What this lesson covers
- Name Text 1's claim in a single phrase first
- Spot what Text 2 grants before it argues
- Why a true sentence can still be the wrong answer
- One worked example, start to finish
Worked examples
The questions the video works, written out: the setup, each step, the answer and the trap.
0:13Example 1
Text 1: The city's new bike lanes have not reduced traffic. Average car travel times along the corridor are unchanged a year after installation. Text 2: Travel times were never the point. The lanes were built to make an unsafe corridor survivable, and injury crashes along it have fallen by half. A project can succeed at what it was designed to do while leaving other numbers flat. How would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claim in Text 1? A) By arguing that the claim measures the lanes against a goal they were not built to serve. B) By disputing the finding that car travel times are unchanged. C) By noting that injury crashes have fallen by half. D) By agreeing that the bike lanes have failed.
- Name Text 1's claim in a single phrase before reading Text 2: the lanes failed, because travel times did not move. The question asks what Author 2 says back to that, not what Author 2 thinks in general.
- Spot what Text 2 grants before it argues. Travel times were never the point: Author 2 accepts the unchanged travel times in the first sentence. The number is conceded.
- Find where Text 2 meets the claim. It rejects the yardstick: the lanes were built for safety, and a project can succeed at its purpose while other numbers stay flat. The reply is about the standard, not the data.
- Test the choices against the claim. A: the claim measures the lanes against a goal they were not built to serve. That is Text 2's whole move. B has Author 2 disputing a number Author 2 conceded in the first sentence. C, crashes fell by half, is a true sentence from Text 2, but on its own it points at nothing in Text 1; it is evidence for the reply, not the reply. D reverses Text 2, which says the project succeeded.
Answer: A
A is the only choice aimed at Text 1's actual claim: it does not fight the travel-time figure, it fights the decision to judge the lanes by it, exactly as Text 2 does. The interesting trap is C, a sentence Author 2 really wrote; students pick it because it is true and it is in Text 2, but a hypothetical-response answer has to answer the claim, and a crash statistic alone lands beside the target, not on it. B tempts students who assume disagreement means disputing the data.
One more, same method
Text 1: The museum's free-admission policy has failed. Annual attendance has barely changed in the three years since tickets were dropped, so the city is forgoing revenue for nothing. Text 2: Attendance was never the measure. Free admission was adopted to change who comes through the door, and the share of first-time visitors from the surrounding neighborhoods has tripled. A museum can draw the same number of people and still be serving a different city. How would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claim in Text 1? A) By arguing that the claim judges the policy by a standard it was not adopted to meet. B) By disputing the figure showing that attendance has barely changed. C) By pointing out that the share of first-time neighborhood visitors has tripled. D) By conceding that the free-admission policy has not achieved its purpose.
- Name the claim: the policy failed, because attendance did not rise. Hold that phrase while reading Text 2.
- Spot the grant. Attendance was never the measure, and the same number of people: Author 2 accepts the flat attendance figure outright.
- Find the reply. Author 2 says the policy was meant to change who visits, not how many, and by that standard it worked. Again the response is about the yardstick, not the data.
- Test the choices. A names the yardstick objection: that is the reply. B has Author 2 disputing a figure just conceded. C is a true sentence from Text 2, real evidence, but it answers nothing until it is attached to the point that attendance was the wrong measure. D is the opposite of Text 2's position.
Answer: A
A answers the claim rather than the topic: Text 2 accepts the attendance number and rejects the standard it is being judged by, which is what A describes. C is the trap, because it is accurate and it comes from Text 2, but a statistic aimed at nothing in Text 1 is not a response; B is the reflex of students who assume the second author must contest the first author's data.
Chapters
- 0:04Answer the claim, not the topic
- 0:13The setup
- 0:29Name the claim, then find the reply
- 0:58Two ways this goes wrong
- 1:17Name the claim first
Lesson transcript
The narration of the video, word for word, under its chapter headings.
0:13The setup
Text one makes a claim. The question asks how the second author would answer it. Not what author two thinks in general. What author two says back to that.
0:29Name the claim, then find the reply
Name text one's claim in one phrase. The lanes failed, because travel times did not move. Now find where author two meets it. Author two never disputes the number. Author two says travel time was the wrong yardstick. So the response is about the standard, not the data. That is A.
0:58Two ways this goes wrong
Two traps. A true sentence from text two that never touches text one's claim. The crash statistic is real, and it is not a reply. And making author two fight a number author two already accepted.
1:17Name the claim first
Name the claim. Then find the sentence aimed at it.
Read the written version: the Cross-Text Connections strategy guide, then try 25 hard Cross-Text Connections questions with full explanations. Both are free, no account needed.