10 original Cross-Text Connections questions, easiest first. Two short texts — work out how the second author would answer the first. Answer them all, then submit once to see every answer explained.
Text 1: Economist Renata Silva argues that tariffs on imported steel protect domestic manufacturing jobs by making foreign steel less price-competitive. Text 2: Economist Louis Bergman contends that tariffs on imported steel raise costs for domestic industries that use steel as a raw material, such as automakers and construction firms, potentially eliminating more jobs downstream than the tariffs protect upstream.
Which choice best describes how Bergman's argument relates to Silva's?
A — Bergman identifies a potential broader cost of the policy that Silva's focus on steel manufacturing does not address.. Silva focuses on benefits to steel manufacturing jobs; Bergman raises a broader downstream cost affecting steel-using industries that Silva's argument doesn't address—a different angle on the same policy, not agreement or an unrelated topic.
Text 1: Urban planner Teodora Ivanova advocates for converting a stretch of downtown street parking into outdoor dining space, arguing it would boost restaurant revenue. Text 2: Accessibility advocate Marcus Reyes notes that removing curbside parking can eliminate crucial drop-off points for customers with mobility impairments, meaning the conversion could reduce access for some patrons even as it benefits others.
Which choice best describes how the information in Text 2 relates to the proposal described in Text 1?
B — It raises a practical accessibility concern not addressed in Text 1's description of the proposal.. Reyes's point about reduced access for mobility-impaired customers introduces a practical accessibility concern that Ivanova's description (focused on revenue) does not mention—a new complication, not a confirmation or refutation of the proposal.
Text 1: Historian Rosa Delgado argues that the invention of the mechanical clock was the primary technological cause of standardized work schedules in early factories. Text 2: Historian Ian Farrow agrees that the mechanical clock mattered but argues that the expansion of railway networks, which required synchronized timekeeping across distant towns, was an equally necessary precondition for the widespread adoption of standardized time.
Which choice best describes how Farrow's argument relates to Delgado's?
D — Farrow builds on Delgado's claim by identifying an additional necessary factor.. Farrow does not reject the clock's importance ('agrees that the mechanical clock mattered') but adds railway synchronization as an additional necessary factor—building on, not rejecting, Delgado's claim.
Text 1: Novelist Petra Vann writes that the best endings surprise readers while still feeling, in retrospect, inevitable given everything that came before. Text 2: Novelist Ravi Chandrasekhar argues that an ending's inevitability, once achieved, actually undermines its capacity to surprise, since readers who sense a story's direction too clearly will anticipate its conclusion well before reaching it.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
A — Chandrasekhar identifies a potential tension within the very quality Vann values.. Vann values endings that are both surprising and inevitable; Chandrasekhar points out these two qualities may work against each other—identifying tension within Vann's own standard, not confirming it or discussing something unrelated.
Text 1: Nutrition researcher Camille Dubois found that participants who drank a glass of water before each meal ate smaller portions than those who did not. Text 2: Nutrition researcher Hassan Ali found no significant difference in portion size between water-drinkers and non-drinkers once he controlled for how quickly participants ate, suggesting eating speed, not water consumption itself, may explain Dubois's result.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
A — Text 2 offers an alternative explanation for the finding reported in Text 1.. Ali's controlled study suggests eating speed, not water consumption, may explain the effect Dubois observed—an alternative explanation, not a confirmation of Dubois's causal claim.
Text 1: Nutrition researcher Elena Papadakis found that participants who ate meals slowly, taking at least 20 minutes per meal, consumed fewer total calories than those who ate the same meals quickly. Text 2: Nutrition researcher Kwame Boateng found no significant difference in calorie intake between slow and fast eaters once he controlled for how much water participants drank during the meal, suggesting hydration, not eating speed, may explain Papadakis's result.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
C — Text 2 offers an alternative explanation for the finding reported in Text 1.. Boateng's controlled study suggests hydration, not eating speed, may explain the effect Papadakis observed—an alternative explanation, not a confirmation of Papadakis's causal claim.
