A question about two texts tests how you use one writer’s view to answer another’s claim. Read the question to find who answers whom, then sum up each study’s findings and conclusion. Ask whether the responding writer would reject, qualify, or extend the claim: call it unsupported, accept it only in part, or take it further. Check the writer’s own reason, because a choice can take the right view but explain it with something the text never says.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with Rao’s conclusion in Text 1. Separate what her surveys found from what she recommends.
- Hint 2
Read Kim’s final sentence for the reason behind his view. How would that reason affect his response to Rao’s conclusion?
Step-by-step
Judge Rao’s conclusion from Kim’s view
Step 1Find the claim Kim must answer
Rao’s study covers the first six months of a UBI program, which matters because the question asks how Kim would judge her conclusion. What does she claim from those surveys? She treats lower stress, skill-building, and more frequent job applications as evidence that UBI promotes labor-market participation and should therefore be expanded nationwide. Rao bases a broad recommendation on early results.
- Step 2
Find Kim’s view and reason
What happens when Kim follows a cash-transfer program for longer? Alaska residents worked slightly more at first, but within three years their average hours fell below the pre-dividend level. Since cash transfers can yield short-term gains, he doesn’t have to deny Rao’s survey findings. But he would qualify Rao’s conclusion, meaning accept it only in part, because those early gains don’t show whether increased participation will continue.
- Step 3
Match the response to Kim’s reason
Kim says cash transfers must be evaluated over a longer horizon, so his response needs to address what Rao’s short study can’t show. The claim that UBI permanently increases both earnings and employment ignores his later drop in work hours, and only to high-income regions adds a limit he never mentions. The phrase regardless of duration also rules out the early gains he allows. The advice to test whether UBI’s labor-market gains last asks for evidence beyond her six-month study, which deals directly with Kim’s concern. Choice D.