Question 142·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure

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Text 1 is an excerpt from a novel. In the passage, a fire has damaged a violin that belonged to Inez's grandfather.

Text 1

The maple strip Tomas had fitted along the violin's side was too pale to overlook. Inez had asked him to restore their grandfather's instrument, not revise it. Grandfather's joins had been nearly invisible; this one, she thought, announced the repairer's hand at the expense of the maker's. For weeks she left the violin in its case.

At a commemorative concert, however, she brought it out to play her grandfather's unfinished suite. As the bow crossed the strings, the instrument's tone was rougher than she remembered but not diminished—less like an echo, she thought, than a reply. Reaching the place where the score stopped, she did not lower the bow. She played an ending she had composed, while the bright strip flashed each time she turned toward the window.

Text 2

Visible repair in fiction is often treated as a form of commemoration: an object's scar anchors it to the moment of damage. Yet some narratives give repair a more prospective function. Since the break remains legible, the repaired object does not pretend that tradition has passed down intact; since the object remains usable, neither does it seal tradition off as a finished past. Such objects permit characters to inherit critically, drawing authority from predecessors without allowing those predecessors to determine what may be done next.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely interpret the relationship between the visible maple strip and the ending Inez composes?

For a cross-text connection question, first summarize the interpretive framework supplied by one text, including any distinctions it makes. Then apply that framework to the specific actions or images in the other text. Prefer the option that accounts for all relevant details and preserves the framework's qualifications rather than selecting an option that represents only one rejected extreme.

Hints

Hint 1
Notice the contrast
Compare Inez's initial reaction to the repair with what she ultimately does at the concert.
Hint 2
Identify Text 2's two rejected extremes
Text 2 distinguishes its view from both erasing evidence of damage and treating a repaired object only as a record of the past.
Hint 3
Account for both details
Choose the option that explains why the strip remains visible and why Inez adds material that her grandfather did not write.

Step-by-step

Step 1
Trace Inez's changing response
Inez initially dislikes the conspicuous repair because it seems to revise her grandfather's work. At the concert, however, she accepts the violin's altered sound and uses it to perform her own ending to the unfinished suite.
Step 2
Apply Text 2's framework
Text 2 distinguishes its interpretation from two extremes: pretending that tradition remains unchanged and preserving the past only as a memorial. A visibly repaired but usable object instead allows a character to recognize disruption while taking new action.
Step 3
Select the complete interpretation
The strip preserves evidence of the fire, while Inez's ending demonstrates creative action grounded in, but not controlled by, her inheritance. Therefore, the correct answer is D: The strip keeps the fire's disruption legible, while the ending shows Inez using inherited tradition to produce something not dictated by her grandfather.

Lessons that teach this

SAT Reading: Craft and StructureAdvancedCoreText 1 and Text 2: how would one author respond?

Question 142·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure

Text 1

Text 2

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