What the question looks like
Read the question first. It tells you which of two kinds you have.
| The question says | What's on the left |
|---|---|
| “Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis?” (or “claim,” or “conclusion”) | A study that ends in a claim. The choices are possible findings. |
| “Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the underlined claim?” | The same, with the claim underlined |
| “Which quotation from Title most effectively illustrates the claim?” | A claim about a story, poem, or play, and four lines from it |
“If true” means you treat each finding as real and ask what it would show.
In one version, a student's or researcher's claim is matched to quotations from a source such as interviews (“Which quotation from the interviews most effectively illustrates the claim?”). Since you can say what fact the quotation must state, work it like a finding question.
Working through a finding question
Male wrens on one island sing for an hour before sunrise. Biologists long assumed this dawn song attracts mates. But males that already had mates kept singing at dawn all season. Researchers now hypothesize that males sing at dawn to warn rivals away from their territory.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis?
- A. Unmated males sang at dawn more often than mated males did.
- B. Males sang louder at dawn than at any other time of day.
- C. After a recorded rival's song was played at the edge of his territory, a male sang longer at dawn the next morning.
- D. Males with rivals nesting nearby sang at dawn no longer than males with no near neighbors.
- Read the question first. This one asks for support.
- Find the claim. It's usually the last sentence or the underlined words. The first sentence is background, and the mate idea is the older view.
- Split the claim into its parts. Males sing at dawn, and the singing warns rivals away.
- Predict the finding before you look. Say what's measured and which way it has to go. Here a male should sing more at dawn when a rival seems close.
- Cross off what's off target. A backs the mate idea. B never mentions rivals, so it covers only one part.
- Read what's left to the last word. C and D both mention rivals. D says nearby rivals made no difference, so it points the wrong way. In C the singing goes up when a rival seems close, which covers both parts.
On a weaken question, D would be the answer.
Research words
| Word | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| hypothesis | The explanation being tested |
| baseline | The level before a change, used for comparison |
| correlated | Moving together, without showing that one causes the other |
| inverse | One goes up as the other goes down |
| divergence | Two things moving apart over time |
| disparity | A gap between groups |
| discrepancy | A mismatch between figures that should agree |
| indirect effect | An effect that works through something else |
| moderate (an effect) | Make it weaker |
Keep the claim's exact word in your prediction, even if the passage never defines it. How fast a lizard usually walks says nothing about its “sprint speed.” But a choice can say your prediction in other words, like fewer absences for better attendance, so translate before you cross it off.
Pin down the claim
“Male wrens on one island sing for an hour before sunrise. Biologists long assumed this dawn song attracts mates. ... Researchers now hypothesize that males sing at dawn to warn rivals away from their territory.”
Before you read the choices, say which view the question names.
Trap: Support for the other view
“Unmated males sang at dawn more often than mated males did.” It backs the older mate idea.
What to do: Check each choice against the view the question names.
Trap: Support for the background
“Recordings confirmed that the island's males sing for an hour before sunrise.” Everyone in the passage agrees on that.
What to do: Ask whether the hypothesis would be any better off if this were true.
Trap: Familiar words
“Males that held larger territories found mates earlier in the season.” It's built from the passage's words but never mentions the dawn song.
What to do: Say what the choice claims, then ask what that has to do with the hypothesis.
This hypothesis pairs a behavior with its purpose. Others pair an effect with its cause, or an action with the condition it happens under.
What's measured and which way it goes
“Researchers claim that the shade trees planted along Elm Street lowered the street's afternoon temperature.”
Say what has to be measured and which way it has to move. Here that's Elm Street's afternoon temperature, lower with the trees.
Trap: A nearby measure
“After the trees went in, residents said the street felt cooler.” That's how the street feels to people, and the claim is about its temperature.
What to do: Compare the measure in the choice with the one you predicted.
Your prediction doesn't have to say how the result shows up. Cooler readings after the trees went in would work, and so would cooler readings than on a similar bare street.
Trap: Another cause ruled out
“Traffic on Elm Street stayed the same after the trees were planted.” It rules out one other reason for cooling but never shows that the street cooled.
What to do: Look first for a finding that shows the trees cooling the street. Ruling out another cause counts when the claim names it, as in “the trees cooled the street and the new pavement didn't.”
Weaken questions
“Archaeologists claim that the tablets found at the site were carved locally.”
Suppose that claim is underlined and the question asks what would weaken it. Start from what would support it, such as the tablets' stone turning up right beside the site, then flip it. Stone found only in hills two hundred miles away would weaken the claim.
A finding can also weaken a claim by giving another way the result could have happened. If traders were known to carry finished tablets into the region, the tablets could have been carved somewhere else.
