Text Structure & Purpose - QUESTION
Text Structure & Purpose - QUESTION
Text Structure & Purpose - QUESTION
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 88b4e212
Jackie Ormes’s Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem (1937–38) was the first comic strip by a Black woman
to appear in a widely read newspaper. The strip tells the story of Torchy, a young woman who leaves
Mississippi to become a performer in New York City. Torchy’s story reflects the experience of the Great
Migration (1910–1970), when millions of Black Americans left the South in search of opportunities in
other parts of the United States. Torchy Brown thus shows how Ormes used comics to comment
humorously on issues affecting Black Americans, which she continued to do throughout her career.
A. To show how Ormes’s Torchy Brown inspired other Black women to write comic strips in the 1930s
B. To illustrate how the subjects Ormes addressed in her comic strips changed over the course of her
career
C. To give an example of how Ormes presented the experiences of Black Americans in her comic strips
D. To claim that several characters in Torchy Brown were based on people that Ormes knew personally
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: e2666b77
The following text is from Srimati Svarna Kumari Devi’s 1894 novel The Fatal Garland (translated by A.
Christina Albers in 1910). Shakti is walking near a riverbank that she visited frequently during her
childhood.
She crossed the woods she knew so well. The trees seemed to extend their branches like
welcoming arms. They greeted her as an old friend. Soon she reached the river-side.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It suggests that Shakti feels uncomfortable near the river.
B. It indicates that Shakti has lost her sense of direction in the woods.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: c014a78c
In many agricultural environments, the banks of streams are kept forested to protect water quality, but
it’s been unclear what effects these forests may have on stream biodiversity. To investigate the issue,
biologist Xingli Giam and colleagues studied an Indonesian oil palm plantation, comparing the species
richness of forested streams with that of nonforested streams. Giam and colleagues found that species
richness was significantly higher in forested streams, a finding the researchers attribute to the role leaf
litter plays in sheltering fish from predators and providing food resources.
B. It explains the differences between stream-protection strategies used in oil palm plantations and
stream-protection strategies used in other kinds of agricultural environments.
C. It describes findings that challenge a previously held view about how fish that inhabit streams in
agricultural environments attempt to avoid predators.
D. It presents a study that addresses an unresolved question about the presence of forests along
streams in agricultural environments.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: bfcbec2d
A number of Indigenous politicians have been elected to the United States Congress since 2000 as
members of the country’s two established political parties. In Canada and several Latin American
countries, on the other hand, Indigenous people have formed their own political parties to advance
candidates who will advocate for the interests of their communities. This movement has been
particularly successful in Ecuador, where Guadalupe Llori, a member of the Indigenous party known as
Pachakutik, was elected president of the National Assembly in 2021.
B. To argue that Indigenous politicians in the United States should form their own political party
D. To consider how Indigenous politicians in the United States have influenced Indigenous politicians in
Canada and Latin America
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 99022257
Archeological excavation of Market Street Chinatown, a nineteenth-century Chinese American
community in San Jose, California, provided the first evidence that Asian food products were imported
to the United States in the 1800s: bones from a freshwater fish species native to Southeast Asia.
Jinshanzhuang—Hong Kong–based import/export firms—likely coordinated the fish’s transport from
Chinese-operated fisheries in Vietnam and Malaysia to North American markets. This route reveals the
(often overlooked) multinational dimensions of the trade networks linking Chinese diaspora
communities.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It explains why efforts to determine the country of origin of the items mentioned in the previous
sentence remain inconclusive.
B. It provides information that helps support a claim about a discovery’s significance that is presented
in the following sentence.
C. It traces the steps that were taken to locate and recover the objects that are described in the
previous sentence.
D. It outlines a hypothesis that additional evidence discussed in the following sentence casts some
doubt on.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 27bccd45
Some bird species don’t raise their own chicks. Instead, adult females lay their eggs in other nests, next
to another bird species’ own eggs. Female cuckoos have been seen quickly laying eggs in the nests of
other bird species when those birds are out looking for food. After the eggs hatch, the noncuckoo
parents will typically raise the cuckoo chicks as if they were their own offspring, even if the cuckoos look
very different from the other chicks.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It introduces a physical feature of female cuckoos that is described later in the text.
