Integration of Ideas Across and Within Passages
This domain covers paired-passage questions and questions that require combining details from different parts of one passage. Paired passages sit on the same topic - often a historian and a novelist writing about one event, or two scientists with competing explanations - and the questions ask how the authors' claims, evidence, and attitudes relate.
A paired-passage routine
Read Passage A, answer every question that refers only to A, then read B and do the same; only then attempt the comparison questions. Build a three-line comparison in your head: the topic both address, each author's main claim, and each author's tone.
Question types
- "Both authors would agree that..." - the answer must be supported by both texts, so a statement true of only one passage is wrong.
- "The author of Passage B would most likely respond to Passage A by..." - use B's stated position and its evidence.
- "The main difference between the two passages is..." - look for a disagreement in claim or emphasis, not just in subject.
Within-passage integration
Some questions require two details from different paragraphs: a cause stated early and its consequence stated late, or a definition in paragraph 1 applied to an example in paragraph 5.
Worked example
Passage A argues that curbside recycling wastes money because sorting is expensive. Passage B argues that recycling saves money because landfill fees are higher than processing costs. The authors disagree mainly about whether recycling is cost-effective. They do not disagree about whether recycling helps the environment - neither passage discusses it, so any choice framing the dispute that way is wrong.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming two passages disagree when they differ only in emphasis.
- Importing one author's claim into the other's position.
- On "both" questions, choosing a statement supported by one passage only.
- Missing that one passage concedes a point the other attacks.