Noting that register and cohesion are two concepts that define a text, this paper describes register as the variety of language that is appropriate for the situation of the speech event and cohesion as the semantic relations in a text that make it coherent. The first part of the paper discusses three cross-cultural studies of comprehension conducted within the framework of the schema theory of reading in terms of register and cohesion. The three studies discussed involved (1) the effects of cultural interference on recall of written material by adults in India and the United States, (2) the effects of cultural interference on oral recall of Australian Aboriginal and American women, and (3) the recall of black inner city and rural white adults of a text biased toward minority readers. The second part of the paper considers the interaction of register and background knowledge, while the third part examines that of cohesion and background knowledge. The final part of the paper examines the interaction of register, cohesion, and background knowledge using data derived from the processing of a short passage based on Indian culture by an American and an Indian subject. (FL)