Cross-Text Connections (Paired Passages) – Answer Explanations (E)
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| Question | Exam Name | examcategory | Question | sort_order | Difficulty | Category | snapshot | question | explain_answer | Prompts | source_exam_name | Question No. | Answer Type | PageNumber | Correct Answer | Answer Explanation |
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| As a result, votes from these voters may not reflect their actual pref | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 1 | 1 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Text 1: Fletcher an obvious coauthor but Shakespeare not. 1/1
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1. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Public policy researcher Anthony Fowler studied the history of elections in Australia, a country that requires citizens to vote. Fowler argues that requiring citizens to vote leads to a significant increase in voters who would otherwise not have the time or motivation to vote. Thus, election results in countries that require citizens to vote better reflect the preferences of the country as a whole. Text 2 Governments in democratic countries function better when more people vote. However, forcing people to vote may have negative consequences. Shane P. Singh and Jason Roy studied what happens when a country requires its citizens to vote. They found that when people feel forced to vote, they tend to spend less time looking for information about their choices when voting. As a result, votes from these voters may not reflect their actual preferences. Based on the texts, how would Singh and Roy (Text 2) most likely respond to the research discussed in Text 1? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | General Claim | 1 | Mult-Choice | C. | |||
| Based on the tex | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 2 | 2 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Text 1: Nanohybrids pose environmental risks.
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2. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Dance choreographer Alvin Ailey’s deep admiration for jazz music can most clearly be felt in the rhythms and beats his works were set to. Ailey collaborated with some of the greatest jazz legends, like Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, and perhaps his favorite, Duke Ellington. With his choice of music, Ailey helped bring jazz to life for his audiences. Text 2 Jazz is present throughout Ailey’s work, but it’s most visible in Ailey’s approach to choreography. Ailey often incorporated improvisation, a signature characteristic of jazz music, in his work. When managing his dance company, Ailey rarely forced his dancers to an exact set of specific moves. Instead, he encouraged his dancers to let their own skills and experiences shape their performances, as jazz musicians do. Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 2 | Mult-Choice | B. | |||
| Based on the tex | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 3 | 3 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Text 1: A shift in Earth's orbit caused desertification in Africa plus the farming practices of Neolithic people.
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3. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Historians studying pre-Inca Peru have looked to ceramic vessels to understand daily life among the Moche people. These mold-made sculptures present plants, animals, and human faces in precise ways—vessels representing human faces are so detailed that scholars have interpreted facial markings to represent scars and other skin irregularities. Some historians have even used these objects to identify potential skin diseases that may have afflicted people at the time. Text 2 Art historian and archaeologist Lisa Trever has argued that the interpretation of Moche “portrait” vessels as hyper-realistic portrayals of identifiable people may inadvertently disregard the creativity of the objects’ creators. Moche ceramic vessels, Trever argues, are artworks in which sculptors could free their imagination, using realistic objects and people around them as inspiration to explore more abstract concepts. Based on the texts, what would Lisa Trever (Text 2) most likely say about the interpretation presented in the underlined portion of Text 1? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Specific Claim | 3 | Mult-Choice | D. | |||
| Based on the tex | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 4 | 4 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Text 1: Umami is a basic flavor that derives from soy. 1/1
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4. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Italian painters in the 1500s rarely depicted themselves in their work. Even more rare were self-portrait paintings that portrayed the artist as a painter. At the time, painting was not yet respected as a profession, so painters mostly chose to emphasize other qualities in their self-portraits, like their intellect or social status. In the city of Bologna, the first artist to depict themself painting was a man named Annibale Carracci. A painting of his from around 1585 shows Carracci in front of an easel holding a palette. Text 2 In their self-portraits, Bolognese artists typically avoided referring to the act of painting until the mid-1600s. However, Lavinia Fontana’s 1577 painting, Self-Portrait at the Keyboard, stands out as the earliest example of such a work by an artist from Bologna. Although the artist is depicted playing music, in the background, one can spot a painting easel by a window. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Specific Claim | 4 | Mult-Choice | D. | |||
| Based on the tex | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 5 | 5 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Text 1: Wavelength studies lithium and sodium findings support exoplanets with Earth-like crusts. 1/1
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5. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Today the starchy root cassava is found in many dishes across West Africa, but its rise to popularity was slow. Portuguese traders brought cassava from Brazil to the West African coast in the 1500s. But at this time, people living in the capitals further inland had little contact with coastal communities. Thus, cassava remained relatively unknown to most of the region’s inhabitants until the 1800s. Text 2 Cassava’s slow adoption into the diet of West Africans is mainly due to the nature of the crop itself. If not cooked properly, cassava can be toxic. Knowledge of how to properly prepare cassava needed to spread before the food could grow in popularity. The arrival of formerly enslaved people from Brazil in the 1800s, who brought their knowledge of cassava and its preparation with them, thus directly fueled the spread of this crop. Based on the texts, the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 5 | Mult-Choice | A. | |||
| Based on the tex | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 6 | 6 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts: The Souls of Black Folk is a 1903 book by W.E.B. Du Bois. 1/1
