SAT #15 Reading (Question 21)

Question

Based on figure 2, the engineers surveyed were most skeptical of the idea that in the event of a reallocation of road space, drivers would change [...]?

Answer 1

This is an explanation of SAT #10 Reading question 21. The question asks what the engineers are most skeptical of -- if they are skeptical, that means the engineers are doubting something.

Now, look at the figure, and read the labels carefully. The top of the table says "Survey of Transportation Engineers Predictions of Driver Behavior" and the left of the table says "Could a significant road space reallocation result in some people changing...". So, this table is telling us which behaviors engineers predict people will or will not change.

Remember the question asks us what they are skeptical of (doubtful of), so we want to look at which behaviors the engineers think people will not change. The bottom of the figure tells us that the dark grey bar indicates "no", which is what we are looking for. The category with the largest dark grey bar is "their driving style", which matches with the correct answer choice, D.

Answer 2

Answer Choice D is the correct answer because figure 2 measures engineer’s predictions about driving behavior following a significant road space reallocation, and gives answers in terms of yes, yes (in exceptional circumstances), no and don’t know. To find the claim towards which they express the greatest degree of skepticism, we should look for the row with the smallest yes claim (gray shaded box) and the largest no claim (black shaded box). The bottom two behaviors, “their driving style” and “whether they car-share” are the two rows with these features, and because only “their driving style” is given as an answer choice, we should choose it. Answer Choice A is incorrect because [...].

How to solve this? The Question asks, “Based on figure 2, the engineers surveyed were most skeptical of the idea that in the event of a reallocation of road space, drivers would change [...]?”