SAT Reading & Writing · Rhetorical Synthesis
A student has researched Helicobacter pylori and compiled the following notes: - H. pylori is a bacterium that colonizes the lining of the…
A student has researched Helicobacter pylori and compiled the following notes:
- H. pylori is a bacterium that colonizes the lining of the stomach.
- Infection with H. pylori is a major cause of peptic ulcers.
- Researchers Barry Marshall and Robin Warren helped overturn the earlier medical view that stress and stomach acid alone explained most ulcers.
- Treating the infection with antibiotics substantially reduces the recurrence of ulcers.
- Not every person infected with H. pylori develops an ulcer.
- H. pylori infection is also associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer.
The student wants to describe how scientific understanding of ulcers changed over time. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- H. pylori is a bacterium that colonizes the lining of the stomach.
- Infection with H. pylori is a major cause of peptic ulcers.
- Researchers Barry Marshall and Robin Warren helped overturn the earlier medical view that stress and stomach acid alone explained most ulcers.
- Treating the infection with antibiotics substantially reduces the recurrence of ulcers.
- Not every person infected with H. pylori develops an ulcer.
- H. pylori infection is also associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer.
The student wants to describe how scientific understanding of ulcers changed over time. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D: Marshall and Warren's research helped overturn the earlier view that stress and stomach acid alone explained most ulcers, establishing H. pylori infection as a major underlying cause instead.
The goal specifically asks for a story of changing understanding over time, which requires naming both the old view and what replaced it. D is the only choice built around that before-and-after structure. A states a fact about H. pylori without any reference to a prior, different understanding it replaced. C and B each describe a true detail, treatment or cancer risk, but neither touches the history of how scientific understanding shifted.
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