These questions ask how two sources relate: whether one supports, extends, or challenges the other, or what both of them assume. Identify the claim and the evidence in each text before comparing them.
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1Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1 argues that neighborhood trees can lower summer surface temperatures. Text 2 reports that tree-canopy projects are most effective when local residents help choose planting locations. How would the authors of Text 2 most likely respond to Text 1?Text 1 argues that neighborhood trees can lower summer surface temperatures. Text 2 reports that tree-canopy projects are most effective when local residents help choose planting locations. How would the authors of Text 2 most likely respond to Text 1?
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Answer: They would agree with the benefit and add a condition for effective projects.They would agree with the benefit and add a condition for effective projects.
Text 2 does not dispute the cooling benefit. It adds guidance about involving residents when deciding where projects should occur.Text 2 does not dispute the cooling benefit. It adds guidance about involving residents when deciding where projects should occur.
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2Relationships between textsStandard
A historian writes that photographs can reveal details about daily life that official records omit. An archivist replies that photographs still require context because captions and dates can be incomplete. The archivist's response mainlyA historian writes that photographs can reveal details about daily life that official records omit. An archivist replies that photographs still require context because captions and dates can be incomplete. The archivist's response mainly
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Answer: qualifies the historian's point by identifying a limit.qualifies the historian's point by identifying a limit.
The archivist accepts that photographs can be informative while explaining why they must be interpreted carefully. That is a qualification, not a rejection.The archivist accepts that photographs can be informative while explaining why they must be interpreted carefully. That is a qualification, not a rejection.
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3Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1 reports that offering free transit passes raised ridership in one mid-sized city. Text 2 notes that in a second city, free passes raised ridership only on routes where buses already ran at least every fifteen minutes. How does Text 2 relate to Text 1?Text 1 reports that offering free transit passes raised ridership in one mid-sized city. Text 2 notes that in a second city, free passes raised ridership only on routes where buses already ran at least every fifteen minutes. How does Text 2 relate to Text 1?
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Answer: It identifies a condition that may limit when Text 1's result holds.It identifies a condition that may limit when Text 1's result holds.
Text 2 does not deny the effect; it reports that the effect appeared only where service was frequent, which narrows the conditions under which Text 1's result applies.Text 2 does not deny the effect; it reports that the effect appeared only where service was frequent, which narrows the conditions under which Text 1's result applies.
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4Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1 argues that handwritten notes aid recall because writing is slower and forces a student to summarize. Text 2 reports that students who typed their notes but were instructed to summarize rather than transcribe recalled as much as students who wrote by hand. What does Text 2 most strongly imply about Text 1?Text 1 argues that handwritten notes aid recall because writing is slower and forces a student to summarize. Text 2 reports that students who typed their notes but were instructed to summarize rather than transcribe recalled as much as students who wrote by hand. What does Text 2 most strongly imply about Text 1?
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Answer: The benefit Text 1 attributes to handwriting may come instead from summarizing.The benefit Text 1 attributes to handwriting may come instead from summarizing.
Text 2 holds summarizing constant across both methods and finds equal recall, which points to summarizing rather than the writing method as the active ingredient. It does not claim typing is superior or that recall is unaffected.Text 2 holds summarizing constant across both methods and finds equal recall, which points to summarizing rather than the writing method as the active ingredient. It does not claim typing is superior or that recall is unaffected.
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5Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1 argues that museums should display objects with minimal labelling so visitors look closely. Text 2 reports that visitors given no contextual information spent less time with objects, not more. Text 2 primarilyText 1 argues that museums should display objects with minimal labelling so visitors look closely. Text 2 reports that visitors given no contextual information spent less time with objects, not more. Text 2 primarily
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Answer: offers evidence against the mechanism Text 1 relies on.offers evidence against the mechanism Text 1 relies on.
Text 1 assumes that less labelling produces closer looking; Text 2 reports the opposite outcome, which undercuts the mechanism rather than supporting or restating it.Text 1 assumes that less labelling produces closer looking; Text 2 reports the opposite outcome, which undercuts the mechanism rather than supporting or restating it.
