9 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: Architectural critic Soren Aasgard praises a new library's floor-to-ceiling windows, arguing they create an inviting, light-filled reading environment appropriate for a public building. Text 2: Preservation consultant Yolanda Reyes notes that extensive window exposure without proper UV filtering can significantly accelerate the fading and deterioration of the library's paper archives over time.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
A — Reyes identifies a practical cost of the design choice that Aasgard praises for its aesthetic value.. Aasgard praises the windows for their aesthetic and inviting quality; Reyes raises a separate, practical concern (archive deterioration) about the same design choice—identifying a cost the aesthetic praise doesn't address, not confirming or discussing an unrelated building.
Text 1: Historian Ingrid Sorensen argues that the widespread availability of eyeglasses in medieval Europe extended the productive careers of skilled scribes and artisans whose close-up work required sharp vision. Text 2: Historian Kwabena Owusu agrees that eyeglasses mattered but argues that improvements in candle and lamp technology, which provided the steady light needed for close work in the first place, were an equally necessary precondition for the extended careers Sorensen describes.
Which choice best describes how Owusu's argument relates to Sorensen's?
B — Owusu builds on Sorensen's claim by identifying an additional necessary factor.. Owusu does not reject eyeglasses' importance ('agrees that eyeglasses mattered') but adds lighting technology as an additional necessary factor—building on, not rejecting, Sorensen's claim.
Text 1: Sociologist Aisha Bello's survey found that people who participate in neighborhood watch programs report a stronger sense of safety in their community than those who do not. Text 2: Sociologist Peter Halvorsen points out that people who already feel unsafe in their community may simply be more inclined to join a neighborhood watch program in the first place, meaning the causal arrow could run in the opposite direction from what Bello proposes.
Which choice best describes Halvorsen's argument in relation to Bello's?
C — Halvorsen questions the direction of causality that Bello assumes.. Halvorsen's point ('the causal arrow could run in the opposite direction') directly challenges Bello's assumption about which factor causes which, questioning causality rather than agreeing or denying any relationship.
Text 1: Ecologist Tomas Vidal reports that invasive zebra mussels are clogging water intake pipes and outcompeting native mussel species across the Great Lakes, warning of long-term damage to lake ecosystems. Text 2: Biologist Sarah Whitfield's recent survey of the same lakes found that native mussel populations have stabilized in certain bays where a natural predator of zebra mussels, a species of freshwater drum, has become more abundant, suggesting predation may offset some of the damage Vidal describes.
Which choice best describes the relationship between the two texts?
C — Text 2 identifies a factor that may limit the scope of the trend described in Text 1.. Whitfield's finding that predation stabilizes populations in certain bays doesn't deny the invasive threat (Text 1) but shows the damage may be offset in some areas—a limiting factor, not a refutation or mere restatement.
Text 1: Essayist Corinne Lavoie argues that a personal essay's power comes from its willingness to leave the writer's own flaws exposed and unresolved on the page. Text 2: Memoirist Tobias Wren argues that an essay exposing flaws without offering any reflection or growth risks reading as mere self-indulgence rather than meaningful insight for the reader.
Wren would most likely respond to Lavoie's claim by arguing that
B — exposing flaws without accompanying reflection risks becoming self-indulgent rather than insightful.. Wren's stated position is that unresolved exposure without reflection risks self-indulgence—this directly qualifies Lavoie's praise of leaving flaws 'unresolved,' so he would argue this specific risk.
Text 1: Economist Farah Nasser argues that rent control policies help long-term tenants by keeping housing costs predictable and stable over many years. Text 2: Economist Julian Marsh contends that rent control policies discourage landlords from investing in new rental units, ultimately reducing the overall housing supply and making the housing shortage worse for everyone, including future tenants.
Which choice best describes how Marsh's argument relates to Nasser's?
D — Marsh identifies a potential broader cost of the policy that Nasser's focus on existing tenants does not address.. Nasser focuses on benefits to current long-term tenants; Marsh raises a broader supply-side cost affecting future tenants that Nasser's argument doesn't address—a different angle on the same policy, not agreement or an unrelated topic.
Text 1: Economist Larissa Boyko argues that raising the capital gains tax rate discourages long-term investment by reducing the after-tax return investors receive. Text 2: Economist Dominic Reyes contends that most long-term investors are motivated primarily by portfolio diversification and retirement planning rather than marginal changes in after-tax return, meaning a modest rate increase is unlikely to significantly change investment behavior.
Which choice best describes how Reyes's argument relates to Boyko's?
C — Reyes questions the strength of the behavioral link Boyko assumes between tax rates and investment decisions.. Boyko assumes after-tax return changes will meaningfully affect investment behavior; Reyes questions this link by pointing to other, non-tax motivations that may dominate investor decisions—a challenge to the assumed mechanism, not agreement or an unrelated topic.
Text 1: Nutrition researcher Elif Demir found that participants who ate breakfast high in protein reported less hunger before lunch than those who ate a breakfast high in carbohydrates. Text 2: Nutrition researcher Caleb Osei found no significant difference in pre-lunch hunger between the two breakfast types once he controlled for total breakfast calorie count, suggesting calorie count, not macronutrient type, may explain Demir'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.. Osei's controlled study suggests calorie count, not protein content, may explain the effect Demir observed—an alternative explanation, not a confirmation of Demir's causal claim.
Text 1: Sociologist Miriam Osei's survey found that people who participate in community choir groups report a stronger sense of social connection than those who do not. Text 2: Sociologist Callum Reid points out that people who already feel socially connected may simply be more inclined to join a community choir in the first place, meaning the causal arrow could run in the opposite direction from what Osei proposes.
Which choice best describes Reid's argument in relation to Osei's?
C — Reid questions the direction of causality that Osei assumes.. Reid's point ('the causal arrow could run in the opposite direction') directly challenges Osei's assumption about which factor causes which, questioning causality rather than agreeing or denying any relationship.
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 9 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.