Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
After weathering multiple barren seasons, Nathan was determined to cultivate a fruitful garden. _____ he spent weeks reviewing a variety of online videos and read completely through two different how-to manuals he acquired from the local library.
The correct answer is (C).
current priority level - the Path to 600+ and higher
To arrive at the correct answer, we do not have to see the knockout that is here, but it definitely is a good thing to see. With both “Nevertheless” and “Despite this” falling under the classic TQ umbrella of contrast transitions, it can be thought that neither option is going to end up as the correct answer.
We are squarely on the Path to 550+ without feeling like “In fact” or “To that end” are at our fingertips. That said, if we were going to nudge you toward getting more comfortable with one of those two, it would be “In fact”, we have do have spotlighted. If we were able to confidently eliminate “In fact” here, we could arrive at our answer of (C) by default.
It is not likely that we will encounter “To that end” on many future test days, but maybe seeing it come to life here is enough to put it somewhere firmly on the radar. The “end” is Nathan’s determination “to cultivate a fruitful garden”. What comes after the blank are things Nathan is doing to see “that end” come to fruition.