B. It describes the appearance of the cuckoo nests mentioned earlier in the text.
C. It offers a detail about how female cuckoos carry out the behavior discussed in the text.
D. It explains how other birds react to the female cuckoo behavior discussed in the text.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 35bc6898
The following text is from the 1924 poem “Cycle” by D’Arcy McNickle, who was a citizen of the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
There shall be new roads wending,
A new beating of the drum—
Men’s eyes shall have fresh seeing,
Grey lives reprise their span—
But under the new sun’s being,
Completing what night began,
There’ll be the same backs bending,
The same sad feet shall drum—
When this night finds its ending
And day shall have come.....
A. To consider how the repetitiveness inherent in human life can be both rewarding and challenging
B. To question whether activities completed at one time of day are more memorable than those
completed at another time of day
C. To refute the idea that joy is a more commonly experienced emotion than sadness is
D. To demonstrate how the experiences of individuals relate to the experiences of their communities
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: fd7c6d0d
The following text is from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1910 poem “The Earth’s Entail.”
No matter how we cultivate the land,
Taming the forest and the prairie free;
No matter how we irrigate the sand,
Making the desert blossom at command,
We must always leave the borders of the sea;
The immeasureable reaches
Of the windy wave-wet beaches,
The million-mile-long margin of the sea.
A. The speaker argues against interfering with nature and then gives evidence supporting this
interference.
B. The speaker presents an account of efforts to dominate nature and then cautions that such efforts
are only temporary.
C. The speaker provides examples of an admirable way of approaching nature and then challenges that
approach.
D. The speaker describes attempts to control nature and then offers a reminder that not all nature is
controllable.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: da17503b
Space scientists Anna-Lisa Paul, Stephen M. Elardo, and Robert Ferl planted seeds of Arabidopsis
thaliana in samples of lunar regolith—the surface material of the Moon—and, serving as a control group,
in terrestrial soil. They found that while all the seeds germinated, the roots of the regolith-grown plants
were stunted compared with those in the control group. Moreover, unlike the plants in the control group,
the regolith-grown plants exhibited red pigmentation, reduced leaf size, and inhibited growth rates—
indicators of stress that were corroborated by postharvest molecular analysis.
A. It describes an experiment that addressed an unresolved question about the extent to which lunar
regolith resembles terrestrial soils.
B. It compares two distinct methods of assessing indicators of stress in plants grown in a simulated
lunar environment.
C. It presents evidence in support of the hypothesis that seed germination in lunar habitats is an
unattainable goal.
D. It discusses the findings of a study that evaluated the effects of exposing a plant species to lunar
soil conditions.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 44bce45e
For his 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies, Beverly Glenn-Copeland wrote songs grounded in traditional
soul and folk music, then accompanied them with futuristic synthesizer arrangements featuring ambient
sounds and complex rhythms. The result was so strange, so unprecedented, that the album attracted
little attention when first released. In recent years, however, a younger generation of musicians has
embraced the stylistic experimentation of Keyboard Fantasies. Alternative R&B musicians Blood Orange
and Moses Sumney, among other contemporary recording artists, cite the album as an influence.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
C. It offers examples of younger musicians whose work has been impacted by Keyboard Fantasies.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 950d740f
The following text is adapted from Aphra Behn’s 1689 novel The Lucky Mistake. Atlante and Rinaldo are
neighbors who have been secretly exchanging letters through Charlot, Atlante’s sister.
[Atlante] gave this letter to Charlot; who immediately ran into the balcony with it, where she still found
Rinaldo in a melancholy posture, leaning his head on his hand: She showed him the letter, but was
afraid to toss it to him, for fear it might fall to the ground; so he ran and fetched a long cane, which he
cleft at one end, and held it while she put the letter into the cleft, and stayed not to hear what he said
to it. But never was man so transported with joy, as he was at the reading of this letter; it gives him
new wounds; for to the generous, nothing obliges love so much as love.
