunciation guides and English translations.
* Following the launch, the number of active Haida language learners among local youth increased by $40\%$.

The student wants to support the claim that the digital dictionary project successfully helped increase interest in learning the Haida language. Which choice best uses information from the notes to support this claim?