Trap: Right topic, wrong direction
“Carving tools as old as the tablets were found at the site.” It's on the right topic, but tools at the site make local carving more likely, so it supports the claim.
What to do: Say the flipped finding first, then check each choice's direction against it.
Claims with “may” or “not”
“The carvings may have served as boundary markers.”
“May,” “might,” “suggests,” and “one likely aim” make a claim a possibility, so the evidence only has to make it more likely.
Match the evidence to how sure the claim is.
- Do this
- Accept a finding that the carvings sit along the edges of known fields.
- Not this
- Reject that finding because it doesn't prove what the carvings were for.
The claim only says “may.” A flat claim that they were markers would need more.
“The drop in the frog population was not caused by the new predator.”
Turn a claim with “not” into something you could observe.
- Do this
- Predict that the frogs began declining before the predator arrived, or declined in ponds it never reached.
- Not this
- Look for facts about the predator itself, like how fast it spread.
To show the predator didn't cause the drop, you need the drop happening without it.
A gap between two groups
“Researchers claim that the new well explains why one village had a lower rate of illness than the other.”
Something both groups share can't explain a difference between them.
- Right
- Only the village with the lower rate drew water from the new well.
- Wrong
- Both villages had the same rainfall that year.
Both villages got the same rain, so rain can't explain why they differ. Only one used the well.
Trap: No difference
“After the well was dug, illness fell by about the same amount in both villages.” It mentions the well and a drop in illness, but an equal drop leaves the gap the same size.
What to do: On a support question, look for a difference between the groups that could explain the gap. On a weaken question, sameness can be the answer. If both villages drew from the new well, the well can't explain the gap.
Read every choice to the end
“Researchers claim that on the dry eastern plains, a new bean variety yields more seed than the old one in unwatered fields.”
Trap: An ending outside the claim
“On the eastern plains, the new variety yielded more seed than the old one, though only in fields that were watered.” It starts right, and then the last words take it outside the claim. The same goes for “In unwatered fields, the new variety outyielded the old one in the wet western valleys.”
What to do: Read to the last word, and check any place, group, or date named there.
Trap: The wrong person
For a claim that a reading program made students more confident: “Teachers in the program said they felt more confident teaching reading.” The confidence belongs to the teachers.
What to do: Check that the person in the choice is the one the claim is about.
When two choices are left, compare them in this order:
- Both parts of the claim
- The exact measure
- The direction
- The person or group
- The place and date
- Whether it states the link or leaves you to supply it
Decide on the words where the two differ.
Working through a quotation question
This claim is about a story's The person telling a story, who isn’t necessarily the author.Read the lesson.
In the story, the narrator hides her disappointment from her brother: ______
Which quotation from the story most effectively illustrates the claim?
- A. “The letter lay open on the table, and the rain had not let up.”
- B. “My brother could not hide his disappointment, though he tried to laugh it off.”
- C. “The news crushed my hopes, but when my brother looked up, I smiled and told him it hardly mattered.”
- D. “That night the news fell on me like a winter storm, and I wept until dawn.”
- Read the question first. “Which quotation” means you'll read all four lines, so don't try to guess the author's words.
- Say the claim plainly, in its parts. If it says “he,” “it,” or “this,” put in the name it stands for. Here the narrator is disappointed, and she hides it from her brother.
- Say what the line must contain. It has to state her disappointment and show her hiding it from her brother.
- Check all four, reading each to the end. A sets a gloomy scene, but nobody in it feels anything. In B the disappointment is the brother's. D is the most vivid, but she doesn't hide her grief and her brother isn't there. C does both.
- If two lines pass, ask in this order. Does one sentence carry both parts? Does it state the point or leave you to supply it? Is the feeling the right person's, and is it the right feeling? Take the line that states what the claim needs, even the plainest one.
The line has to say it
The narrator regrets leaving the farm: ______
The line has to state what the claim names, though not always in the claim's words.
- Right
- “I should never have left the farm.”
- Wrong
- “The farm was loveliest at sunrise.”
The first line says leaving was a mistake. The second only describes the farm, so you'd have to add the regret yourself.
Trap: A feeling the line never states
For a claim that the narrator is lonely in the city: “The streets were gray, and the windows across the way stayed dark all winter.” It sets a lonely mood, but nobody says they're lonely.
What to do: Find the words that state what the claim needs. If you had to supply them, cross the line off.
There's no passage around the lines, so a line that only makes sense once you know who “he” is hasn't said enough.
The right feeling
Here's a claim about a poem's The person speaking in a poem, who isn’t necessarily the poet.Read the lesson.
The speaker finds the city's noise comforting: ______
Match the feeling in the claim as well as what it's about.
- Right
- “The clatter kept me company.”
- Wrong
- “The clatter came at me all night.”
