Paired Passages · Lesson 4

Work the set in order

A paired set rewards a fixed routine. Step 1: read Passage A, then answer every question about Passage A alone. Step 2: read Passage B, then answer every question about Passage B alone. Step 3: answer the questions about both. Questions often come in that order, so you can work straight down the list; when they don't, sort them by the passage they name before you start.

At the end of each passage, stop for a few seconds and make a one-line note: A: what the author wants, and the main reason. B: what this author wants, the main reason, and where it touches A. Two short lines are enough. They are your map for step 3, and they keep the two authors in separate boxes.

For a question about both passages, first decide whether it asks for agreement or for a difference. For agreement, find a sentence in each passage that makes the same point, even in different words. For a difference, name the exact point where the authors split. Paired authors often share a goal and split over one method, place, or amount, so a choice that says they disagree about everything is usually too broad.

The routine also saves time. Reading allows about 67 seconds a question, reading time included, so a nine-question set gets roughly ten minutes. If you read both passages first, Passage B crowds Passage A out of memory and you end up rereading A for its own questions. Working in order means you read each passage once, while it is fresh, and go back to the text only to confirm a quote.

Reopening the Millbrook Canal

These passages are from two essays about the future of an old town canal.

Passage A

1For most of the last century, the Millbrook Canal carried nothing heavier than fallen leaves. The barges that once hauled grain to the river stopped running long before I was born, and the town let the channel silt up. Today the water is knee-deep in places and choked with reeds, and most residents walk past it without a glance.

2I want to change that by reopening the full four miles of the canal to kayaks and canoes. The work is simpler than it sounds. Dredging the silt and cutting back the reeds would give us a channel about three feet deep, and the old stone locks could be fitted with small ramps so paddlers can carry their boats around them. No motors would be allowed, so the water would stay quiet.

3Still water is exactly what beginners need. On the river, a new paddler has to fight the current and dodge fishing boats; on a canal, a ten-year-old can learn to steer in an afternoon. Our paddling club already teaches about forty children each summer, but we have to drive them twenty miles to a lake. A canal in the middle of town would let us teach three times as many.

4Reopening the canal would also give residents a reason to care about it. People protect places they use. When the towpath beside the water fills with paddlers and with families watching them, the litter that now collects along the banks will be noticed and cleared, and the town council will hear from voters who want the canal kept in good shape. A small rental fee for boats could pay for yearly dredging.

5The canal was built to be used. Leaving it to fill with mud honors neither its history nor the people who live beside it.

Passage B

1I have spent many early mornings on the Millbrook towpath with a pair of binoculars, and I share the paddling club's wish to see more people there. The canal has been ignored for too long, and a place that no one visits is a place no one will speak up for. On that point, the club and I are on the same side.

2Where we part ways is the plan to dredge all four miles. The reeds that the club wants cut back are the reason the canal is worth visiting. In the upper two miles, where the water is shallowest, the reed beds shelter nesting moorhens and reed warblers, and on a summer afternoon I have counted more than a dozen kinds of dragonfly over a single stretch. Those animals depend on slow, shallow, weedy water. A clean channel three feet deep would suit kayaks and very little else.

3There is a better plan. The lower two miles, nearest town, are already deeper and have fewer reeds; they could be cleared for paddling with far less work. The upper stretch could be left as it is, with a few viewing platforms along the towpath and a rule that boats turn back at the second lock. Children could still learn to paddle, and they could also learn what lives at the water's edge.

4I am not asking the town to choose between paddlers and birds. I am asking it to notice that a canal can be used in more than one way, and that one of those ways is simply to be watched.

Worked example Easy

Show the whole passages

Reopening the Millbrook Canal

These passages are from two essays about the future of an old town canal.

Passage A

1For most of the last century, the Millbrook Canal carried nothing heavier than fallen leaves. The barges that once hauled grain to the river stopped running long before I was born, and the town let the channel silt up. Today the water is knee-deep in places and choked with reeds, and most residents walk past it without a glance.

