Question 14·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure
Text 1
Art historian Leila Okafor studies atlases printed by Hendrik Vos in the 1580s. In several surviving copies, handwritten coastlines and place-names cluster in broad, undecorated spaces on the maps. An advertisement for the atlases describes them as “a work each voyager may perfect.” Okafor concludes that Vos intentionally left areas blank so purchasers could complete the maps with geographic knowledge acquired during their travels.
Text 2
Book historian Tomas Varga traced the ink and ownership histories of the copies Okafor examined. He determined that most of the handwritten additions were made around 1820 by a single collector who had acquired several of the atlases, not by their original purchasers. Varga also notes that in sixteenth-century advertisements, saying that a work “may be perfected” often promised correction in a later edition rather than inviting customers to write in it. However, comparisons among editions show that Vos repeatedly removed decorative ships when new geographic details left less open space, suggesting that preserving some unfilled space mattered to the maps' layout. According to Varga, this design choice does not reveal what activity, if any, Vos expected to occur in those spaces.
Based on the texts, how would Varga most likely evaluate Okafor's conclusion?
For cross-text questions, divide the first author's conclusion into its component claims, such as whether a feature was deliberate and what purpose it served. Then determine exactly which components the second text supports, qualifies, or rejects, avoiding options that combine separate facts into an inference the text does not make.
Hints
Separate the two parts of the claim
Distinguish between intentionally preserving open space and intending a particular use for that space.
Check the additions' history
Consider whether the date and authorship of the handwritten material make it evidence about Vos's original purchasers.
Limit each piece of evidence
Ask what the advertisement and the layout changes establish individually, without combining them into a stronger conclusion than Text 2 permits.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify Okafor's full conclusion
Okafor claims not only that Vos deliberately left areas open but also that he did so for a particular purpose: to let purchasers add geographic information from their travels.
Assess Okafor's evidence using Text 2
Varga finds that most of the handwritten additions came from one collector centuries after the atlases were printed, so those additions do not show how original purchasers used the maps. He also explains that the advertisement's wording commonly referred to corrections in later editions rather than customer annotations.
Preserve the limited support
Vos's removal of decorative ships suggests that open space was an intentional part of the layout. However, Varga explicitly cautions that this design choice does not identify the activity Vos expected there, so it cannot establish Okafor's proposed purpose.