SAT OwlQuestion bank / Cross-Text Connections
Text 1: Shortly after the poet John Keats died in 1821, his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote that harsh reviews of Keats's poetry had broken his spirit and hastened his death. This story was repeated for decades.
Text 2: Keats died of tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his mother and his brother. His letters show that although the reviews stung him, he responded with determination, writing several of his most admired poems after they appeared.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the story described in Text 1?
By arguing that the story misrepresents both the cause of Keats's death and his reaction to the reviews
By agreeing that the reviews caused Keats to stop writing poetry
By claiming that Shelley himself wrote the harsh reviews
By suggesting that Keats's brother wrote some of his letters
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Text 1's story says the reviews broke Keats's spirit and hastened his death. Text 2 says he died of tuberculosis and responded to the reviews with determination, writing major poems afterward. The author would say the story gets both points wrong, choice A.
Choice B contradicts Text 2, which says Keats wrote several of his most admired poems after the reviews appeared.
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