Cross-Text Connections SAT question

Choice D is the best answer because it accurately describes how the author of Text 2 would most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1. Text 1 indicates that Storey found a genetic mutation in South American chickens from before the European invasion and in Polynesian chickens, which implies that chickens were first brought to South America by Polynesian people. Text 2 explains that the genetic mutation Storey found is in chickens from all over the world, thus undercutting the mutation as evidence of a Polynesian origin. However, Text 2 goes on to say “[m]ore recently” Luzuriaga-Neira and colleagues found multiple genetic markers shared by South American and Polynesian chickens but “that European breeds lack,” which strongly suggests a Polynesian origin for the South American chickens. This indicates that the author of Text 2 believes Luzuriaga-Neira’s evidence for a Polynesian origin is compelling while Storey’s evidence has been undermined. Thus, the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with the underlined statement and believes Luzuriaga-Neira and colleagues’ evidence for the statement is stronger than Storey’s evidence is.

Choice A is incorrect because both texts indicate that chickens were introduced to South America before the arrival of Europeans. Text 1 states that the El Arenal chicken bone dates from “1321–1407 CE—over a century before Europeans invaded the region” and concludes that these chickens were likely brought to South America by Polynesians. While Text 2 is not as explicit about the time period as Text 1 is, nothing in Text 2 undermines the timing of events ascribed to Storey’s account in Text 1. Choice B is incorrect because both texts agree that chickens were first brought to South America by Polynesian peoples (the underlined claim), and nothing in Text 2 suggests that this claim is in any way deficient because the possibility that animals could have been transferred from South America to Polynesia was not explicitly addressed. Choice C is incorrect because the criticism that Text 2 raises about the ideas in Text 1 is specifically about whether the single genetic mutation cited by Storey in fact supports the idea of a Polynesian origin for South American chickens. There is nothing in Text 2 to suggest that the underlined sentence (Storey’s conclusion) is deficient because it is based on an assumption about the genetic uniformity of European chickens.