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6Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1 argues that free museum entry increases the range of people who visit. Text 2 reports that after entry charges were removed at one museum, total visits rose sharply while the mix of ZIP codes represented was unchanged. Text 2 primarilyText 1 argues that free museum entry increases the range of people who visit. Text 2 reports that after entry charges were removed at one museum, total visits rose sharply while the mix of ZIP codes represented was unchanged. Text 2 primarily
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Answer: challenges the specific benefit Text 1 claims while confirming a different one.challenges the specific benefit Text 1 claims while confirming a different one.
Text 1's claim is about range, and Text 2 reports range unchanged while volume rose. It therefore undercuts the stated benefit and supports a different one, rather than confirming or restating.Text 1's claim is about range, and Text 2 reports range unchanged while volume rose. It therefore undercuts the stated benefit and supports a different one, rather than confirming or restating.
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7Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1 argues that shorter opening hours would save a museum money without reducing visits, since most arrive at midday. Text 2 reports that at a comparable museum, cutting the first opening hour reduced total visits by 4 percent, mostly among people arriving before work. Text 2 primarilyText 1 argues that shorter opening hours would save a museum money without reducing visits, since most arrive at midday. Text 2 reports that at a comparable museum, cutting the first opening hour reduced total visits by 4 percent, mostly among people arriving before work. Text 2 primarily
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Answer: identifies a group Text 1's reasoning leaves out.identifies a group Text 1's reasoning leaves out.
Text 1 reasons from where most visitors are; Text 2 shows the minority at the edges is not zero. That is an omission, not a confirmation or a call to extend hours.Text 1 reasons from where most visitors are; Text 2 shows the minority at the edges is not zero. That is an omission, not a confirmation or a call to extend hours.
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8Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1 argues that naming a street after a person is the cheapest form of public memorial. Text 2 reports that renaming a street costs residents and businesses an average of $400 each in changed documents and signage. Text 2 primarilyText 1 argues that naming a street after a person is the cheapest form of public memorial. Text 2 reports that renaming a street costs residents and businesses an average of $400 each in changed documents and signage. Text 2 primarily
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Answer: shifts where the cost falls rather than denying that one exists.shifts where the cost falls rather than denying that one exists.
Text 1 measures cost to the authority; Text 2 measures cost to residents. The disagreement is about whose cost counts, not about whether renaming is cheap in the abstract.Text 1 measures cost to the authority; Text 2 measures cost to residents. The disagreement is about whose cost counts, not about whether renaming is cheap in the abstract.
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9Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1: The mechanical reaper, introduced in the 1840s, cut the labor needed to harvest an acre of wheat by roughly four-fifths.Text 2: Machines did not empty the countryside on their own. Where new work appeared, in dairying or market gardening, populations held; where it did not, they fell. The reaper made leaving possible, and something else made it necessary.How does Text 2 use the claim made in Text 1?Text 1: The mechanical reaper, introduced in the 1840s, cut the labor needed to harvest an acre of wheat by roughly four-fifths.
Text 2: Machines did not empty the countryside on their own. Where new work appeared, in dairying or market gardening, populations held; where it did not, they fell. The reaper made leaving possible, and something else made it necessary.
How does Text 2 use the claim made in Text 1?
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Answer: It accepts the labor saving and argues that it was not by itself enough to cause depopulation.It accepts the labor saving and argues that it was not by itself enough to cause depopulation.
Text 2 never questions the figure; it says the reaper "made leaving possible" and then looks for what made it necessary. That is a claim about sufficiency, which is compatible with the reaper mattering a great deal.Text 2 never questions the figure; it says the reaper "made leaving possible" and then looks for what made it necessary. That is a claim about sufficiency, which is compatible with the reaper mattering a great deal.
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10Relationships between textsStandard
Text 1: Handwriting is disappearing from schools, and with it a motor skill that research links to letter recognition in young children.Text 2: The studies here are about children first learning letters, aged four to six. Extending them to a fifteen-year-old typing an essay is a leap the evidence does not license.How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?Text 1: Handwriting is disappearing from schools, and with it a motor skill that research links to letter recognition in young children.
Text 2: The studies here are about children first learning letters, aged four to six. Extending them to a fifteen-year-old typing an essay is a leap the evidence does not license.
How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?
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Answer: By accepting the finding and disputing the ages it is being applied to.By accepting the finding and disputing the ages it is being applied to.
