Combining the Text's Claim with the Graph's Numbers

The sentence stops mid-thought on purpose. Everything before the blank is a claim: a contrast, a trend, a cause and effect. The blank's job is to supply proof, not a new idea. So before you look at the chart at all, read the sentence and name the claim in your own words. Is it saying two groups differ? That something changed over time? That a gap grew or shrank? The shape of the claim tells you the shape of the answer.

Once you know the claim, go back to the chart and find only the numbers that match it. A contrast between two categories needs one number from each. A change over time needs the same category at two different points. A narrowing or widening gap needs four numbers: two categories, two dates, because you can't show a gap closing without showing both ends of it at both times. Wrong answer choices usually grab a real number straight off the chart, but the wrong one, or just one number where the claim needs two or four. The number is real, it just doesn't answer the specific comparison the sentence set up.

This skill sits right next to reading a claim without a chart: same habit of pinning down exactly what's being asserted before you hunt for support. Here the hunt is numeric instead of textual, but the move is identical: name the claim first, then go get only the evidence that matches its shape.