A question about two texts tests how one text’s view relates to the other’s argument. Read the question to see which text’s view you’re judging against the other. Then separate each claim from its evidence, putting both texts in a few words. Ask whether the second text accepts the claim, limits it, or challenges it, and check the reason for that view. A choice can name the right relationship but give a reason neither text supports.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the planners’ claim and their reason in Text 1. What connection do they draw between adding bikes and downtown traffic?
- Hint 2
In Text 2, trace how new bike-share users traveled before. How does that finding help you judge the planners’ claim about cars?
Step-by-step
Compare the claims, then test the reason
Step 1Find the planners’ claim and reason
Text 1 calls bike-share expansion the most effective way to reduce automobile congestion, and we’re judging how Text 2 treats that claim. What supports it? The planners say that when cities add bikes and docks, the number of cars on downtown roads reliably declines. They take that pattern as evidence that adding bikes reduces car traffic.
- Step 2
Use the riders’ earlier travel to find Text 2’s view
Where did the new bike-share trips come from? Delgado finds that most came not from former drivers but from former public-transit riders and pedestrians. A person who switches from a bus or walking to a bike isn’t taking a car off the road, so a rise in bike trips doesn’t by itself show a drop in car use. Text 2 rejects the planners’ conclusion as unsupported, but it doesn’t reject bike-share’s health and recreational benefits.
- Step 3
Check the reason and strength
Which choice fits Delgado’s conclusion that the data do not support the claim? Specifying which kinds adds a difference she never describes, and supports Text 1 turns her conclusion around. The choice about expertise invents a dispute about planners and analysts. The choice that challenges Text 1 says the link is weaker than the planners suggest, which fits Delgado’s doubt about the evidence without claiming that bike-share can never reduce driving. Choice D.