A question about two texts tests how one author would respond to another author’s claim. Read the question to find who answers whom and the exact claim being answered. Then put each text’s claim and reason into a few words, so you can predict whether the responding author accepts the claim, rejects it, or adds a limit. Check why, not only whether they agree, because a disagreement still needs that author’s own support.
Hints
- Hint 1
The question names Chen as the person responding. Find the exact change Torres says has occurred, rather than summarizing everything he says about city falcons.
- Hint 2
Look for Chen’s evidence and her own explanation in Text 2. How does her feather-mass finding affect Torres’s claim, and what does she say explains the falcons’ success?
Step-by-step
Find the stance, then check the reason
Step 1Find who answers whom
Start with how would Chen most likely respond, which tells us to use Chen’s view in Text 2. What is she answering? Torres says urban falcons have developed noticeably thicker plumage, so we’re judging her response to that claimed change.
- Step 2
Name Chen’s stance
Does Chen accept the change Torres describes? She disputes the view that any anatomical change has occurred and points to studies showing no significant difference in feather mass between urban and rural birds. Her stance, or view of Torres’s claim, is to reject it: she denies the proposed change.
- Step 3
Test each response against her evidence
What do these findings let us rule out? The choice calling thicker plumage necessary accepts the change Chen denies, while damages rather than thickens adds feather damage neither text describes. The claim that rural birds actually possess thicker plumage goes beyond no significant difference: that result doesn’t show that either group has more feather mass. A disagreement still needs Chen’s reason, so we can’t replace Torres’s claim with an unsupported one.
- Step 4
Match Chen’s own explanation
What does Chen give as the reason the falcons thrive? She points to the density of prey species such as pigeons and an abundance of tall ledges suitable for nesting. The choice naming plentiful prey and nesting sites gives both parts of Chen’s explanation for the birds’ success. Choice B.