An inference question with several records tests whether you can combine clues without claiming too much. Read the words leading into the blank, then put each record's clue in a few words. Ask what each record shows directly, and separate facts from possibilities wherever the evidence leaves room for doubt. With the choices covered, predict the smallest conclusion the clues support. Wrong endings can claim more than the records show, even when they reuse the text's words.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the ledger and the letter alongside the opening claim. What does each tell you about who did the work?
- Hint 2
In the letter, separate what Moreno supplied from what she asked Ward to decide.
- Hint 3
How does the task Moreno assigned Ward relate to the proposal's most innovative element? Ask how much that link lets you conclude.
Step-by-step
Trace who contributed what
Step 1Test the claim about Moreno
The proposal was attributed entirely to engineer Lila Moreno because it echoed her lecture. What does Taken together, this evidence suggests that ask us to do with that claim? We need the newer records too, because borrowed words don't show who did all the design work.
- Step 2
Link Ward's task to the new feature
What does Moreno's letter assign to each person? She supplied several dimensions that later appeared in the proposal, so her measurements reached the design. But she told Ward to decide how the awnings should be joined, and the proposal's key new feature is its system of interlocking awning joints. That makes Ward a possible source of the key new feature, rather than only someone who copied a finished plan.
- Step 3
Limit what the ledger proves
The ledger records payment for copying stall plans and says the proposal arrived three weeks after Moreno left the country. Does this settle who designed or wrote the whole proposal? Copying doesn't prove that Ward created every design idea, and the date the plans arrived doesn't tell us when they were written. Keep the conclusion limited: both people helped, but Ward's exact design work isn't proved.
- Step 4
Match the ending to the evidence
The phrase may have designed keeps Ward's design role uncertain. Being asked to decide how the awnings should be joined supports that possibility without proving he created the joints. This ending also uses contributed specifications and helped prepare, which match the dimensions Moreno sent and Ward's paid copying, so it accounts for both people's work. Choice D.