Question 99·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas

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While researching legislative procedures, a student has taken the following notes:

Before 2018, committee chairs in the state legislature could decide whether bills assigned to their committees received hearings.
A 2018 rules amendment allowed a majority of a committee's members to sign a calendar petition; once the required number of signatures was reached, the committee had to hold a hearing within ten legislative days.
The amendment neither required a favorable committee recommendation nor guaranteed that the full chamber would debate the bill.
From 2019 through 2022, legislators began gathering signatures for calendar petitions fourteen times; in eleven cases, the chair scheduled a hearing before the required number of signatures was reached, ending the petition effort.
Political scientist Amara Okafor argues that the amendment's principal influence may be anticipatory: the possibility of losing control over the committee calendar can prompt a chair to negotiate or schedule a hearing even when no petition is completed.

The student wants to explain how the data support Okafor's claim while accurately distinguishing the amendment's formal power from its broader strategic influence. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Break the rhetorical goal into separate requirements, then compare each option against all of them. Here, the response must state the amendment's limited formal power, interpret the timing of the hearings as relevant to anticipatory influence, and avoid either conflating early action with formal activation or overstating supportive evidence as conclusive proof.

Hints

Hint 1
Separate mechanism from outcome
Determine when the petition's formal requirement took effect and whether an earlier hearing would count as formal activation.
Hint 2
Assess the timing
Consider how action taken before the signature threshold might relate to a claim about anticipatory influence.
Hint 3
Calibrate the conclusion
Distinguish evidence that supports a possible explanation from evidence that conclusively establishes causation.

Step-by-step

Step 1
Identify the formal power
A completed calendar petition could require a committee hearing. It could not require a favorable recommendation or debate by the full chamber.
Step 2
Interpret the timing
In eleven of fourteen signature drives, a chair scheduled a hearing before supporters obtained enough signatures to activate the petition's formal requirement.
Step 3
Evaluate what the pattern supports
Because the chairs acted before formal activation, the pattern is consistent with Okafor's claim that the possibility of losing calendar control could influence them. However, the data support this interpretation without proving that the amendment caused every scheduling decision.
Step 4
Preserve the formal-strategic distinction
The best choice distinguishes a petition's formal ability to require a hearing from its possible strategic influence before the signature threshold was reached.

Question 99·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Expression of Ideas

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