SAT OwlQuestion bank / Cross-Text Connections
Text 1: Many architects favor office towers with glass walls. Floor-to-ceiling windows, they argue, fill workspaces with daylight, which lifts workers' moods and reduces the need for electric lighting.
Text 2: Building engineer Kofi Mensah points out that all-glass walls also let in large amounts of heat in summer and lose heat quickly in winter. In his surveys of office towers, the energy saved on lighting in glass-walled buildings was usually smaller than the extra energy those buildings needed for cooling and heating.
Based on the texts, how would Mensah most likely respond to the architects' argument in Text 1?
He would deny that glass walls let more daylight into offices.
He would argue that daylight has no effect on workers' moods.
He would agree that glass-walled towers use less energy overall than buildings with smaller windows do.
He would point out that the lighting savings are outweighed by extra heating and cooling costs.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
The architects say glass walls save energy on lighting. Mensah found that those savings were usually smaller than the extra energy needed for heating and cooling. He would say the lighting savings are cancelled out and more, choice D.
Choice A misses Mensah's point. He doesn't dispute the daylight; he points to the heat that comes in and goes out with it.
Why the other choices are wrong
- A. Mensah doesn't dispute the daylight. He points to the heating and cooling costs that come with glass walls.
- B. Text 2 never addresses workers' moods, so there's no basis for this.
- C. Mensah found that extra heating and cooling usually outweighed lighting savings, which contradicts this.
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