Text 2 describes what the studies are about without questioning what they found, then objects to the range over which the finding is being stretched. It offers no new study and makes no comparison of the two skills.Text 2 describes what the studies are about without questioning what they found, then objects to the range over which the finding is being stretched. It offers no new study and makes no comparison of the two skills.
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11Relationships between textsChallenge
Text 1: Rewilding a river means removing what constrains it — weirs, straightened banks, dredged channels. Left alone, a river rebuilds the meanders and gravel beds that fish spawn in.Text 2: A river straightened for two centuries no longer has the sediment supply it once had, and the gravel it needs now arrives largely from quarrying upstream. Removing the constraints is necessary. On its own it returns a river to a condition its catchment can no longer sustain.How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?Text 1: Rewilding a river means removing what constrains it — weirs, straightened banks, dredged channels. Left alone, a river rebuilds the meanders and gravel beds that fish spawn in.
Text 2: A river straightened for two centuries no longer has the sediment supply it once had, and the gravel it needs now arrives largely from quarrying upstream. Removing the constraints is necessary. On its own it returns a river to a condition its catchment can no longer sustain.
How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?
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Answer: By agreeing that the constraints should go while denying that their removal is enough on its own.By agreeing that the constraints should go while denying that their removal is enough on its own.
Text 2 calls removal "necessary" and then says it is not sufficient, which is agreement plus a limit rather than rejection. The quarrying is mentioned as the current source of gravel, not as something to end.Text 2 calls removal "necessary" and then says it is not sufficient, which is agreement plus a limit rather than rejection. The quarrying is mentioned as the current source of gravel, not as something to end.
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12Relationships between textsChallenge
Text 1: Every language studied closely turns out to have some way of marking that the speaker did not witness what they are reporting.Text 2: The generalisation rests on the phrase "some way of marking". English has no grammatical evidential, and the words it uses instead — apparently, reportedly, I gather — are optional in a way a grammatical marker is not. Stretch the category far enough and the claim stops being one that evidence could contradict.The objection in Text 2 is best described asText 1: Every language studied closely turns out to have some way of marking that the speaker did not witness what they are reporting.
Text 2: The generalisation rests on the phrase "some way of marking". English has no grammatical evidential, and the words it uses instead — apparently, reportedly, I gather — are optional in a way a grammatical marker is not. Stretch the category far enough and the claim stops being one that evidence could contradict.
The objection in Text 2 is best described as
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Answer: a challenge to how broadly the key term has been defined.a challenge to how broadly the key term has been defined.
Text 2 quotes the phrase it is objecting to and says that widening it far enough makes the claim untestable. It explicitly grants that English has words for the job, so it is not denying the practice, and it does not rank the two devices.Text 2 quotes the phrase it is objecting to and says that widening it far enough makes the claim untestable. It explicitly grants that English has words for the job, so it is not denying the practice, and it does not rank the two devices.
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13Relationships between textsChallenge
Text 1: Open-plan offices were sold on collaboration. The measured result was the opposite: face-to-face interaction fell by about 70 percent when two firms moved to open plan, and email rose.Text 2: Both firms moved during the same eighteen months in which the whole sector shifted to messaging. Attributing the fall to the floor plan needs a comparison group that kept its walls, and neither study had one.The objection in Text 2 is best described asText 1: Open-plan offices were sold on collaboration. The measured result was the opposite: face-to-face interaction fell by about 70 percent when two firms moved to open plan, and email rose.
Text 2: Both firms moved during the same eighteen months in which the whole sector shifted to messaging. Attributing the fall to the floor plan needs a comparison group that kept its walls, and neither study had one.
The objection in Text 2 is best described as
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Answer: a challenge to whether the floor plan caused the change.a challenge to whether the floor plan caused the change.
Text 2 accepts the measurement and names a rival explanation that moved at the same time, then says the study cannot separate them. It does not claim open plan works, and it takes no view on which medium is better.Text 2 accepts the measurement and names a rival explanation that moved at the same time, then says the study cannot separate them. It does not claim open plan works, and it takes no view on which medium is better.
