SAT Reading: 'Which Choice Best Describes the Function of the Underlined Sentence?' (Steam vs Water Mills)

Exact Passage & Question Stem

For decades, historians attributed the rapid urbanization of early nineteenth-century Britain almost entirely to the widespread adoption of James Watt’s steam engine, which freed textile mills from their geographic dependence on fast-flowing waterways. Under this narrative, steam power functioned as an exogenous catalyst that single-handedly reorganized human labor into dense factory towns. <u>However, economic historian Gregory Clark has documented that water mills not only remained substantially cheaper to operate than steam engines well into the 1830s but also continued to power the majority of British manufacturing output during the peak years of urban migration.</u> Consequently, recent scholarship has shifted toward multi-causal models, emphasizing demographic pressures, legal reforms in agricultural tenancy, and institutional changes in wage labor alongside mechanical innovations.

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Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

- A) It introduces empirical evidence that challenges the explanatory adequacy of a traditionally accepted historical narrative.

- B) It details the technical and financial limitations that caused British industrialists to abandon steam technology in the 1830s.

- C) It reconciles two conflicting interpretations of early nineteenth-century British industrial development.

- D) It establishes the foundational theoretical framework upon which the remainder of the passage’s argument relies.

Rhetorical Analysis

• Sentence 1–2: Traditional view (steam engine caused urbanization single-handedly).
• Underlined Sentence (Sentence 3): Starts with "However" and provides Clark's empirical data. Job = Introduce empirical counter-evidence.
• Correct Answer: A