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Verbal·Expression of Ideas·Rhetorical Synthesis

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

• The Peloncillo Mountains are a mountain range located in the southwestern United States.
• The range is one of the dozens of “sky islands” in the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico.
• A sky island is an isolated mountain range whose environment differs drastically from that of the surrounding lowlands.
• The US Forest Service (USFS) said, “The mountains are ‘islands’ surrounded by deserts that are ‘seas.’”
• The USFS said, “Each Sky Island is a unique ecosystem.”

The student wants to provide an example of a sky island. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A

In the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico, there are dozens of sky islands: isolated mountain ranges whose environments differ drastically from that of the surrounding lowlands.

B

Sky islands are isolated mountain ranges whose environments differ drastically from that of the surrounding lowlands; as the USFS puts it, “the mountains are ‘islands’ surrounded by deserts that are ‘seas.’”

C

There are dozens of sky islands in the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico, such as the Peloncillo Mountains.

D

The USFS considers each of the sky islands, whose environments differ drastically from that of the surrounding lowlands, to be a “unique ecosystem.”