Question 120·Medium·Cross-Text Connections

0 / 166

Text 1
Urban sociologist Marco Leto argues that many city tree-planting campaigns falter because residents favor immediate conveniences—such as curbside parking and unobstructed storefronts—over long-term canopy goals. He claims that projects planned largely by outside groups often overlook these neighborhood priorities, so plantings rarely receive the sustained care they require.

Text 2
Community organizer Sana Idris contends that residents’ priorities are not inherently opposed to urban tree-planting. In neighborhoods where she has worked, projects improved when neighbors co-designed the plans—identifying shade needs near bus stops and playgrounds and choosing smaller species that preserved parking—and when block captains coordinated watering schedules. In her view, the main obstacle is not resident preference but the lack of genuine involvement and tailored planning.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to Leto’s claim in Text 1 that residents’ preferences make tree-planting campaigns unsustainable?

A question about two texts tests whether you can work out how one author would respond to the other’s claim. Read the question to find who answers whom and the exact claim being answered. Put each author’s claim and reason in a few words, then name the stance: reject the claim, say it’s true only in part, or apply it to another case. Check that the response uses the answering author’s own reason, because agreement or disagreement alone isn’t enough.

Hints

Hint 1
The question asks Idris to answer Leto’s claim about residents’ preferences. Find her claim and the reason behind it in Text 2.
Hint 2
What does Idris identify as the cause of the problem in her final sentence, and how do the tree choices and watering schedules support her view?

Step-by-step

Connect the claim to Idris’s evidence
Step 1
Pin down Leto’s claim
Leto says residents favor immediate conveniences, such as parking, over future tree cover. Which claim is Idris being asked to answer? It’s the link between residents’ preferences and poor long-term care, which Leto describes as plantings rarely receive the sustained care they require. The question asks for Idris’s response to that link, not a general opinion about trees or city planning.
Step 2
Find Idris’s reason in her examples
What do Idris’s examples show about that link? By choosing smaller species that preserved parking, neighbors gained trees without losing a convenience they valued. When block captains coordinated watering schedules, residents also organized the care those trees needed. Residents’ preferences can be met while trees receive care, so those preferences don’t have to cause campaigns to fail. Idris names the lack of genuine involvement and tailored planning as the main obstacle, which shifts the problem from what residents want to how projects are planned.
Step 3
Match the stance, reason, and strength
Idris would reject the blame placed on residents’ preferences. Does the response give her own reason, rather than only disagreeing with Leto? The response beginning Involving residents in planning explains how neighbors’ involvement can address their needs and improve care. Idris reports that projects improved when neighbors co-designed the plans, which supports can rather than a promise that every campaign will succeed. Choice A.

Lessons that teach this

SAT Reading: Craft and StructureAdvancedCoreText 1 and Text 2: how would one author respond?

Question 120·Medium·Cross-Text Connections

Strategy

Hints

Step-by-step

Lessons that teach this

Study Hints

Strategy

Hints

Step-by-step

Lessons that teach this