How does the author respond to council members who say too few people would ride later buses?
Analyze and Evaluate Information and Ideas · TELPAS Grades 10–12 reading. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.
Reporting category 3: make inferences, draw conclusions, and think about why the author wrote a text and how it is built.
Read the opinion article from a school newspaper. Then answer the questions.
Our City Needs Buses After Dark
Every weeknight at 8:15, the last Route 6 bus leaves the stop outside Westfield Mall. For many students at our school, that bus is the only way home from work. The problem is that the stores in the mall stay open until nine, and most teens who work there are scheduled until closing.
I work at a shoe store in the mall. Three nights a week, my shift ends at 9:15, an hour after the last bus has gone. On those nights I have two choices: wait for my mother to finish her own shift and drive across town to get me, or walk two and a half miles home along a road with no sidewalks. Many of my coworkers face the same choice. Some of them have quit jobs they needed because they had no way to get home.
The city should extend Route 6 and two other busy routes until at least 10:30 p.m. on weeknights. This change would help more than students. Nurses, restaurant workers, cleaning crews, and others who work evening shifts are stranded by the same schedule. A bus system is supposed to connect people to their jobs, and right now it stops before many of those jobs do.
Some city council members say the city cannot afford later buses because too few people would ride them. But ridership is low after eight o'clock for an obvious reason: there are almost no buses after eight o'clock. People cannot ride a bus that does not exist. The city could test later service on three routes for six months and count the riders before making a permanent decision. If the buses stay empty, the city can end the test. If they fill up, the council will have its answer.
Getting to work should not depend on whether you have a parent with a car. I am asking the council to vote yes on the six-month trial at its meeting on March 12. Later buses would keep students in their jobs, keep workers off dangerous roads, and keep our city's businesses staffed.
Lisa Phillips is a junior at Westfield High School.
The question
Choose the best answer.
How does the author respond to council members who say too few people would ride later buses?
- She agrees with them and asks the city to add buses only on weekends.
- She says the number of people who ride the buses does not matter at all.
- She claims that running buses later at night would cost the city nothing.
- She says few ride now because few buses run, and suggests a trial.Correct answer
Why “She says few ride now because few buses run, and suggests a trial.” is correct
This asks how an author handles a counterargument. In paragraph 4 she first states the opposing view, then answers it: ridership is low "for an obvious reason," since "people cannot ride a bus that does not exist." She then offers a six-month trial as a fair test. Strong arguments often answer the other side this way.
Why the other answers are wrong
- She agrees with them and asks the city to add buses only on weekends. — She disagrees, and she asks for weeknight service.
- She says the number of people who ride the buses does not matter at all. — She suggests counting riders during a trial, so she thinks the numbers matter.
- She claims that running buses later at night would cost the city nothing. — She never discusses cost; she answers the argument about riders.
Practice more of this
More reading practice for Grades 10–12, or see the TELPAS practice test for 10th–12th grade.
This is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Texas Education Agency or the official TELPAS program. All questions here are original practice material written to match the published test design.