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14Relationships between textsChallenge
Text 1: Wikipedia's accuracy on scientific topics has repeatedly matched that of traditional encyclopaedias in blind comparisons.Text 2: Those comparisons sample the articles a researcher would think to check — established topics with many editors. The articles where errors persist are the ones nobody is watching, and by construction they are not in the sample.How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?Text 1: Wikipedia's accuracy on scientific topics has repeatedly matched that of traditional encyclopaedias in blind comparisons.
Text 2: Those comparisons sample the articles a researcher would think to check — established topics with many editors. The articles where errors persist are the ones nobody is watching, and by construction they are not in the sample.
How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?
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Answer: By arguing that the comparisons are drawn from an unrepresentative part of the site.By arguing that the comparisons are drawn from an unrepresentative part of the site.
"By construction they are not in the sample" is a claim about how the comparison was assembled, not about what it found. Text 2 grants the results and denies that they generalise."By construction they are not in the sample" is a claim about how the comparison was assembled, not about what it found. Text 2 grants the results and denies that they generalise.
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15Relationships between textsChallenge
Text 1: Cities that introduced a congestion charge saw traffic fall immediately and stay down. The measure works.Text 2: Traffic fell and stayed down in those cities, and it also fell in comparable cities that introduced nothing, over the same years in which fuel prices doubled. What needs explaining is not the fall but the difference between the two groups, and that difference is smaller than the headline.How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?Text 1: Cities that introduced a congestion charge saw traffic fall immediately and stay down. The measure works.
Text 2: Traffic fell and stayed down in those cities, and it also fell in comparable cities that introduced nothing, over the same years in which fuel prices doubled. What needs explaining is not the fall but the difference between the two groups, and that difference is smaller than the headline.
How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?
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Answer: By accepting the fall and disputing how much of it the charge accounts for.By accepting the fall and disputing how much of it the charge accounts for.
Text 2 opens by granting the fall and then names a comparison group that fell too. Its claim is about attribution and size, not about whether traffic dropped.Text 2 opens by granting the fall and then names a comparison group that fell too. Its claim is about attribution and size, not about whether traffic dropped.
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16Relationships between textsChallenge
Text 1: Making a museum's collection searchable online has widened its audience enormously. Objects that were seen by a few hundred people a year are now viewed by hundreds of thousands.Text 2: A view is not an audience. The catalog records that an image loaded, and most of those loads last under four seconds. What has widened is reach; whether it has widened engagement is a question the same data cannot answer.How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?Text 1: Making a museum's collection searchable online has widened its audience enormously. Objects that were seen by a few hundred people a year are now viewed by hundreds of thousands.
Text 2: A view is not an audience. The catalog records that an image loaded, and most of those loads last under four seconds. What has widened is reach; whether it has widened engagement is a question the same data cannot answer.
How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?
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Answer: By arguing that the measure counts something narrower than what is being claimed.By arguing that the measure counts something narrower than what is being claimed.
Text 2 accepts the counts and separates reach from engagement, saying the data settles the first and not the second. It disputes what the figure means, not whether it was recorded.Text 2 accepts the counts and separates reach from engagement, saying the data settles the first and not the second. It disputes what the figure means, not whether it was recorded.
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17Relationships between textsChallenge
Text 1: Digitising a newspaper archive makes it searchable, and searchable archives get used. Citations of the paper have risen tenfold since the scans went online.Text 2: Citations rose because searching is easy, and what is easy to search is what gets cited. The years that were digitised first are cited most, and they are not the years historians previously thought most important.How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?Text 1: Digitising a newspaper archive makes it searchable, and searchable archives get used. Citations of the paper have risen tenfold since the scans went online.
Text 2: Citations rose because searching is easy, and what is easy to search is what gets cited. The years that were digitised first are cited most, and they are not the years historians previously thought most important.
How does Text 2 respond to Text 1?
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Answer: By arguing that the rise reflects what is easy to find rather than what is worth finding.By arguing that the rise reflects what is easy to find rather than what is worth finding.
Text 2 accepts the tenfold rise and observes that it tracks the digitisation order rather than historical importance. It makes no recommendation against digitising and raises no question about scan quality.Text 2 accepts the tenfold rise and observes that it tracks the digitisation order rather than historical importance. It makes no recommendation against digitising and raises no question about scan quality.
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