2I want to change that by reopening the full four miles of the canal to kayaks and canoes. The work is simpler than it sounds. Dredging the silt and cutting back the reeds would give us a channel about three feet deep, and the old stone locks could be fitted with small ramps so paddlers can carry their boats around them. No motors would be allowed, so the water would stay quiet.

3Still water is exactly what beginners need. On the river, a new paddler has to fight the current and dodge fishing boats; on a canal, a ten-year-old can learn to steer in an afternoon. Our paddling club already teaches about forty children each summer, but we have to drive them twenty miles to a lake. A canal in the middle of town would let us teach three times as many.

4Reopening the canal would also give residents a reason to care about it. People protect places they use. When the towpath beside the water fills with paddlers and with families watching them, the litter that now collects along the banks will be noticed and cleared, and the town council will hear from voters who want the canal kept in good shape. A small rental fee for boats could pay for yearly dredging.

5The canal was built to be used. Leaving it to fill with mud honors neither its history nor the people who live beside it.

Passage B

1I have spent many early mornings on the Millbrook towpath with a pair of binoculars, and I share the paddling club's wish to see more people there. The canal has been ignored for too long, and a place that no one visits is a place no one will speak up for. On that point, the club and I are on the same side.

2Where we part ways is the plan to dredge all four miles. The reeds that the club wants cut back are the reason the canal is worth visiting. In the upper two miles, where the water is shallowest, the reed beds shelter nesting moorhens and reed warblers, and on a summer afternoon I have counted more than a dozen kinds of dragonfly over a single stretch. Those animals depend on slow, shallow, weedy water. A clean channel three feet deep would suit kayaks and very little else.

3There is a better plan. The lower two miles, nearest town, are already deeper and have fewer reeds; they could be cleared for paddling with far less work. The upper stretch could be left as it is, with a few viewing platforms along the towpath and a rule that boats turn back at the second lock. Children could still learn to paddle, and they could also learn what lives at the water's edge.

4I am not asking the town to choose between paddlers and birds. I am asking it to notice that a canal can be used in more than one way, and that one of those ways is simply to be watched.

According to Passage A, in order to teach children to paddle, the paddling club currently has to:

  1. carry its boats around the canal's old stone locks on ramps.
  2. drive the children it teaches to a lake twenty miles away.Answer
  3. turn its boats around at the second lock on the canal.
  4. pay for a yearly dredging of the canal with boat rentals.

How to solve it

  1. Step 1 of the routine: you have read only Passage A, so answer from Passage A. The word currently matters: separate what the club does now from what it proposes.
  2. Paragraph 3 describes the present: “we have to drive them twenty miles to a lake.” That is choice B.
  3. Choices A and D are plans (could be fitted, could pay). Choice C comes from Passage B, which you have not needed yet. Your note after Passage A: “A: reopen all four miles for paddling, because use makes people care.”

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. The ramps are part of the plan, not what the club does now: the locks “could be fitted with small ramps so paddlers can carry their boats around them.”
  • B. Correct. Passage A describes the present: “Our paddling club already teaches about forty children each summer, but we have to drive them twenty miles to a lake.”
  • C. Incorrect. Turning back at the second lock is Passage B’s proposal (“a rule that boats turn back at the second lock”), and this question is about Passage A.
  • D. Incorrect. The rental fee is a proposal for the future, not a current practice: “A small rental fee for boats could pay for yearly dredging.”

Worked example Medium

Show the whole passages

Reopening the Millbrook Canal

These passages are from two essays about the future of an old town canal.

Passage A

1For most of the last century, the Millbrook Canal carried nothing heavier than fallen leaves. The barges that once hauled grain to the river stopped running long before I was born, and the town let the channel silt up. Today the water is knee-deep in places and choked with reeds, and most residents walk past it without a glance.

