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Expression of Ideas / Rhetorical Synthesis Difficulty: Hard

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

British scholar Robert Plot described fossilized dinosaur bones in his 1676 book The Natural History of Oxfordshire.
Plot earned a reputation for being the first person to have discovered dinosaur remains.
In 1990, archaeologists in Lesotho, in southern Africa, discovered a fossilized phalanx of a Massospondylus carinatus dinosaur in a cave once inhabited by humans.
Indigenous Khoesan and Basotho peoples had inhabited the cave beginning around 1100 CE.
According to paleontologist Julien Benoit, these peoples may have found the phalanx and brought it to the cave centuries before Plot’s descriptions.

The student wants to emphasize the significance of the 1990 discovery to Plot’s reputation. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Benoit challenged Plot’s reputation for being the first person to have discovered M. carinatus remains.

Evidence that Khoesan and Basotho peoples may have found an M. carinatus phalanx as long ago as 1100 CE suggests that Plot may not have been the first person to have discovered dinosaur remains.

According to Benoit’s analysis of the 1990 discovery, Indigenous peoples in southern Africa may have brought the fossilized phalanx to the cave as long ago as 1100 CE.

In 1990, more than three centuries after Plot claimed in his book that he had found fossilized dinosaur bones, archaeologists uncovered evidence in southern Africa that disproved his claims.

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Explanation

Choice B is the best answer. Noting that the evidence suggests Indigenous peoples may have found dinosaur remains in 1100 CE, the sentence emphasizes how the 1990 discovery challenged Plot’s reputation as the first person to discover dinosaur remains.

Choice A is incorrect. While the sentence does emphasize that Benoit challenged Plot’s reputation, it misrepresents information in the notes; Plot was reputed to be the first person to discover dinosaur remains in general, not the first person to discover M. carinatus remains specifically. Choice C is incorrect. The sentence only partially explains the significance of the 1990 discovery, noting that it suggests Indigenous people brought dinosaur remains to the cave in 1100 CE; it doesn’t explain the discovery’s significance to Plot’s reputation. Choice D is incorrect. While the sentence does emphasize that the discovery challenged Plot’s reputation, it misrepresents information in the notes. The notes don’t indicate that the 1990 discovery cast any doubt on Plot’s claims to have found fossilized dinosaur bones; rather, the discovery challenged Plot’s reputation for being the first to discover dinosaur bones.