Sample Repository

CROSSTEXT CONNECTIONS
EASY LEVEL QUESTIONS :
1)

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 ?

A. As typical, because scholars are dismissive of literary works that achieve popularity with the general
public
B. As unsurprising, because scholars tend to overlook the literary value of food writing in general and
of regional cookbooks in particular
C. As justifiable, because Lewis incorporated memoir into The Taste of Country Cooking, thus
undermining its status as a cookbook
D. As inevitable, because The Taste of Country Cooking was marketed to readers of food writing and
not to readers of other genres
2)

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?
A. Tropical mountain bird species are restricted in where they can live.
B. Scientists have better tools to observe tropical mountain birds than they did in the past.
C. Little is known about how tropical mountain birds build their nests.
D. Tropical mountain bird species that live at high elevations tend to be genetically similar.
3)
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? A. Lewis's
portrait busts have overshadowed her other work.
B. The Death of Cleopatra is Lewis's most famous piece.
C. Sculpting representations of historical figures was a short-lived trend.
D. Lewis's works are varied in the subjects they depict.

4)
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 food-producing 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?

A. The author of Text 2 approaches the study's findings with some caution, whereas the author of Text
1 is optimistic about the reported potential environmental benefits.
B. Text 1 thinks the percentage is sufficient.
C. The author of Text 2 believes that the results described by Strassburg's team are achievable in the
near future, whereas the author of Text 1 argues that they likely aren't.
D. The author of Text 2 focuses on rewilding's effect on carbon emissions, whereas the author of Text 1
focuses on its effect on biodiversity.
5)

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?

A. The author of Text 1 argues that the formation of the moon occurred much earlier than the author of
Text 2 argues.
B. The author of Text 1 suggests there is more evidence confirming the existence of Theia than the
author of Text 2 suggests.
C. The author of Text 1 claims that the moon's surface is more similar to Earth's surface than the author
of Text 2 claims.
D. The author of Text 1 believes that the moon formed more slowly than the author of Text 2 believes.
MEDIUM LEVEL QUESTIONS
1)
Text 1
Stage lighting theorist Adolphe Appia was perhaps the first to argue that light must be considered
alongside all the various elements of a stage to create a single, unified performance. Researcher
Kelly Bremner, however, has noted that Appia lacked technical expertise in the use of light in the
theater. As a result of Appia's inexperience, Bremner argues, Appia's theory of light called for
lighting practices that weren't possible until after the advent of electricity around 1881.
Text 2
Adolphe Appia was not an amateur in the practice of lighting. Instead, it is precisely his exposure to
lighting techniques at the time that contributed to his theory on the importance of light. When
working as an apprentice for a lighting specialist in his youth, Appia observed the use of portable
lighting devices that could be operated by hand. This experience developed his understanding of
what was possible in the coordination of elements on the stage.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claim about Appia's level of
technical expertise made by Bremner in Text 1 ?

A. Many lighting technicians dismissed Appia's ideas about light on the stage.
B. Appia likely gained a level of technical expertise during his time as an apprentice.
C. Theater practitioners who worked with Appia greatly admired his work.
D. Appia was unfamiliar with the use of music and sound in theater.

2)

Text 1
In 2021, a team led by Amir Siraj hypothesized that the Chicxulub impactor-the object that struck the Yucatán
Peninsula sixty-six million years ago, precipitating the mass extinction of the dinosaurs-was likely a member
of the class of long-period comets. As evidence, Siraj cited the carbonaceous chondritic composition of
samples from the Chicxulub impact crater as well as of samples obtained from long-period comet Wild 2 in
2006.

Text 2

Although long-period comets contain carbonaceous chondrites, asteroids are similarly rich in these materials.
Furthermore, some asteroids are rich in iridium, as Natalia Artemieva points out, whereas long-period comets
are not. Given the prevalence of iridium at the crater and, more broadly, in geological layers deposited
worldwide following the impact, Artemieva argues that an asteroid is a more plausible candidate for the
Chicxulub impactor.
 Based on the texts, how would Artemieva likely respond to Siraj's hypothesis, as presented in Text 1?

A. By insisting that it overestimates how representative Wild 2 is of long-period comets as a

class
B. By arguing that it does not account for the amount of iridium found in geological layers
dating to the Chicxulub impact
C. By praising it for connecting the composition of Chicxulub crater samples to the composition
of certain asteroids
D. By concurring that carbonaceous chondrites are prevalent in soil samples from sites distant
from the Chicxulub crater

3)
Text 1

Philosopher G.E. Moore's most influential work entails the concept of common sense. He asserts that there
are certain beliefs that all people, including philosophers, know instinctively to be true, whether or not they
profess otherwise: among them, that they have bodies, or that they exist in a world with other objects that
have three dimensions. Moore's careful work on common sense may seem obvious but was in fact
groundbreaking.