2I want to change that by reopening the full four miles of the canal to kayaks and canoes. The work is simpler than it sounds. Dredging the silt and cutting back the reeds would give us a channel about three feet deep, and the old stone locks could be fitted with small ramps so paddlers can carry their boats around them. No motors would be allowed, so the water would stay quiet.

3Still water is exactly what beginners need. On the river, a new paddler has to fight the current and dodge fishing boats; on a canal, a ten-year-old can learn to steer in an afternoon. Our paddling club already teaches about forty children each summer, but we have to drive them twenty miles to a lake. A canal in the middle of town would let us teach three times as many.

4Reopening the canal would also give residents a reason to care about it. People protect places they use. When the towpath beside the water fills with paddlers and with families watching them, the litter that now collects along the banks will be noticed and cleared, and the town council will hear from voters who want the canal kept in good shape. A small rental fee for boats could pay for yearly dredging.

5The canal was built to be used. Leaving it to fill with mud honors neither its history nor the people who live beside it.

Passage B

1I have spent many early mornings on the Millbrook towpath with a pair of binoculars, and I share the paddling club's wish to see more people there. The canal has been ignored for too long, and a place that no one visits is a place no one will speak up for. On that point, the club and I are on the same side.

2Where we part ways is the plan to dredge all four miles. The reeds that the club wants cut back are the reason the canal is worth visiting. In the upper two miles, where the water is shallowest, the reed beds shelter nesting moorhens and reed warblers, and on a summer afternoon I have counted more than a dozen kinds of dragonfly over a single stretch. Those animals depend on slow, shallow, weedy water. A clean channel three feet deep would suit kayaks and very little else.

3There is a better plan. The lower two miles, nearest town, are already deeper and have fewer reeds; they could be cleared for paddling with far less work. The upper stretch could be left as it is, with a few viewing platforms along the towpath and a rule that boats turn back at the second lock. Children could still learn to paddle, and they could also learn what lives at the water's edge.

4I am not asking the town to choose between paddlers and birds. I am asking it to notice that a canal can be used in more than one way, and that one of those ways is simply to be watched.

On the future of the Millbrook Canal, the writers of Passage A and Passage B would both accept the idea that:

  1. all four miles of the canal should be dredged so that kayaks can use it.
  2. the reed beds are what make the canal worth visiting.
  3. motorboats could be allowed on the deeper lower two miles of the canal.
  4. people who use the canal are more likely to speak up for its upkeep.Answer

How to solve it

  1. Step 3: use your two notes. “A: reopen all four miles for paddling, because use makes people care.” “B: welcomes more visitors, but wants the reedy upper two miles left alone for wildlife.”
  2. This is an agreement question, so find a sentence in each passage that makes the same point. A: “People protect places they use.” B: “a place that no one visits is a place no one will speak up for.” That is choice D.
  3. Choices A and B each belong to one author, and choice C belongs to neither.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Only Passage A wants “the full four miles of the canal” reopened; Passage B objects: “Where we part ways is the plan to dredge all four miles.”
  • B. Incorrect. That is Passage B’s view (“the reason the canal is worth visiting”); Passage A treats the reeds as a problem, describing the canal as “choked with reeds.”
  • C. Incorrect. Neither passage proposes motorboats, and Passage A rules them out: “No motors would be allowed.”
  • D. Correct. Passage A says, “People protect places they use,” and Passage B says, “a place that no one visits is a place no one will speak up for.” Both tie using the canal to caring for it.

Trap Answering a Passage B question with Passage A’s idea

On a Passage B question, the most tempting wrong choice is often something only Passage A said, especially when it uses the same nouns (locks, boats, fees). Because you answered Passage A’s questions first, an idea from A will feel familiar. Familiar is not the same as stated in B.

Before you pick an answer to a one-passage question, find the sentence in that passage that says it. If the only sentence you can find is in the other passage, cross the choice out.