Main content
Cross-text connections — Worked example
Learn the best way to approach a cross-text connections question on your SAT. Cross-text connections questions will always focus on point of view, so we can read the texts with this particular aspect in mind. It's not about knowing all the words or terms a text uses, it's about understanding the relationship between the two texts. Created by David Rheinstrom.
Want to join the conversation?
- How do I enhance my speed of answering each question? I really need some tips regarding that. I can answer most questions but it takes me quite some time to do so as my first language isn't English.(9 votes)
- As far as reading the passage goes, a strategy that I use for speed is imagining the text as I go along, kinda like a story. It helps me get the general idea without hyper-focusing on any complex text structure (which may help you if English isn't your first language?)
I find this useful when remembering the text better while answering the question too. When you go to answer the question, see if any of the choices match up with the story of the text you imagined.
This helped me a lot with speed, I hope this helps you guys too-!(33 votes)
- We are suppose to read every choice on the question even if we find a very likely answer, right?(6 votes)
- Yes, that is what most people encourage. The reason why is that it is much easier to prove that an answer is wrong than proving that an answer is right, so even if you find an answer that is a good candidate, it's a quick check to make sure that all the other three choices can be proven wrong. It's just another way of checking yourself, because if there's an answer that can't be easily proven wrong then you may have made a mistake.(16 votes)
- can you guyz will help me by providing some tips for sat ,actually i have my exam on oct 7 and i dont know anything(3 votes)
- Hey!
My biggest tip would be to work through the questions on multiple passes. I got this from the Black Book by Mike and Patrick Barret.
So the first pass just go through and answer all the really easy ones that you know you can get right quickly.
Second pass go through the ones you know you can get right but you need a little more time on.
Third pass go through the ones you're not sure how to do/are really hard and take the most time.
If you have time for a fourth pass, go through and check all your answers.
This method will help you to get the most points possible.
You can use the flagging tool in Bluebook to know which ones to go back to.
Really hope this helps and good luck on your sat!(13 votes)
- Can someone please tell me the meaning of forsooth and extrapolate.(0 votes)
- Forsooth is the same as "indeed", but you use it when the context isn't serious and you wanna play around with the conversation. "Extrapolate" is the opposite of "interpolate", and it's like when you make a prediction or inference outside the "safe zone" where you have evidences strong enough to support a prediction. "Interpolate", on the other hand, means that you predict or infer within that "safe zone". In statistics there are always two poles that represent the minimum and maximum of reliable data, and anything you do outside those poles, either left to the left pole or right to the right pole, isn't reliable since you don't get sufficient data there to support you.(5 votes)
- I found these questions are easier than previous lesson questions.(2 votes)
- for me , it's the other way around(2 votes)
- In the real test, should I move on to the next question right after spotting the right answer, like David did? I think it is quite a bit risky. Why don't we spend a few seconds to eliminate the remaining choices in order to be very sure about the correct answer? I know doing this could potentially waste some valuable time that I can spend on other tough questions, but what if I miss something or be fooled by some tempting words and mark a wrong (but seems correct) answer as correct?(2 votes)
- Um, maybe you could consider moving through all the questions the way David does, and then going through for a second pass to finish eliminating the rest of the answers if you still have time left. I think that'd be the best way to go about it :)
Hope this helps!(2 votes)
- How can I tell whether the word indicates positive, negative or neutral tone ?(0 votes)
- Depending on the circumstance a word could have a different connotation. Something like, Bro, that song is sick, and, you are so weird. You are like sick to look at,(5 votes)
- As far as reading the passage goes, a strategy that I use for speed is imagining the text as I go along, kinda like a story. It helps me get the general idea without hyper-focusing on any complex text structure (which may help you if English isn't your first language?)
