Theming: Passage or Frame

Two reading items, each written both ways and scored against its own unmodified control. 20 September 2026. Read the copy first — it will tell you more than the numbers.

The question. Does the fiction go inside the passage, or around it? The first costs 379 rewritten passages. The second costs about 30 frames, one per con, plus nine cases.

Item 1 · the birdsong study

From l-gen-c-evidencebackward-birdsong-002. An evidence-backward item: the correct choice is the one showing individual flexibility rather than a group or species difference.

Control — as it stands today setting 0.00 · notice 0.02 · realism 0.82 · stem 1.97 · choices 1.89

Researchers propose that the exceptionally loud dawn song of the plains warbler is a flexible response to human-made noise: individual birds sing louder specifically when and where background noise is high, rather than simply belonging to a louder species by inheritance.

Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the researchers' proposal?

  1. AAt one nesting site, the same males raised their song's volume on high-traffic weekday mornings and lowered it on quiet weekends.
  2. BWarblers living in noisy city parks sang, on average, considerably louder than warblers of the same species living in quiet woodland.
  3. CThe plains warbler's dawn song was measurably louder than that of the closely related marsh warbler.
  4. DIn noisy urban areas, plains warblers began their dawn chorus earlier in the morning than they did elsewhere.
Passage-themed — the fiction inside setting 1.40 · notice 0.39 · realism 0.74 · stem 1.95 · choices 1.88

Halvorsen holds that the racket's lookouts whistle louder on the nights the elevated runs heavy: that each man lifts his voice against the noise around him, rather than the crew simply having been picked for carrying voices.

Which finding, if true, would most strongly support Halvorsen's claim?

  1. AOn one corner, the same lookouts whistled louder on weeknights when the trains ran and quieter on still Sundays.
  2. BLookouts working the noisy waterfront whistled, on average, considerably louder than lookouts working the quiet uptown blocks.
  3. CThe racket's lookouts whistled measurably louder than the lookouts of the rival crew across the river.
  4. DOn noisy blocks, lookouts began whistling earlier in the evening than they did on still ones.
Frame-themed — the fiction around setting 0.77 · notice 0.74 · realism 1.52 · stem 1.95 · choices 1.92
EXHIBIT 14 · Falconer desk file. Silas Frost walked this clipping into the interview and called it proof of his man's story. Read it yourself before you take his word.

Researchers propose that the exceptionally loud dawn song of the plains warbler is a flexible response to human-made noise: individual birds sing louder specifically when and where background noise is high, rather than simply belonging to a louder species by inheritance.

Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the researchers' proposal?

  1. AAt one nesting site, the same males raised their song's volume on high-traffic weekday mornings and lowered it on quiet weekends.
  2. BWarblers living in noisy city parks sang, on average, considerably louder than warblers of the same species living in quiet woodland.
  3. CThe plains warbler's dawn song was measurably louder than that of the closely related marsh warbler.
  4. DIn noisy urban areas, plains warblers began their dawn chorus earlier in the morning than they did elsewhere.

Item 2 · 'Oumuamua

From w-reading-001. Carries three cons already: Amos Kane, Vera Sloane, Iris Calloway.

Control — as it stands today setting 0.00 · notice 0.03 · realism 1.01 · stem 1.97 · choices 1.88

When astronomers first spotted the interstellar object 'Oumuamua, its odd, elongated shape and faint acceleration drew wild speculation. Some argued it might be an alien probe. But most researchers pointed out that a small comet venting trace gas would drift and tumble in exactly the same way, no visitors required.

The passage most strongly suggests that most researchers regarded the alien-probe idea as

  1. Aconfirmed once the object's acceleration was measured
  2. Bunnecessary, since a natural explanation fit the evidence
  3. Cthe leading view among astronomers who studied 'Oumuamua
  4. Dwild speculation about its odd, elongated shape
Passage-themed — the fiction inside setting 0.34 · notice 0.20 · realism 1.20 · stem 1.94 · choices 1.88

When the night watchman first reported a light moving along the cannery roof, its odd drift and sudden speed drew wild talk. Some said it was a signal to a boat standing offshore. But most of the squad pointed out that a gull lifting off hot tin would drift and tumble in exactly the same way, no signal required.

The report most strongly suggests that most of the squad regarded the signal theory as

  1. Aconfirmed once the light's speed was measured
  2. Bunnecessary, since an ordinary explanation fit what was seen
  3. Cthe leading view among the men who worked the cannery
  4. Dwild talk about the light's odd drift
Frame-themed — the fiction around setting 0.06 · notice 0.35 · realism 1.52 · stem 1.89 · choices 1.85
EXHIBIT 9 · clipping from the science page, entered by Amos Kane. He says it settles the matter. Amos Kane always says it settles the matter.

When astronomers first spotted the interstellar object 'Oumuamua, its odd, elongated shape and faint acceleration drew wild speculation. Some argued it might be an alien probe. But most researchers pointed out that a small comet venting trace gas would drift and tumble in exactly the same way, no visitors required.

The passage most strongly suggests that most researchers regarded the alien-probe idea as

  1. Aconfirmed once the object's acceleration was measured
  2. Bunnecessary, since a natural explanation fit the evidence
  3. Cthe leading view among astronomers who studied 'Oumuamua
  4. Dwild speculation about its odd, elongated shape

The numbers, as change from each control

MeasurePassage-themedFrame-themed
Setting — how much sits in the world+1.40 / +0.34+0.77 / +0.06
Would a reader notice the fiction+0.37 / +0.17+0.72 / +0.32
Passage realism−0.08 / +0.19+0.70 / +0.51
SAT stem conventionsneutralneutral
SAT choice conventionsneutralneutral
Defensibilityheldheld
Mechanism rework on items touched38%none
Your decision 2, unmarked source-text voicecontradictedhonoured

Two figures per cell: birdsong, then 'Oumuamua.

My first question was loaded, and I am keeping the record of it. Its top level read "somebody in the fiction is using this material, and that use is what the reader meets first" — which only a frame can satisfy. It returned +1.77 for frame against +0.27 for passage, and most of that gap was my wording rather than the copy. Re-asked as pure setting, passage-theming wins. It rewrites the whole passage, so more of the item sits in the world. That part is real.
The realism result is the one I did not expect. Announcing the passage as an exhibit is literally the top level of passage_realism — "reads as an excerpt from something written for its own reasons". The frame tells the reader it is a found document, so it scores as one. Theming the passage makes it less like a found document, which is why that column is flat.

What this costs the rubric

connection to theme currently asks whether the passage names someone from the fiction. 379 of 395 do not. That dimension measures the passage-theming strategy specifically.

Under frame-theming it is pointed at the wrong surface, and the 379 stops being a backlog. It becomes a description of how the bank is supposed to look. The dimension would move to the frame and ask whether an item arrives inside a case.

What replaces the 379

Two limits on this