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6. PDF Link to Question Text 1 On April 26th, 1777, Sybil Ludington rode 40 miles by horse through Putnam County, New York, to gather up local militia. British forces were burning nearby Danbury, Connecticut, and Ludington wanted to rally rebel troops to meet them. Although she was only 16 years old at the time, her brave feat made Ludington one of the heroes of the American Revolution. Since then, Ludington has been widely celebrated, inspiring postage stamps, statues, and even children’s TV series. Text 2 Historian Paula D. Hunt researched the life and legacy of Sybil Ludington but found no evidence for her famous ride. Although many articles and books have been written about Ludington, Hunt believes writers may have been inventing details about Ludington as they retold her story. Ludington is revered by Americans today, but there simply isn’t a strong historical record of her heroic ride. Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 6 | Mult-Choice | D. | |||
| Based on the tex | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 7 | 7 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts/Problem: The services were sorted into three categories: provisioning (material resources from the ecosystem), 1/1
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7. PDF Link to Question Text 1 For decades, bluegrass musicians have debated whether their genre should exclude influences from mainstream genres such as rock. Many insist that bluegrass is defined by its adherence to the folk music of the US South, out of which bluegrass emerged. Such “purists,” as they are known, regard the recordings of Bill Monroe, which established the bluegrass sound in the 1940s, as a standard against which the genre should still be measured. Text 2 Bluegrass isn’t simply an extension of folk traditions into the era of recorded music. In reality, Bill Monroe created the bluegrass sound in the 1940s by combining Southern folk music with commercial genres that had arisen only a few decades before, such as jazz and the blues. Since bluegrass has always been a mixed genre, contemporary bluegrass musicians should not be forbidden from incorporating into it influences from rock and other mainstream genres. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely regard the perspective of bluegrass purists, as described in Text 1? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: Background Facts/Problem: The services were sorted into three categories: provisioning (material resources from the ecosystem), regulating (natural processes such as cleaning the air or water), and cultural (nonmaterial benefits of ecosystems). Claim/Hypothesis: assert that countries in each region reported effects on provisioning services and that provisioning services represent the majority of the reported services. Support/Weaken: Support Predicted Answer: Provisioning shows the highest percentage, above 50% in most cases. {{{points}}}/1 | Specific Claim | 7 | Mult-Choice | D. | |||
| Which choice bes | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 8 | 8 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts/Problem: when one party holds the majority in the House of Representatives and another holds the majority in the Senate (divided), reductions in total federal outlays (spending) relative to gross domestic product (GDP) result 1/1
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8. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Most scientists agree that the moon was likely formed after a collision between Earth and a large planet named Theia. This collision likely created a huge debris field, made up of material from both Earth and Theia. Based on models of this event, scientists believe that the moon was formed from this debris over the course of thousands of years. Text 2 Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center used a computer to model how the moon could have formed. Although simulations of the moon’s formation have been done in the past, the team from NASA ran simulations that were much more detailed. They found that the formation of the moon was likely not a slow process that took many years. Instead, it’s probable that the moon’s formation happened immediately after impact, taking just a few hours. Which choice best describes a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view the evidence for the formation of the moon? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: Background Facts/Problem: when one party holds the majority in the House of Representatives and another holds the majority in the Senate (divided), reductions in total federal outlays (spending) relative to gross domestic product (GDP) result Claim/Hypothesis: evidence that a divided Congress may be a “necessary but not sufficient condition” for a decrease in government size to occur. Support/Weaken: Support Predicted Answer: Divided congresses usually reduce spending, but single party congress always raises spending. {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 8 | Mult-Choice | D. | |||
| Which choice bes | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 9 | 9 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Core Logic: 1/1
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9. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Literary scholars have struggled with the vastness of Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka’s collective works of drama (spanning over 20 plays in total). It is best, however, to understand Soyinka’s body of work as a dramatist chronologically. Soyinka’s progression as a playwright can be considered to fall into three periods, with each one representing a particular thematic and stylistic cohesion: the 1960s, the two decades between 1970 and 1990, and lastly, from roughly 1990 onwards. Text 2 It is tempting to impose a linear sense of order on the expanse of Wole Soyinka’s body of work as a dramatist. However, critics who have considered Soyinka’s plays to fit neatly into three phases overlook potential commonalities in Soyinka’s work that span across these phases. Additionally, this view may discount significant differences in the styles and content of plays written around the same time. Which choice best describes a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view the study of Soyinka’s works of drama? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: Core Logic: Paragraph Evidence/Hypothesis: A language from what is now the US Southeast, vocabulary pertaining to corn cultivation resembles equivalent vocabulary in the Totozoquean language family in Mexico. This resemblance is perhaps attributable to cultural contact. Last sentence(s) Premise: Crops may also be decoupled from vocabulary altogether: corn cultivation became ubiquitous among the Southeastern tribes, yet ______ Conclusion: Some regional languages do not share the vocabulary for corn. {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 9 | Mult-Choice | A. | |||
