Question 118·Easy·Cross-Text Connections
Text 1
City planners in Riverton wanted to estimate how much cooling the city’s street trees provide in summer. For a quick assessment, they measured trunk diameters and assumed that bigger trunks meant older trees and more shade. In their summary, they wrote that trunk diameter reliably reveals age across species, allowing them to rank trees by age without cutting them.
Text 2
In a commentary, a forest ecologist cautions that growth rates differ widely among species and with soil, water, and crowding. Fast-growing species can develop thick trunks while still young, and stressed older trees may have modest diameters. The ecologist argues that trunk diameter alone is a poor indicator of age and recommends using ring counts or other data when precision is needed.
Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 2 most likely say about the interpretation presented in the bolded portion of Text 1?
For cross-text connection questions, identify the exact claim in one text (here, the bolded sentence in Text 1), then determine whether the other text would support, refute, or qualify it. Choose the option that matches both the stance (agree/disagree) and the specific reasoning given in the second text, and eliminate choices that introduce new topics (like canopies, measurement error, or dismissing all street-tree data).
Hints
Focus on the bolded claim in Text 1
First, restate in your own words what Text 1 is claiming in the bolded sentence about trunk diameter and age.
Find how Text 2 views that same idea
Look in Text 2 for what the ecologist says about using trunk diameter as a way to tell a tree’s age. Is it described as a strong method, a weak method, or something else?
Connect the reason in Text 2 to the answer choices
What specific reason does the ecologist give for being cautious about using trunk diameter—what is said about species and growing conditions? Eliminate any choices that do not use that reasoning.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the key claim in the bolded part of Text 1
The bolded portion of Text 1 says that “trunk diameter reliably reveals age across species,” and the planners use this to rank trees by age without cutting them. So Text 1 is claiming trunk diameter is a reliable way to determine age across different species.
Summarize the main point of Text 2 about trunk diameter
Text 2 cautions that growth rates differ widely among species and with soil, water, and crowding. It notes that fast-growing species can have thick trunks while still young, and stressed older trees may have modest diameters. It concludes that trunk diameter alone is a poor indicator of age and recommends using ring counts or other data when precision is needed.
Determine Text 2’s response to Text 1’s claim
Since Text 2 says trunk diameter alone is a poor indicator of age (because growth varies by species and conditions), the author of Text 2 would disagree with the claim that trunk diameter reliably reveals age across species.
Select the answer choice that matches Text 2’s critique
The best choice is the one stating that trunk diameter alone is not a reliable indicator of age because growth differs by species and conditions: “Trunk diameter alone doesn’t reliably show age because growth differs by species and conditions.”