I find this useful when remembering the text better while answering the question too. When you go to answer the question, see if any of the choices match up with the story of the text you imagined.(2 votes) - How can keeping the interest rates on loans too low eliminate the risk of borrowing money to purchase a property and lead to mad rush of buyers?(1 vote)
- If the interest rate is too low, then people try to take advantage of this condition. That's because they know this kind of opportunity might not be again and the possibility of their returning the loan will be high. Therefore, lots of people wanna buy a property by taking a loan, which eventually leads high prices - demand will be higher than supply. (O'zimizda ham shunaqaku, kredit, aytaylik, 3% dan berilsa, juda ko'p odam kredit olib, uy ovorardi. Chunki 3% li kreditni qaytarish 30%sini qaytarishdan ancha osonda)(2 votes)
- would be able to use process of elimination when trying to figure out the answer for SAT.(2 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] I'm
looking at this question and a strategy has already bubbled up in my devious little brain. But if you're feeling like, "I didn't ask for your advice, old man," then fine, whatever. A little harsh, but be my guest. Pause this video and give it a spin. All right, now let's do it together. So before I even read anything
pertaining to this question, I notice that there's two passages here, text one and text two, which means I already have some feelings about what kind of question this is going to be, but let's pop down here to the
question stem to make sure. Based on the texts, how
would the author of text two most likely respond to the claim in the underlined sentence of text one? So we're trying to make a
connection between two texts. Perchance might this be a
cross-text connections question? Why indeed it might, forsooth. These are tough ones and not
just because the word "texts" is a surprisingly
tongue-twistery English word. You're not just being asked to figure out how two different texts
relate to one another. You're also being asked to
extrapolate what the author of one text might say about
the other, and that's tough. You need to really understand
what each text is saying. You need to understand each
author's point of view. But we have the tools to
tackle these questions. Let's assemble a strategy. So these questions are meatier
than some of the others in the reading and writing
test because they necessarily have two passages for each question, but you needn't fear them. The first thing we'll
do is cover the choices. We don't want them distracting
us as we get our heads around what is being
claimed in the passages. Then we'll read and summarize each text in order to identify their points of view. We wanna see how the texts
interact with each other. They're going to be related
in some way, but how? Then it can be helpful
to say in your own words what the relationship
between the texts is. Make a prediction about that relationship. In this question, we're
supposed to surmise how the author of the second passage might react to a specific
claim in the first passage, so that's what we'll do. We'll make a prediction and
then test that prediction against the choices. Let's go back to the
question and try this out. So I'm going to cover up the question so we can make our
prediction without influence. And first things first,
let's read the passages. Text one. "In the 1980s, Japanese
real estate experienced one of the most remarkable
price bubbles in history. Prices became so high that the parkland around Tokyo's Imperial
Palace was estimated to be more valuable than all
land in California combined." Okay, and I know I'm supposed to pay particular attention
to the underlined part. "The cause was simple. The Japanese government
kept interest rates on loans too low, nearly
eliminating the risk of borrowing money to purchase property, and thereby encouraging
a mad rush of buyers chasing a limited amount of real estate." Okay, so we know from
this passage that Japan had an incredible real estate
price bubble in the '80s and the author blames that
on low interest rates. So I'm going to summarize this passage as, "low int rates leads to a bubble." Okay, let's read the second one. Text two. "While interest rate policy
played an important role in the Japanese real estate
bubble, so did the tax system. The tax on owning real
estate was relatively low, whereas the tax on real estate
transactions was very high. This caused people to
hold on to real estate rather than sell it,
and when they did sell, to do so at extremely high prices, so that they could still make a profit after paying the transaction tax." Okay, so this passage
identifies two factors. Look for transitions. We've got the word "so"
here in the second line, in this first sentence. "So did the tax system." It wasn't just interest rates, this person argues, it was also taxes. I think this person would argue that both factors caused the bubble. So I'm gonna put "int rate and
tax system leads to bubble." And so if the question
is, how would the author of Text two most likely
respond to the underlined claim in text one, we kind of
already have that answer in text two, which is it
wasn't just interest rates, it was interest rates and taxes. So my prediction is gonna be both of them. Let's reveal the choices and see if anything
matches that prediction. Right, choice A. How would the author of text two respond? Choice A, "By claiming that the author of Text one is right about
why the bubble occurred but overstates the
consequence of the bubble." This introduces new information,
which we don't want. There's no mention of the consequences of the bubble in text two, cross it off. Okay, the author of Text two
would respond to the claim in text one by choice B,
"Arguing that the author of Text one correctly
identifies a significant factor in the bubble, but neglects
another important factor." Yes, I think this is it. Identifies a significant
factor, interest rates, but neglects another
important factor, taxes. This is my "both of them"
prediction right here. So on test day, I'd circle
this answer and move on, but let's check out the other two. I'll put a little check mark here, 'cause I think it's the answer. Choice C, "By pointing out
that there is little evidence to support the idea that
the factor identified by the author of text one
played a part in the bubble." Now, text two does not do this. In fact, it does the opposite. It says interest rate policy played an important role in the bubble. So cross this one off. Choice D, "By asserting
that the author of text one has conflated the cause of the bubble with an effect of the bubble." Okay, so you might not know
what the word "conflate" means, but don't fall under the spell
of a word you don't know. We have a super strong match
for our prediction in choice B. Word to the wise, don't select a choice you don't quite understand unless none of the other choices
matches your prediction. So even without knowing the
meaning of the word "conflate," you could get this
right and just go with B based on the strength of its match. Incidentally, "conflate"
means to blend ideas together, usually mistakenly, and
so this choice is wrong because passage one doesn't conflate or make the mistake of combining
the cause with the effect. So I can cross this off and circle B. Let's be clear, we got this question right because we saw that passage two said there were two reasons for the bubble, and passage one said there was one. That was the key to getting
this question right. It doesn't matter at all if you don't know the meaning
of the word "conflate," or know anything about tax
policy or interest rates. Let's talk through some top tips for approaching this question type. First, look for tone. As you read, keep an eye out for words that indicate a positive, negative, or even neutral tone on
the part of the author. If you can take a quick
temperature check of each passage, it makes them easier to compare. In this example, the tones matched. Sometimes though, noticing
the contrast in tones can be the key to getting
the question right. Second, be strict and stick to the text. If you see choices that
introduce information that isn't included in the text, you can safely knock those choices out. Third and finally, trust your prediction. Don't let fancy choices
shake your confidence if you've already found another choice that matches your prediction. Good luck out there. test takers. You've got this.