Identify rhetorical moves (claim, evidence, concession, counterpoint) in short passages.
核心知识
A rhetorical move is the role a sentence plays in persuasion — claim (the point), evidence (the proof), concession (granting something to the other side), or counterpoint (the opposing view) — and the SAT expects you to label them precisely.
深入理解
Short SAT passages pack several rhetorical moves into just a few sentences. The most common pattern: claim → evidence → concession or counterpoint → response. Recognizing these moves is like seeing the skeleton of an argument.
The trickiest move to spot is the concession. A concession is when the author briefly grants that an opposing point has some merit — "While it's true that X..." or "Granted, Y is a valid concern" — before pivoting back to their main argument. Students often mistake concessions for the author's own position, which leads to picking the wrong answer.
To practice: read a passage and label each sentence as C (claim), E (evidence), CO (concession), or CP (counterpoint). If you can do that quickly, the rhetorical-moves question becomes a matching exercise.
示例解析
Some urban planners advocate replacing street parking with protected bike lanes, arguing that cycling infrastructure reduces traffic congestion and carbon emissions. Opponents counter that eliminating parking harms local businesses dependent on drive-in customers. While short-term revenue dips have been documented in some cases, longitudinal studies from cities like Copenhagen and Bogotá show that bike-friendly streets ultimately increase foot traffic and retail sales.
Which choice best describes the rhetorical structure of the text?
选择一个答案查看解析