Both lines are about the noise. The first makes it company, and the second makes it something to fend off.
Trap: The most striking line
“Ten thousand wheels and voices poured through the streets below my window.” It's the most vivid line about the noise, but it never says how the speaker feels.
What to do: Run your test on every line, the plain ones too.
Hard claims and old language
The narrator describes the harbor town in loving detail, yet this affection is shadowed by a dread of ever going back: ______
Put a name to every “this” and “it.” “This affection” points back to the narrator's love of the town. Plainly, the narrator loves the town and dreads going back. Build your test on “dread,” even though it comes last. A line that only praises the town misses it.
Old wording in a poem or older novel can slow you down. Translate only the part your test needs.
The speaker longs to be home: ______
“O, would that I were once more where the river bends beside my father's door!”
“Would that I were” means “I wish I were,” and “my father's door” is home, so the line states the longing.
Practice
Work through the three examples, then try five more. When you miss one, name the check it failed, like a missing part or the wrong direction.
Goats can forage on steep terrain, but doing so may require frequent adjustments of posture and foot placement. Researchers observing goats in hillside enclosures noted that the animals sometimes interrupted feeding to regain stable footing. They hypothesize that goats consume less vegetation on steeper slopes than on gentler slopes because maintaining balance forces the animals to pause more often while feeding.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ hypothesis?
- A
Goats feeding on steep slopes consumed a smaller mass of vegetation than goats feeding on gentle slopes during equally long sessions with comparable weather and amounts of available vegetation.
- B
The kinds of plants eaten by goats on steep slopes differed from those eaten on gentle slopes, even where both groups had access to the same range of plants.
- C
On otherwise unchanged steep slopes, goats provided with secure footholds paused feeding less often to reposition their feet and consumed more vegetation per hour than goats without footholds.
- D
Goats repeatedly reached patches of vegetation on steep slopes and fed there during observations, including visits to patches separated from level ground by long stretches of sharply inclined terrain.
Show the answer
- A
Goats feeding on steep slopes consumed a smaller mass of vegetation than goats feeding on gentle slopes during equally long sessions with comparable weather and amounts of available vegetation.
This finding confirms only that goats consume less on steeper slopes. It does not connect the lower consumption to pauses or foot adjustments made to maintain balance, so it supports only half of the hypothesis.
- B
The kinds of plants eaten by goats on steep slopes differed from those eaten on gentle slopes, even where both groups had access to the same range of plants.
This finding substitutes the kinds of plants consumed for the amount of vegetation consumed. Plant type is a different variable from the one addressed by the hypothesis.
- C
On otherwise unchanged steep slopes, goats provided with secure footholds paused feeding less often to reposition their feet and consumed more vegetation per hour than goats without footholds.
Correct answerSecure footholds reduce how often goats pause feeding to reposition their feet, and goats with those footholds consume more vegetation per hour. This directly connects fewer balance-related interruptions with greater consumption, supporting the proposed explanation.
- D
Goats repeatedly reached patches of vegetation on steep slopes and fed there during observations, including visits to patches separated from level ground by long stretches of sharply inclined terrain.
This finding supports the established idea that goats can reach vegetation and forage on steep terrain. It does not test whether maintaining balance causes more pauses and reduces how much they consume.
Solution
The hypothesis makes a causal claim: steeper slopes require goats to pause more often to maintain balance, and those interruptions reduce the amount of vegetation they consume. The strongest support must connect balance-related interruptions directly to consumption.
Providing secure footholds changes the goats’ need to adjust their footing while leaving the steep slope otherwise unchanged. The goats with footholds pause feeding less often to reposition their feet and consume more vegetation per hour, so the finding links fewer balance-related pauses with greater consumption. This is the relationship the hypothesis predicts.
Across the caves of the Velkora Plateau, researchers recorded substantial variation in how long low tones remained audible after their source stopped. Chamber volume appeared to explain some, but not all, of this variation. To investigate whether irregular surfaces scatter reflections enough to shorten that interval, the team mapped wall contours, distinguishing predominantly smooth chambers from those with numerous projections. Several large chambers with irregular walls lost the tones rapidly, prompting an explanation that places a restriction on the advantages of greater volume. The researchers claim that within this plateau, even large chambers cannot sustain prolonged low-frequency reverberation unless their walls are predominantly smooth.
Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the underlined claim?
- A
After identical low tones stopped, chambers with predominantly smooth walls retained audible sound considerably longer than chambers with irregular walls, even when chamber volumes were closely matched.
- B
Measurements from chambers with predominantly smooth walls and chambers with irregular walls showed virtually identical durations of low-frequency reverberation, with sound fading rapidly in both groups.
- C
In several large chambers on the Velkora Plateau whose walls consisted almost entirely of projections and recesses, low tones remained clearly audible long after the sound source had stopped producing them.
