SAT OwlQuestion bank / Text Structure and Purpose
For decades, sociologists measured trust in a neighborhood by asking residents whether "most people can be trusted." Sociologist Camila Reyes doubted that answers to such a question predicted behavior. Her team dropped stamped, addressed letters on sidewalks in forty neighborhoods and counted how many were mailed by the strangers who found them. Return rates varied widely and matched residents' survey answers only loosely; some neighborhoods that reported low trust returned the most letters. Reyes concludes that surveys and behavior capture different sides of trust and that researchers need both.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
It presents a hypothesis, describes a study that confirms it, and argues that an older method should be abandoned.
It compares two neighborhoods and explains why one is more trusting than the other.
It describes a study of mail delivery and then explains how its results changed postal policy.
It describes a common research method, presents a study that tests its value, and concludes that it should be paired with another approach.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
The text describes the standard survey question, then Reyes's dropped-letter study, which found that survey answers matched behavior only loosely, and ends with her view that researchers need both measures. That is choice D.
Choice A is close, but Reyes doesn't call for abandoning surveys; she says researchers need both surveys and behavioral measures.
Why the other choices are wrong
- A. Reyes says researchers need both surveys and behavioral measures, so she doesn't call for abandoning the survey.
- B. The study covered forty neighborhoods, and the text doesn't single out two for comparison.
- C. The letters were a way to measure trust. The text says nothing about postal policy.
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