SAT Reading & Writing · Cross-Text Connections
**Text 1** Advocates of right-to-work laws, which prohibit requiring union membership as a condition of employment, argue that these laws…
**Text 1**
Advocates of right-to-work laws, which prohibit requiring union membership as a condition of employment, argue that these laws attract business investment by lowering union-related labor costs for companies operating in a state.
**Text 2**
Economists studying states that adopted right-to-work laws have found these laws are associated with lower union membership rates and, in some studies, lower average wages, though the strength of the causal relationship varies depending on the specific research design used.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the investment-attraction argument in Text 1?
Advocates of right-to-work laws, which prohibit requiring union membership as a condition of employment, argue that these laws attract business investment by lowering union-related labor costs for companies operating in a state.
**Text 2**
Economists studying states that adopted right-to-work laws have found these laws are associated with lower union membership rates and, in some studies, lower average wages, though the strength of the causal relationship varies depending on the specific research design used.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the investment-attraction argument in Text 1?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B: By neither confirming nor directly disputing the investment claim, while noting that the laws are also associated with lower union membership and wages, with the strength of that association…
Text 2 doesn't directly address whether the laws attract investment; it reports a different set of associations, lower union density and wages, while explicitly flagging that the causal strength of these associations varies by study design. B captures this precise, hedged relationship. A misstates Text 2 in the opposite direction. C and D both overstate Text 2 into claims of no effect at all, which contradicts its reported associations.
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