SAT Question 114bbce6: Answer & Explanation

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

• Earthquakes start at a point called a “focus” and spread out from there as seismic waves.
• The two types of seismic waves that travel beneath Earth’s surface are primary waves (P waves) and secondary waves (S waves).
• P waves travel more quickly beneath Earth’s surface than do S waves.
• P waves compress and expand the ground, causing it to move backward and forward.
• S waves cause the ground to move from side to side.

Difficulty:Medium

The student wants to emphasize a similarity between P waves and S waves. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

P waves and S waves both travel beneath Earth’s surface, causing the ground to move.

P waves travel away from an earthquake’s starting point at a higher rate of speed than do S waves.

Spreading out from the focus of an earthquake, P waves move the ground backward and forward.

Although P waves and S waves start at the same point, they behave very differently.

SAT Question 114bbce6: Rhetorical Synthesis answer and explanation

Explanation

Why the other choices are wrong