SAT Reading & Writing · Transitions

The new water treatment facility was designed to handle the city's projected population growth for the next thirty years. ______,…

The new water treatment facility was designed to handle the city's projected population growth for the next thirty years. ______, unexpectedly rapid development in the surrounding suburbs pushed the facility close to capacity within just eight years.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Answer and explanation

Answer: C: Yet,

The second sentence describes an outcome sharply at odds with the thirty-year design horizon named in the first sentence, reaching capacity in a small fraction of that projected time. Yet signals precisely that kind of unexpected contrast. Accordingly would frame the rapid strain as a logical consequence of the design itself, which reverses the relationship. Similarly would suggest the two sentences align, but a thirty-year plan and an eight-year capacity crunch are in tension, not agreement. Specifically would frame the second sentence as a detailed elaboration of the first, not a contradiction of its premise.

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