A question about two texts tests how one author would respond to another’s claim. Read the question to find who answers whom and the underlined claim they’re answering. Then put each text’s point in a few words, including its reason. Ask whether the author would reject the claim, add a limit to it, or extend it to a new case. Check the author’s own reason, because a choice can take the right view for a reason the text never gives.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with the claim the question points to in Text 1. How many separate claims do those underlined words make?
- Hint 2
Connect Text 2’s criticisms to the underlined claim. Which part of the claim would each missing piece of evidence help test?
Step-by-step
Test the claim against Text 2
Step 1Separate cause from being best
Text 1 uses a measured noise drop to call sugar maples an unmatched solution to highway noise pollution. What is Text 2’s author being asked to judge? It’s the underlined claim: sugar maples caused the drop and work better than every other solution. We need to test both parts against Text 2.
- Step 2
Check what could have caused the drop
What else could have made the highway quieter? Text 2 says researchers didn’t measure wind patterns or traffic‐volume changes that could explain the reduction in noise. The sound levels fell after trees were planted, but those other changes could have caused the drop. Since the study didn’t check them, it hasn’t shown that the trees caused the reduction.
- Step 3
Test whether sugar maples are best
Being best calls for a different test: how did other trees perform? The researchers didn’t compare sugar maples with other equally dense tree species, so the study can’t show that sugar maples work better than those trees. Text 2’s author rejects the claim as unsupported, not to prove that sugar maples have no effect on noise.
- Step 4
Match the response to the author’s reasons
Which response sticks to the author’s reasons? Too expensive, long-term health, and probably temporary add concerns that Text 2 doesn’t raise. The response about alternative explanations and comparisons to other trees answers both parts of the underlined claim using Text 2’s own objections. Choice D.