Question 64·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure
Text 1 is from a novel about the reopening of a historic theater. Text 2 discusses the conservation of historic objects.
Text 1
Nila declined the theater director’s request to repaint the century-old stage curtain its former crimson. Instead, she reinforced it with undyed netting, visible on close inspection, and retained both the pale bands created when the curtain was folded during years of touring and an arc of soot from a later storage fire. To keep the auditorium uncluttered, the director installed Nila’s explanatory label in the lobby around the corner. At the preview, one guest praised the original painter’s “delicate gray arc,” while a theater historian called the muted bands evidence of the painter’s restraint. Nila realized that both had taken damage for design.
Text 2
Conservators sometimes distinguish material legibility from historical legibility. A repair is materially legible when additions can be distinguished from surviving fabric; this prevents a present intervention from masquerading as original work. Historical legibility, however, concerns whether viewers can infer the chronology of all visible features. The first does not guarantee the second: an obvious support may reveal itself as new without explaining whether a nearby stain, abrasion, or discoloration preceded or followed the object’s creation. Exhibition choices can supply that chronology, but only if interpretive material is encountered with the object. Thus, judgments about treatment and display may diverge even though both affect what an object seems to say about its past.
Based on the texts, the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement about Nila’s work in Text 1?
For cross-text questions, translate the analytical text’s distinctions into separate criteria before applying them to the narrative text. Then evaluate each answer choice clause by clause, especially choices that correctly apply one criterion but draw an unsupported conclusion about the other.
Hints
Identify the distinction
Determine how Text 2 differentiates recognizing new repair material from understanding when every visible feature originated.
Classify the netting
Consider what the visibility of Nila’s undyed netting tells viewers about that specific addition.
Assess the guests’ chronology
Ask whether the guests correctly identify when the pale bands and gray arc became part of the curtain.
Step-by-step Explanation
Distinguish the two kinds of legibility
In Text 2, material legibility concerns whether added repair material can be distinguished from original fabric. Historical legibility concerns whether viewers can determine when the object’s various visible features originated.
Evaluate the physical treatment
Nila’s netting is visible on close inspection, so viewers can distinguish the new support from the original curtain. Her repair is therefore materially legible under Text 2’s framework.
Evaluate the presentation
The guests attribute the pale bands and soot arc to the original painter rather than to touring and a later fire. Because the explanatory label is around the corner, the curtain’s display does not give them the chronology needed for historical legibility.
Choose the complete conclusion
The best answer must recognize both judgments: the treatment preserves the curtain’s accumulated history responsibly, but the display permits later changes to be mistaken for original design features.