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Zorluk: Çok zorSelecting Concluding Sentences and Transitions

In the early eighteenth century, navigating the open seas remained a perilous endeavor. While sailors could easily determine their latitude by measuring the angle of the sun or stars relative to the horizon, determining longitude was an unresolved challenge. Without an accurate way to calculate east-west position, ships frequently drifted off course, leading to disastrous shipwrecks. The British Parliament, desperate for a solution, passed the Longitude Act of 17141714, offering a massive cash prize to anyone who could develop a method to determine longitude within half a degree. Most prominent scientists of the era believed the answer lay in the stars, advocating for complex astronomical calculations that required clear night skies. [1]

John Harrison, a self-taught English clockmaker, rejected this celestial approach. Instead, he proposed a mechanical solution: a highly precise clock called a marine chronometer that could keep accurate time at sea despite the motion of the ship and changes in temperature.

Which choice, placed at [1], best concludes the first paragraph and transitions to the second paragraph?

  1. A
    Astronomers dominated the scientific panels, they dismissed any mechanical proposals as mere toys.
  2. This celestial bias, however, did not prevent other innovators from seeking ground-based solutions.Cevap
  3. C
    While astronomers will dominate the advisory panels, a few craftsmen quietly began working on mechanical alternatives.
  4. D
    The Board of Longitude met regularly at the Royal Observatory, which had been founded in Greenwich in 16751675 to map the night sky.

Cevap

The correct option is the sentence stating that the celestial bias did not prevent other innovators from seeking ground-based solutions.
The correct choice successfully sums up the first paragraph's focus on the astronomical approach ('celestial bias') while setting up the contrast ('however') and introducing the alternative ('ground-based solutions') that leads directly to John Harrison's clock in the following paragraph. It is grammatically correct and maintains the established past-tense narrative.

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1
Analyze the role of the target sentence.
The target sentence must conclude the first paragraph (focusing on the astronomical bias for solving the longitude problem) and transition to the second paragraph (focusing on John Harrison, a clockmaker who proposed a mechanical solution).
Concluding sentences must tie back to the main thesis without introducing unsupported details, while transition sentences must bridge adjacent paragraphs.
2
Evaluate the transition logic of the correct option.
The phrase 'This celestial bias' sums up the astronomical focus of the first paragraph, and 'seeking ground-based solutions' directly introduces Harrison's clockmaking method in the second paragraph.
This establishes a clear, logical, and coherent transition between the two distinct approaches to solving longitude.
3
Identify grammatical errors in the distractors.
One option contains a comma splice; another contains an incorrect shift to the future tense; the third introduces irrelevant historical details.
ACT English tests both rhetorical skills (transitions) and grammatical conventions simultaneously.

Anahtar Kavram

Selecting Concluding Sentences and Transitions
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Konular

Selecting Concluding Sentences and Transitions

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