SAT Reading & Writing Question of the Day

In recent years, several cities have responded to dangerous summer heat by planting thousands of street trees. Researchers note that shade from tree canopies can lower neighborhood temperatures by several degrees, reducing energy use and heat-related illness. Yet tree canopies are not evenly distributed; many low-income neighborhoods remain largely unshaded. That unevenness matters: heat maps show that the places with the fewest trees also bear the highest temperatures. As officials tout overall cooling statistics, advocacy groups argue for directing new plantings to the hottest blocks first, rather than spreading trees uniformly. They contend that targeted planting would make the benefits immediate where the need is most acute.

The underlined sentence primarily serves to...