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    Reading and Writing · Craft and Structure

    Cross-Text Connections on the Digital SAT

    Cross-Text Connections is the one question type that hands you two passages at once, labeled Text 1 and Text 2, on the same topic. Your job is to figure out how the second author would respond to the first, or how the two views line up. This is usually the rarest Reading and Writing question type, often just one or two per test, but it is also one students find the most disorienting because there is twice as much to hold in your head.

    The two texts almost never contradict each other outright. More often Text 2 qualifies, extends, complicates, or offers a specific counterexample to a general claim in Text 1. The exact relationship is the whole game, and the answer choices are built to blur it.

    If you keep missing these, the usual reason is that you formed an opinion about how the authors relate before you nailed down what each one actually claims. Slow down on step one, get each author's position in a short phrase, and the comparison becomes much easier to control.

    New to the Digital SAT? Start with how the test is structured and scored.

    What the SAT actually tests

    • Comparing how two texts treat the same topic, issue, or question.
    • Inferring how the author of one text would likely respond to a specific claim or finding in the other.
    • Identifying agreement, disagreement, qualification, or a shift in emphasis between the two authors.
    • Distinguishing each author's actual position from what the other author claims or from your own outside view.
    • Responding to a specific underlined claim or finding in one text, using only the part of the other author's view that applies to it.
    • Recognizing when one text offers evidence or a case that narrows, supports, or challenges a broader statement in the other.
    • Telling apart a critique of an author's conclusion from a critique of how they reasoned to it, since Text 2 sometimes questions the method or evidence rather than the claim itself.

    Strategies that work

    Summarize each text in one line

    Before reading the question, write or think a short phrase capturing Text 1's main claim and Text 2's main claim. If you cannot say each in your own words, you are not ready to compare them, and the choices will push you toward a relationship neither author actually holds.

    Name the relationship

    Decide in plain terms how Text 2 relates to Text 1: agrees, disagrees, adds a condition, gives a counterexample, or shifts focus. Lock that in before you touch the options. Then keep only the choice that matches your named relationship and drop the rest.

    Answer as the right author

    When the prompt asks how one author would respond to the other, stay strictly inside that author's text for your evidence. A tempting choice often describes a reasonable view that the assigned author never actually expressed, so check that the response is grounded in their words, not just plausible in general.

    Mistakes to avoid

    • Blending the two texts together and losing track of which author said what.
    • Assuming the authors flatly disagree when Text 2 only qualifies or narrows Text 1.
    • Answering with a view that sounds reasonable but is not actually stated by the author the question asks about.
    • Overlooking a hedge like some, often, or in certain cases that softens a claim and changes the comparison.
    • Choosing a choice that captures one text accurately but misrepresents the other.
    Sage, the SAT Prep Quest Reading & Writing coach

    Practice with Sage, your Reading & Writing coach

    Answer right here and Sage walks you through it, just like in a drill. Difficulty labels are relative within this skill.

    Question 1Easy

    Text 1: Many educators praise open-plan classrooms, where movable furniture and few walls let students shift easily between group and solo work. Supporters say the flexibility keeps students engaged and lets teachers reshape a room to fit each lesson. Text 2: In our survey of forty schools, teachers valued the flexibility of open-plan rooms but repeatedly raised one problem: noise. Sound from one group readily carried to another, and several teachers said the constant background chatter made focused, independent reading harder to sustain.

    Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the supporters described in Text 1?

    Pick an answer to get instant coaching from Sage.

    Question 2Medium

    Text 1: The economist Priya Nair argues that remote work will steadily shrink big-city downtowns. If employees no longer need to commute, she reasons, companies will cut expensive office space and the shops and restaurants that depend on office crowds will follow them out. Text 2: Downtown foot traffic has indeed fallen on weekdays. But over the same period, weekend visits to many city centers rose, as former commuters returned for restaurants, museums, and events. The downtown is not emptying so much as changing rhythm, busier for leisure even as it thins for work.

    Based on the texts, how does the finding described in Text 2 relate to Nair's argument in Text 1?

    Pick an answer to get instant coaching from Sage.

    Question 3Hard

    Text 1: Conservation biologist Lena Ostrom maintains that reintroducing top predators is the surest way to restore a damaged ecosystem. When wolves returned to one national park, she notes, overgrazing eased and vegetation along riverbanks recovered, a cascade of benefits flowing from a single species. Text 2: Predator reintroduction can trigger such cascades, but the outcome is far from guaranteed. In several grassland trials, restored predators failed to shift plant communities, because the damage there stemmed from altered soil chemistry and invasive grasses rather than from overgrazing that a predator could curb.

    Based on the texts, the author of Text 2 would most likely characterize Ostrom's conclusion as

    Pick an answer to get instant coaching from Sage.

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    The rest of Craft and Structure

    Cross-Text Connections is one of 3 skills in Craft and Structure. The ideas build on each other, so it pays to learn them as a set rather than in isolation. See how Craft and Structure fits together.

    Other Reading and Writing skills to explore

    SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in producing, and does not endorse, this product. Score estimates are Learner Labs projections, not official College Board scores.

    Cross-Text Connections: SAT Practice | SAT Prep Quest