Text 1: Poet Idris Okafor argues that free verse, unbound by rhyme or fixed meter, allows for a more honest, natural expression of thought than traditional forms permit. Text 2: Poet Celeste Marchetti argues that traditional forms, far from constraining honest expression, actually sharpen a poet's thinking by forcing difficult, productive choices about word and rhythm that free verse allows a writer to avoid.
Marchetti would most likely respond to Okafor's claim by arguing that
A — formal constraints can enhance rather than limit a poet's honest expression.. Marchetti's stated position is that formal constraints sharpen thinking through productive choices—this directly opposes Okafor's framing of forms as constraining, so she would argue constraints can enhance expression.
Text 1: Novelist Esperanza Duval writes that a compelling villain must have understandable motivations that make their actions feel logical from their own perspective. Text 2: Novelist Julian Ferreira argues that giving villains fully understandable motivations can sometimes soften readers' judgment of genuinely harmful actions in ways that undermine a story's moral clarity.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
C — Ferreira identifies a potential tension within the very quality Duval values.. Duval values villains with understandable motivations; Ferreira points out this same quality can undermine moral clarity by softening judgment of harmful actions—identifying tension within Duval's own standard, not confirming it or discussing something unrelated.
Text 1: Historian Lucia Ferretti argues that the spread of coffeehouses in 17th-century Europe was the primary catalyst for the rise of public political debate among the merchant class. Text 2: Historian Samuel Okonkwo agrees that coffeehouses mattered but argues that rising literacy rates, which allowed patrons to read and discuss newspapers distributed at those very coffeehouses, were an equally necessary precondition for the debates Ferretti describes.
Which choice best describes how Okonkwo's argument relates to Ferretti's?
A — Okonkwo builds on Ferretti's claim by identifying an additional necessary factor.. Okonkwo does not reject the coffeehouse's importance ('agrees that coffeehouses mattered') but adds literacy as an additional necessary factor—building on, not rejecting, Ferretti's claim.
Text 1: Ecologist Noah Fischer reports that an invasive species of aquatic plant is choking out native vegetation and reducing oxygen levels in a chain of lakes, warning of long-term damage to fish populations. Text 2: Biologist Priya Chandran's recent survey of the same lakes found that fish populations have stabilized in areas where a targeted mechanical harvesting program has removed the invasive plant regularly, suggesting active management may offset some of the damage Fischer describes.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
B — Text 2 identifies a factor that may limit the scope of the trend described in Text 1.. Chandran's finding that harvesting programs stabilize populations doesn't deny the invasive threat (Text 1) but shows the damage may be offset where management is active—a limiting factor, not a refutation or mere restatement.
Score:
Every question above is now marked up: the correct answer is highlighted, any wrong option you picked is flagged, and each explanation is open.
No. Every question here is original, written to the College Board's published Digital SAT Reading & Writing specification for the Cross-Text Connections skill. No retired or copyrighted College Board material appears anywhere on this site.
Cross-Text Connections gives you Text 1 and Text 2 on the same subject and asks how one author would respond to the other, or how their positions relate. It is the only Reading & Writing question type that requires holding two arguments in mind at once, which is why it is consistently one of the hardest.
Before reading the choices, write each author's claim in your own words in five or six words — "wage rises cut jobs" versus "study found no job loss". Then decide the relationship between those two summaries: agree, disagree, or agree-with-a-qualification. Only then read the choices, and reject any that misstate either author, however well it describes the other.
No, and deliberately so. This drill is 10 Cross-Text Connections questions back to back; a real Reading & Writing module is 27 questions in 32 minutes drawn from all eleven skills. Use a drill to fix one weakness, then take a full module to practice the real thing.
No. The SAT has no penalty for a wrong answer — a blank and a wrong guess both score zero — so answer every question, including the ones you have to guess.