Text 2
External world skepticism is a philosophical stance supposing that we cannot be sure of the existence of
anything outside our own minds. During a lecture, G.E. Moore once offered a proof refuting this stance by
holding out his hands and saying, "Here is one hand, and here is another." Many philosophers reflexively
reject this proof (Annalisa Coliva called it "an obviously annoying failure") but have found it a challenge to
articulate exactly why the proof fails.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely respond to proponents of the philosophical
stance outlined in Text 2?

A. By agreeing with those proponents that Moore's treatment of positions that contradict his own is
fundamentally unserious
B. By suggesting that an instinctive distaste for Moore's position is preventing external world skeptics
from constructing a sufficiently rigorous refutation of Moore
C. By arguing that if it is valid to assert that some facts are true based on instinct, it is also valid to
assert that some proofs are inadequate based on instinct
D. By pointing out that Moore would assert that external world skepticism is at odds with other beliefs
those proponents must unavoidably hold
 4)

Text 1
Because literacy in Nahuatl script, the writing system of the Aztec Empire, was lost after Spain invaded
central Mexico in the 1500 s, it is unclear exactly how meaning was encoded in the script's symbols.
Although many scholars had assumed that the symbols signified entire words, linguist Alfonso Lacadena
theorized in 2008 that they signified units of language smaller than words: individual syllables.

Text 2

The growing consensus among scholars of Nahuatl script is that many of its symbols could signify either
words or syllables, depending on syntax and content at any given site within a text. For example, the symbol
signifying the word huipil (blouse) in some contexts could signify the syllable "pil" in others, as in the place
name "Chipiltepec." Thus, for the Aztecs, reading required a determination of how such symbols functioned
each time they appeared in a text.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely characterize Lacadena's theory, as described
in Text 1?

A. By praising the theory for recognizing that the script's symbols could represent entire words
B. By arguing that the theory is overly influenced by the work of earlier scholars
C. By approving of the theory's emphasis on how the script changed over time
D. By cautioning that the theory overlooks certain important aspects of how the script functioned

5) Text 1
Many studies in psychology have shown that people seek out information even when they know in advance
that they have no immediate use for it and that they won't directly benefit from it. Such findings support the
consensus view among researchers of curiosity: namely, that curiosity is not instrumental but instead
represents a drive to acquire information for its own sake.

Text 2

While acknowledging that acquiring information is a powerful motivator, Rachit Dubey and colleagues ran
an experiment to test whether emphasizing the usefulness of scientific information could increase curiosity
about it. They found that when research involving rats and fruit flies was presented as having medical
applications for humans, participants expressed greater interest in learning about it than when the research
was not presented as useful.

Based on the texts, how would Dubey and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the consensus view
discussed in Text 1?
 A. By suggesting that curiosity may not be exclusively motivated by the desire to merely acquire
information
B. By conceding that people may seek out information that serves no immediate purpose only because
they think they can use it later
C. By pointing out that it is challenging to determine when information-seeking serves no goal beyond
acquiring information
D. By disputing the idea that curiosity can help explain apparently purposeless information-seeking
behaviors

HARD LEVEL QUESTIONS

1)

Text 1
Dominique Potvin and colleagues captured five Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) to test a new
design for attaching tracking devices to birds. As the researchers fitted each magpie with a tracker attached
by a small harness, they noticed some magpies without trackers pecking at another magpie's tracker until it
broke off. The researchers suggest that this behavior could be evidence of magpies attempting to help
another magpie without benefiting themselves.

Text 2
It can be tempting to think that animals are deliberately providing help when we see them removing trackers
and other equipment from one another, especially when a species is known to exhibit other cooperative
behaviors. At the same time, it can be difficult to exclude the possibility that individuals are simply
interested in the equipment because of its novelty, curiously pawing or pecking at it until it detaches.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the researchers' perspective in
Text 1 on the behavior of the magpies without trackers?

A. That behavior might have been due to the novelty of the magpies' captive setting rather than to the
novelty of the tracker.
B. That behavior likely indicates that the magpies were deliberately attempting to benefit themselves by
obtaining the tracker.
C. That behavior may not be evidence of selflessness in Gymnorhina tibicen because not all the
captured magpies demonstrated it.
D. That behavior might be adequately explained without suggesting that the magpies were attempting to
assist the other magpie.
 2)

Text 1
Ecologists have long wondered how thousands of microscopic phytoplankton species can live together near
ocean surfaces competing for the same resources. According to conventional wisdom, one species should
emerge after outcompeting the rest. So why do so many species remain? Ecologists' many efforts to explain
this phenomenon still haven't uncovered a satisfactory explanation.

