A question about a study tests what you can conclude from its results. Start by naming the groups or places being compared and what changed in each one. Because several measures may tell different stories, track each measure separately rather than treating every change as the same result. Then predict the smallest conclusion the results support, keeping the comparison within what the study measured. Wrong choices can sound reasonable while adding a cause or outcome that the study never tested.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the places and groups measured in each finding. Which results describe interior streets, perimeter avenues, or residents?
- Hint 2
Compare the two traffic percentages with their locations attached. What relationship between the changes can you state from those measurements alone?
Step-by-step
Compare the measured changes
Step 1Put each percentage with its place
The sensors compare interior streets with perimeter avenues, so which change belongs to each? Counts fell 42 percent inside and rose 8 percent around the edge: the directions of change were opposite. The blank asks us to draw a conclusion from these findings.
- Step 2
Limit what the percentages can show
How much can we conclude from a 42 percent drop and an 8 percent rise? The decrease is much larger in percentage terms, but the percentages start from different streets’ original traffic counts. Those counts aren't given, so subtracting the percentages wouldn't give us an overall traffic change. The choice with overall traffic volume essentially unchanged goes past the text: the study doesn't give a total traffic count or say where the displaced cars went.
- Step 3
Test the injury and shopping claims
Do the injury and shopping results support the other claims? Injuries showed no significant change on bordering avenues, so safety on perimeter avenues deteriorates enough isn't supported. The survey says residents living inside a superblock reported more frequent shopping, but it didn't measure how many shop visits came from outsiders. So driven largely by shoppers from outside gives a cause the survey didn't test: residents’ habits don't show which shoppers brought in the most business.
- Step 4
Check what the traffic claim says
Read without causing a comparable surge carefully: it doesn't mean perimeter traffic never increased. The choice allows the perimeter rise rather than denying it. Its claim about traffic within their boundaries also covers only the streets that were measured, so the sentence doesn't need a total traffic count the passage doesn't give. Choice A.