Expression of IdeasEasyRhetorical synthesis: emphasizing a similarity
Expression of Ideas practice question
While researching pollinators, a student has taken the following notes:
• Honeybees live together in large colonies.
• Honeybees make honey and store it in combs made of wax.
• Mason bees live alone rather than in colonies.
• Mason bees build nests inside hollow plant stems, sealing them with mud.
• Both honeybees and mason bees pollinate fruit trees.
The student wants to emphasize a similarity between honeybees and mason bees. Which choice best uses the notes to accomplish this goal?
- A. Honeybees make honey, which they store in combs made of wax.
- B. Both honeybees and mason bees pollinate fruit trees, though honeybees live in large colonies and mason bees live alone.Correct
- C. Unlike honeybees, which live together in large colonies, mason bees live alone.
- D. Mason bees build their nests inside hollow plant stems, sealing the nests with mud.
Answer: B. Both honeybees and mason bees pollinate fruit trees, though honeybees live in large colonies and mason bees live alone.
B is correct because it states a trait the two kinds of bees share—pollinating fruit trees—and explicitly frames it as something "both" bees do, which fulfills the goal of emphasizing a similarity. A encodes the error of selecting an accurate but irrelevant note about only one bee; no comparison is made at all. C encodes the error of emphasizing a difference (signaled by "Unlike") rather than a similarity. D encodes the same one-animal-only error as A, describing a mason bee behavior that honeybees do not share.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Honeybees make honey, which they store in combs made of wax.
- This is an accurate note, but it describes only honeybees and makes no comparison at all, so it can't emphasize a shared trait.
- C. Unlike honeybees, which live together in large colonies, mason bees live alone.
- The word 'Unlike' signals a difference — living in colonies versus alone — but the goal is to emphasize a similarity.
- D. Mason bees build their nests inside hollow plant stems, sealing the nests with mud.
- This describes a mason bee behavior that honeybees don't share, so it names a distinguishing trait rather than a similarity.
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