1. The problem asks for the best estimate of the correlation coefficient $r$ based on the scatter plot data. 2. The correlation coefficient $r$ measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables $x$ and $y$. It ranges from $-1$ to $1$. 3. If the points show a downward trend from left to right, this indicates a negative correlation. 4. A strong negative correlation means $r$ is close to $-1$, while a strong positive correlation means $r$ is close to $1$. 5. Since the scatter plot shows a clear downward trend, the best estimate of $r$ is $-0.95$. 6. Therefore, the answer is $r = -0.95$ because the data points decrease as $x$ increases, indicating a strong negative linear relationship.