Text 2

Ecologist Michael Behrenfeld and colleagues have connected phytoplankton's diversity to their microscopic
size. Because these organisms are so tiny, they are spaced relatively far apart from each other in ocean water
and, moreover, experience that water as a relatively dense substance. This in turn makes it hard for them to
move around and interact with one another. Therefore, says Behrenfeld's team, direct competition among
phytoplankton probably happens much less than previously thought.

Based on the texts, how would Behrenfeld and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the "conventional
wisdom" discussed in Text 1?

A. By arguing that it is based on a misconception about phytoplankton species competing with one
another
B. By asserting that it fails to recognize that routine replenishment of ocean nutrients prevents
competition between phytoplankton species
C. By suggesting that their own findings help clarify how phytoplankton species are able to compete
with larger organisms
D. By recommending that more ecologists focus their research on how competition among
phytoplankton species is increased with water density

3) Text 1
Like the work of Ralph Ellison before her, Toni Morrison's novels feature scenes in which characters deliver
sermons of such length and verbal dexterity that for a time, the text exchanges the formal parameters of
fiction for those of oral literature. Given the many other echoes of Ellison in Morrison's novels, both in
structure and prose style, these scenes suggest Ellison's direct influence on Morrison.

Text 2

In their destabilizing effect on literary form, the sermons in Morrison's works recall those in Ellison's. Yet
literature by Black Americans abounds in moments where interpolated speech erodes the division between
oral and written forms that literature in English has traditionally observed. Morrison's use of the sermon is
attributable not only to the influence of Ellison but also to a community-wide strategy of resistance to
externally imposed literary conventions.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely characterize the underlined claim in Text 1?
 A. As failing to consider Ellison's and Morrison's equivalent uses of the sermon within the wider
cultural context in which they wrote
B. As misunderstanding the function of sermons in novels by Black American writers other than Ellison
and Morrison
C. As disregarding points of structural and stylistic divergence between the works of Ellison and those
of Morrison
D. As being indebted to the tradition of resisting literary conventions that privilege written forms, such
as novels, over sermons and other oral forms

4) Text 1

Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando is an oddity within her body of work. Her other major novels consist
mainly of scenes of everyday life and describe their characters' interior states in great detail, whereas
Orlando propels itself through a series of fantastical events and considers its characters' psychology more
superficially. Woolf herself sometimes regarded the novel as a minor work, even admitting once that she
"began it as a joke."

Text 2
Like Woolf's other great novels, Orlando portrays how people's memories inform their experience of the
present. Like those works, it examines how people navigate social interactions shaped by gender and social
class. Though it is lighter in tone-more entertaining, even-this literary "joke" nonetheless engages seriously
with the themes that motivated the four or five other novels by Woolf that have achieved the status of
literary classics.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assessment of Orlando
presented in Text 1 ?

A. By conceding that Woolf's talents were best suited to serious novels but asserting that the humor in
Orlando is often effective
B. By agreeing that Orlando is less impressive than certain other novels by Woolf but arguing that it
should still be regarded as a classic
C. By acknowledging that Orlando clearly differs from Woolf's other major novels but insisting on its
centrality to her body of work nonetheless
D. By concurring that the reputation of Orlando as a minor work has led readers to overlook this novel
but maintaining that the reputation is unearned
 5)

Text 1
Most animals can regenerate some parts of their bodies, such as skin. But when a threebanded panther worm
is cut into three pieces, each piece grows into a new worm. Researchers are investigating this feat partly to
learn more about humans' comparatively limited abilities to regenerate, and they're making exciting
progress. An especially promising discovery is that both humans and panther worms have a gene for early
growth response (EGR) linked to regeneration.

Text 2
When Mansi Srivastava and her team reported that panther worms, like humans, possess a gene for EGR, it
caused excitement. However, as the team pointed out, the gene likely functions very differently in humans
than it does in panther worms. Srivastava has likened EGR to a switch that activates other genes involved in
regeneration in panther worms, but how this switch operates in humans remains unclear.

Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 2 most likely say about Text 1's characterization of the
discovery involving EGR?

A. It is reasonable given that Srivastava and her team have identified how EGR functions in both
humans and panther worms.
B. It is overly optimistic given additional observations from Srivastava and her team.
C. It is unexpected given that Srivastava and her team's findings were generally met with enthusiasm.
D. It is unfairly dismissive given the progress that Srivastava and her team have reported.
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