Question 155·Hard·Cross-Text Connections
Text 1
Remote-sensing imagery indicates that between 2010 and 2020, barchan dunes along the Almarin Plain advanced more slowly after a large wind farm was built upwind in 2013. To explain this shift, the survey’s geologists argue that turbine wakes reduce near-surface wind speeds across the dune field, diminishing sand transport and thus migration rates.
Text 2
A boundary-layer meteorology team deployed anemometers throughout the same dune field from 2011 to 2019. They report no significant change in mean 2-meter wind speeds after the wind farm’s installation, though turbulence intensity increased. The team notes that the period of reduced dune motion coincided with an unusually wet winter that produced a surface crust persisting for months; when the crusts broke up, dune migration rebounded even as the wind farm remained. They conclude that the slowdown is unlikely to be primarily due to reduced near-surface winds from turbines.
Which choice best describes how Text 1 and Text 2 relate to each other?
For cross-text relationship questions, first summarize each passage in a short note: what phenomenon is described and what claim or explanation is given? Then ask how the second text relates to the first: does it support, refine, contradict, or propose an alternative explanation? Only after you’re clear on that relationship should you read the answer choices, eliminating any that (1) get the basic facts of either text wrong, or (2) confuse disagreement about cause with disagreement about whether the phenomenon itself occurred. Use this targeted summary-plus-elimination approach to move quickly and avoid being distracted by tempting but inaccurate wording.
Hints
Clarify Text 1’s main point
Focus on what changed about the dunes after 2013 and how the geologists explain that change. Are they mainly comparing methods, listing possibilities, or arguing for one specific cause?
Clarify Text 2’s main point
Ask yourself: does Text 2 say the slowdown in dune movement never happened, or does it accept the slowdown but challenge why it happened? What alternative explanation does it suggest?
Test each answer for accuracy
For each choice, check two things: (1) Does it correctly describe what Text 1 actually does? (2) Does it correctly describe Text 2’s stance on the slowdown and its cause? Eliminate any option that misstates even one of the texts.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand what Text 1 is doing
Text 1 first describes a trend: remote-sensing imagery shows that from 2010 to 2020, the dunes advanced more slowly after the wind farm was built in 2013.
Then it offers a specific explanation for that slowdown: the geologists argue that turbine wakes reduce near-surface wind speeds, which reduces sand transport and therefore dune migration. Text 1 does not compare multiple explanations or lay out a detailed measurement method; it reports an observed change and links it causally to the wind farm.
Understand what Text 2 is doing
Text 2 describes a different research team that installed anemometers (wind-measuring instruments) in the same dune field from 2011 to 2019.
They found:
- No significant change in mean 2-meter wind speeds after the wind farm went in, although turbulence increased.
- The slowdown in dune motion lined up with an unusually wet winter that created a long-lasting surface crust.
- When the crust broke up, dune migration picked up again even though the wind farm was still there.
Based on this, they conclude the slowdown is unlikely to be mainly caused by reduced near-surface winds from turbines. So Text 2 accepts the slowdown but disputes Text 1’s explanation and points to a different cause (the crust from the wet winter).
Match this relationship to the answer choices
From Steps 1 and 2, the relationship is:
- Text 1: reports a slowdown in dune migration and attributes it to a wind-farm effect (reduced near-surface wind speeds).
- Text 2: accepts the slowdown but argues, using wind measurements and timing with a wet winter, that another factor better explains it.
Now check each choice against that:
- Choice A says Text 2 largely supports Text 1’s explanation and only adds the wet winter as a secondary role. But Text 2 explicitly concludes the slowdown is unlikely to be primarily due to reduced near-surface winds from turbines.
- Choice C says Text 2 thinks the data are insufficient to link the slowdown to any particular factor. In fact, Text 2 points to a specific alternative factor (crusting after an unusually wet winter) and uses the rebound of migration when crusts broke up as supporting context.
- Choice D says Text 2 suggests the slowdown is mainly an artifact of the observation method. Text 2 does not challenge the remote-sensing observations as invalid; it challenges the causal explanation Text 1 gives for the slowdown.
These three choices all misdescribe what at least one of the texts is doing, so they can be eliminated.
Select the answer that fits both texts accurately
The only remaining choice that correctly captures the relationship is Choice B: "Text 1 describes a trend and attributes it to an effect of the wind farm, whereas Text 2 presents measurements and contextual evidence that point to a different cause."
This matches our reading: Text 1 links slower dunes to turbine-caused wind reduction, and Text 2 brings in direct wind data plus weather timing (the crust after the wet winter) to argue the slowdown mainly came from something else.