| Other studies have suggested t | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 10 | 10 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts: from Central Mexico, Octavio Medellín immigrated to the United States as a child, and his sculpture bears the impress of traditions on both sides. 1/1
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10. PDF Link to Question Text 1 In a study of insect behavior, Samadi Galpayage and colleagues presented bumblebees with small wooden balls and observed many of the bees clinging to, rolling, and dragging the objects. The researchers provided no external rewards (such as food) to encourage these interactions. The bees simply appeared to be playing—and for no other reason than because they were having fun. Text 2 Insects do not have cortexes or other brain areas associated with emotions in humans. Still, Galpayage and her team have shown that bumblebees may engage in play, possibly experiencing some kind of positive emotional state. Other studies have suggested that bees experience negative emotional states (for example, stress), but as Galpayage and her team have acknowledged, emotions in insects, if they do indeed exist, are likely very rudimentary. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined portion of Text 1? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Specific Claim | 10 | Mult-Choice | D. | |||
| Based on the two | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 11 | 11 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts: if individual plants were randomly distributed on this particular landscape, only about 15% would be with other plants in patches of vegetation. Tested juvenile plants. 1/1
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11. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Although food writing is one of the most widely read genres in the United States, literary scholars have long neglected it. And within this genre, cookbooks attract the least scholarly attention of all, regardless of how well written they may be. This is especially true of works dedicated to regional US cuisines, whose complexity and historical significance are often overlooked. Text 2 With her 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis popularized the refined Southern cooking she had grown up with in Freetown, an all-Black community in Virginia. She also set a new standard for cookbook writing: the recipes and memoir passages interspersing them are written in prose more elegant than that of most novels. Yet despite its inarguable value as a piece of writing, Lewis’s masterpiece has received almost no attention from literary scholars. Based on the two texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely regard the situation presented in the underlined sentence in Text 2? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Specific Claim | 11 | Mult-Choice | B. | |||
| It is thus likely that competition for resources with other species, n | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 12 | 12 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts: She plants sixteen seeds of choy sum in a mixture of equal amounts of coffee grounds (which are highly acidic) and potting soil and another sixteen seeds in potting soil without coffee grounds as the control for the experiment. 1/1
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12. PDF Link to Question Text 1 Some animal species, like the leopard, can be found in many kinds of areas. On the other hand, tropical mountain bird species tend to be limited in the types of spaces they can call home. This is because many mountain bird species are only able to survive at very specific elevations. Over time, these species have likely become used to living at a specific temperature. Therefore, these species struggle to survive at elevations that are warmer or colder than they are used to. Text 2 A new study reviewed observations of nearly 3,000 bird species to understand why tropical mountain bird species live at specific elevations. They noted that when a mountain bird species was found in an area with many other bird species, it tended to inhabit much smaller geographic areas. It is thus likely that competition for resources with other species, not temperature, limits where these birds can live. Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 12 | Mult-Choice | A. | |||
| Thus, Lewis’s portrait busts are a central aspect of her career as a s | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 13 | 13 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts: Alaska marmots and Arctic ground squirrels enter a state called torpor, which minimizes the energy their bodies need to function. Often a hibernating animal will temporarily come out of torpor (called an arousal episode). 1/1
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13. PDF Link to Question Text 1 American sculptor Edmonia Lewis is best known for her sculptures that represent figures from history and mythology, such as The Death of Cleopatra and Hagar. Although Lewis sculpted other subjects, her career as a sculptor is best represented by the works in which she depicted these historical and mythical themes. Text 2 Art historians have typically ignored the many portrait busts Edmonia Lewis created. Lewis likely carved these busts (sculptures of a person’s head) frequently throughout her long career. She is known for her sculptures that represent historical figures, but Lewis likely supported herself financially by carving portrait busts for acquaintances who paid her to represent their features. Thus, Lewis’s portrait busts are a central aspect of her career as a sculptor. Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 13 | Mult-Choice | D. | |||
| Which choice bes | Cross-Text Connections (E) - SAT Reading | DSAT Reading and Writing | 14 | 14 | Easy | Cross Text-Paired Passage |
ANSWER EXPLANATION:
Background Facts: Researchers correlated those ratings with velocity and density. (Correlations range from −1 to 1, with greater distance from 0 indicating greater strength). 1/1
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14. PDF Link to Question Text 1 A team led by Bernardo Strassburg has found that rewilding farmland (returning the land to its natural state) could help preserve biodiversity and offset carbon emissions. The amount of farmland that would need to be restored, they found, is remarkably low. Rewilding a mere 15% of the world’s current farmland would prevent 60% of expected species extinctions and help absorb nearly 299 gigatons of carbon dioxide—a clear win in the fight against the biodiversity and climate crises. Text 2 While Strassburg’s team’s findings certainly offer encouraging insight into the potential benefits of rewilding, it’s important to consider potential effects on global food supplies. The researchers suggest that to compensate for the loss of foodproducing land, remaining farmland would need to produce even more food. Thus, policies focused on rewilding farmland must also address strategies for higher-yield farming. Which choice best describes a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view Strassburg’s team’s study? | ANSWER EXPLANATION: {{{points}}}/1 | Authors Agree | 14 | Mult-Choice | A. | |||
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