A question about two texts tests whether you can connect one writer’s claim to another writer’s response. Read the question to find who answers whom, then sum up each text’s claim and reason. Does the responding writer reject the claim, qualify it by adding a limit, or extend it to a new case? Check the reason as well as the view, because a choice can take the right side for a reason the writer never gives.
Hints
- Hint 1
Find the officials’ claim and the result they use to support it. The question asks for the sociologists’ response to that claim.
- Hint 2
Look for what happened before and during the garden study in Text 2. How does that timeline affect what the officials can conclude from the reported drop?
Step-by-step
Compare the claim and its support
Step 1Find the officials’ claim and its basis
The question names the sociologists in Text 2 as the people answering, so let’s judge the officials’ claim from their view. What led the officials to call gardens a cost-effective way to reduce crime? Vandalism and burglary fell by nearly 30 percent over the next two years after a garden opened. The officials reason that crime fell after planting, so planting helped cause the drop.
- Step 2
Test whether the gardens caused the drop
Do the sociologists accept that reason for crediting gardens? Crime had already been declining for four consecutive years before any gardens were planted, so gardens can’t explain why the decline began. The sociologists also point to increased police foot patrols during the study period, which could explain the continued fall. That makes their response a challenge to the evidence: even if crime fell after planting, the timing alone doesn’t show what caused the fall. The officials call gardens cost-effective because they assume gardens improve safety. But the report hasn’t shown that gardens caused the drop in crime.
- Step 3
Match the reason and its strength
Which response uses the sociologists’ own reason? The choice about other factors that may better account points to possible causes besides the gardens, which answers their challenge to the officials’ reasoning. Its word may fits a more plausible explanation, so it suggests another cause without treating that cause as proven. Choice D.