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Expression of Ideas / Rhetorical Synthesis Difficulty: Medium

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

A lever is a simple machine consisting of a rigid beam and a fulcrum.
The fulcrum is the point about which the beam pivots.
The input force (effort) is the force applied to the lever.
The output force (load) is the force that the lever exerts on another object.
In first-class levers, the fulcrum is located between the effort and the load.
In second-class levers, the load is located between the effort and the fulcrum.

The student wants to contrast first-class levers and second-class levers. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

In levers, the effort is the force applied to the lever; the load, in contrast, is the force that the lever exerts on another object.

In first-class and second-class levers, the fulcrum and the load are in different locations.

First-class levers are simple machines consisting of a rigid beam and a fulcrum, but then again, the same is true of second-class levers.

In first-class levers, the fulcrum is located between the effort and the load, but in second-class levers, the load is located between the effort and the fulcrum.

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Explanation

Choice D is the best answer. The sentence contrasts first-class levers and second-class levers, explaining that the fulcrum in a first-class lever is between the effort and the load, whereas in a second-class lever the load is between the effort and the fulcrum.

Choice A is incorrect. The sentence defines two terms associated with levers; it doesn’t contrast first-class levers and second-class levers. Choice B is incorrect. While the sentence seems to acknowledge a general difference in fulcrum and load locations between first-class and second-class levers, it does not specify what this difference is. Moreover, the sentence could be read as emphasizing a similarity—that in both types of levers, the fulcrum and load are in different locations. The sentence thus fails to effectively contrast the two types of levers. Choice C is incorrect. The sentence describes a similarity between first-class and second-class levers; it doesn’t contrast them.