- D
Low tones remained audible long after their source stopped in several large chambers with extensively irregular walls, all located in limestone hills beyond the Velkora Plateau.
Show the answer
- A
After identical low tones stopped, chambers with predominantly smooth walls retained audible sound considerably longer than chambers with irregular walls, even when chamber volumes were closely matched.
This finding reverses the requested direction: longer reverberation in smooth chambers than in irregular chambers of similar volume supports the claim. It connects smooth walls with the ability to sustain sound.
- B
Measurements from chambers with predominantly smooth walls and chambers with irregular walls showed virtually identical durations of low-frequency reverberation, with sound fading rapidly in both groups.
This choice treats equal, brief reverberation as a contradiction. The claim makes smooth walls necessary for prolonged reverberation, but it does not guarantee that smooth chambers will sustain sound for a long time.
- C
In several large chambers on the Velkora Plateau whose walls consisted almost entirely of projections and recesses, low tones remained clearly audible long after the sound source had stopped producing them.
Correct answerThese large chambers on the Velkora Plateau have walls made almost entirely of projections and recesses, yet they sustain low tones long after the source stops. That finding directly contradicts the claim that predominantly smooth walls are required for prolonged low-frequency reverberation.
- D
Low tones remained audible long after their source stopped in several large chambers with extensively irregular walls, all located in limestone hills beyond the Velkora Plateau.
This choice overlooks the location of the chambers: they are beyond the Velkora Plateau. The claim applies only within the plateau, so prolonged reverberation in irregular chambers elsewhere does not provide a counterexample.
Solution
The word “unless” makes predominantly smooth walls a requirement for prolonged low-frequency reverberation within the Velkora Plateau. To weaken that claim directly, look for a large chamber in the study area that sustains low tones despite having irregular walls.
The finding about large chambers on the Velkora Plateau with walls composed almost entirely of projections and recesses supplies that counterexample: low tones remain clearly audible long after their source stops. Those chambers sustain prolonged reverberation without the wall condition the researchers say is required.
Longer reverberation in smooth chambers supports the proposed relationship. Equally brief reverberation in both groups does not contradict a claim about what prolonged reverberation requires. The chambers beyond the plateau fall outside the claim’s stated region.
A Roman Singer is an 1884 novel by F. Marion Crawford. During an encounter, the narrator experiences discomfort while his companion outwardly maintains a relaxed manner: ______
Which quotation from A Roman Singer most effectively illustrates this claim?
- A
“I have come to you on business. My daughter has disappeared with your son, or whatever relation the Signor Giovanni Cardegna is to you.”
- B
“You are the greatest artist in the world!” cried Nino, enthusiastically; “but I should have been a raving madman if you had played that chord any longer.”
- C
“I will tell you in two words. My father treats me as though I had committed some unpardonable crime, which I do not at all understand.”
- D
“The baron offered no further advice, and sat calmly smoking and looking at me. I felt uneasy, opposite him.”
Show the answer
- A
“I have come to you on business. My daughter has disappeared with your son, or whatever relation the Signor Giovanni Cardegna is to you.”
The announcement could make the listener uncomfortable, but the quotation never states the The person telling a story, who isn’t necessarily the author.Read the lesson’s response. Choosing it supplies a feeling that the situation only suggests.
- B
“You are the greatest artist in the world!” cried Nino, enthusiastically; “but I should have been a raving madman if you had played that chord any longer.”
Nino’s emphatic praise and reference to becoming a “raving madman” make this line sound intense, but it does not show the The person telling a story, who isn’t necessarily the author.Read the lesson feeling uncomfortable beside a relaxed companion.
- C
“I will tell you in two words. My father treats me as though I had committed some unpardonable crime, which I do not at all understand.”
The The person speaking in a poem, who isn’t necessarily the poet.Read the lesson describes confusion about her father’s treatment, but the quotation shows neither the The person telling a story, who isn’t necessarily the author.Read the lesson’s discomfort nor a companion’s relaxed manner.
- D
“The baron offered no further advice, and sat calmly smoking and looking at me. I felt uneasy, opposite him.”
Correct answerThe baron’s calm smoking shows the companion’s relaxed manner, while the The person telling a story, who isn’t necessarily the author.Read the lesson directly says, “I felt uneasy.” The quotation contains both parts of the claim.
Solution
Find a quotation that establishes two details at the same time: the The person telling a story, who isn’t necessarily the author.Read the lesson feels discomfort, and his companion outwardly appears relaxed.
“The baron offered no further advice, and sat calmly smoking and looking at me” presents the companion as relaxed. The next sentence, “I felt uneasy, opposite him,” directly states the narrator’s discomfort. This quotation therefore illustrates the full claim.
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