Question 136·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure
Text 1
Historian Alina Maren examines membership rolls from a sixteenth-century textile guild. Because the rolls contain few women's names, some scholars have inferred that women rarely participated in commercial cloth production. Maren notes, however, that the rolls assigned dues to each household's legally recognized representative, who was usually a man. Supplier invoices identify women ordering dye in bulk and paying cloth finishers. Although these invoices do not establish that the women possessed guild privileges, Maren argues that they show the rolls understate women's practical authority in the trade.
Text 2
Historian Jonas Sovic cautions that women named in supplier records cannot automatically be regarded as long-term independent proprietors: many were widows keeping workshops active only until a son qualified as a guild master. Even so, probate inventories reveal that some women controlled looms and dye stocks for years while guild dues continued to be recorded under a male relative's name. Sovic concludes that the guild's method of recording households concealed some women's work, though the extent and institutional status of that work remain uncertain.
Based on the texts, how would Sovic in Text 2 most likely respond to Maren's interpretation of the supplier invoices in Text 1?
For a cross-text response question, first state the central claim made in Text 1. Then determine whether Text 2 accepts, rejects, or qualifies that claim. Pay special attention to limiting language such as “cannot automatically” and “even so,” since the correct answer often needs to preserve both the authors' common ground and the second author's qualification.
Hints
Find the common ground
Determine what both historians believe the guild rolls fail to show accurately.
Notice the distinction in the evidence
Separate evidence that a person performed commercial work from evidence that the person had permanent, formal guild status.
Track Sovic's qualification
Focus on why Sovic discusses widows who managed workshops until their sons qualified.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify Maren's interpretation
Maren uses the invoices to challenge the inference that women played little role in commercial cloth production. She carefully distinguishes practical commercial authority from formal guild privileges.
Identify Sovic's qualification
Sovic also believes that guild records concealed some women's work. However, he warns that a woman's appearance in a supplier record may indicate temporary workshop management rather than long-term independent ownership.
Connect the two positions
Sovic would neither dismiss the invoices nor treat them as proof of equal guild status. He would accept their relevance while limiting what can reasonably be concluded from them, as choice A states.