SAT OwlQuestion bank / Cross-Text Connections
Text 1: Some historians attribute the success of the Wright brothers' 1903 flight mainly to their engine. They note that the brothers designed and built a lightweight engine of their own when no manufacturer could supply one that suited their needs.
Text 2: The Wrights' engine was in fact modest, producing only about 12 horsepower. Their decisive advance was a method for controlling an aircraft in the air, which they called wing warping. Earlier experimenters had built machines that could briefly leave the ground; what none had solved was how to keep them balanced and steer them once aloft.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the historians' view in Text 1?
By agreeing that the Wrights' engine was the most powerful of its time
By claiming that the Wrights did not actually build their own engine
By arguing that the Wrights' method of controlling the aircraft, rather than its engine, was their most important achievement
By suggesting that earlier experimenters had already invented wing warping
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
Text 1 credits the engine. Text 2 calls the engine "modest" and says the "decisive advance" was controlling the aircraft in flight, a problem others had not solved. The author would shift the credit from the engine to control, choice C.
Choice D contradicts Text 2, which says no earlier experimenter had solved the problem of balance and steering.
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