B. It establishes that a character is desperate to receive a letter, and then explains why another
character has not yet written that letter.
C. It presents a character’s concerns about delivering a letter, and then details the contents of that
letter.
D. It reveals the inspiration behind a character’s letter, and then emphasizes the excitement that another
character feels upon receiving that letter.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 6a9bf335
Studying late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artifacts from an agricultural and domestic site in
Texas, archaeologist Ayana O. Flewellen found that Black women employed as farm workers utilized
hook-and-eye closures to fasten their clothes at the waist, giving themselves a silhouette similar to the
one that was popular in contemporary fashion and typically achieved through more restrictive garments
such as corsets. Flewellen argues that this sartorial practice shows that these women balanced
hegemonic ideals of femininity with the requirements of their physically demanding occupation.
B. To discuss research that investigated the ways in which Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth-
and early twentieth-century Texas used fashion practices to resist traditional gender ideals
C. To evaluate a scholarly work that offers explanations for the impact of urban fashion ideals on Black
female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas
D. To summarize the findings of a study that explored factors influencing a fashion practice among
Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 674aae7d
Astronomers are confident that the star Betelgeuse will eventually consume all the helium in its core and
explode in a supernova. They are much less confident, however, about when this will happen, since that
depends on internal characteristics of Betelgeuse that are largely unknown. Astrophysicist Sarafina El-
Badry Nance and colleagues recently investigated whether acoustic waves in the star could be used to
determine internal stellar states but concluded that this method could not sufficiently reveal
Betelgeuse’s internal characteristics to allow its evolutionary state to be firmly fixed.
Which choice best describes the function of the second sentence in the overall structure of the text?
C. It identifies the problem that Nance and colleagues attempted to solve but did not.
D. It explains how the work of Nance and colleagues was received by others in the field.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 40614504
In 1801, a Blackfoot chief named Ac Ko Mok Ki drew a finely detailed map of the Upper Missouri region.
This work demonstrates a vast amount of topographic knowledge, as the map features specific names
of mountains and rivers, as well as the first-known sketch of the drainage network of the Missouri River.
The map is especially notable because Ac Ko Mok Ki also included details about the numerous tribes
that lived in the area.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
D. It details how the map was used for hunting and trading purposes.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 83e4ea9a
According to Indian economist and sociologist Radhakamal Mukerjee (1889–1968), the Eurocentric
concepts that informed early twentieth-century social scientific methods—for example, the idea that all
social relations are reducible to struggles between individuals—had little relevance for India. Making the
social sciences more responsive to Indians’ needs, Mukerjee argued, required constructing analytical
categories informed by India’s cultural and ecological circumstances. Mukerjee thus proposed the
communalist “Indian village” as the ideal model on which to base Indian economic and social policy.
B. The text mentions some of Mukerjee’s economic theories and then traces their impact on other
Indian social scientists of the twentieth century.
C. The text presents Mukerjee’s critique of the social sciences and then provides an example of his
attempts to address issues he identified in his critique.
D. The text explains an influential economic theory and then demonstrates how that theory was more
important to Mukerjee’s work than other social scientists have acknowledged.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: c89da8bc
According to historian Vicki L. Ruiz, Mexican American women made crucial contributions to the labor
movement during World War II. At the time, food processing companies entered into contracts to supply
United States armed forces with canned goods. Increased production quotas conferred greater
bargaining power on the companies’ employees, many of whom were Mexican American women:
employees insisted on more favorable benefits, and employers, who were anxious to fulfill the contracts,
complied. Thus, labor activism became a platform for Mexican American women to assert their agency.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It elaborates on a claim about labor relations in a particular industry made earlier in the text.
B. It offers an example of a trend in the World War II–era economy discussed earlier in the text.
C. It notes a possible exception to the historical narrative of labor activism sketched earlier in the text.
D. It provides further details about the identities of the workers discussed earlier in the text.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 939f1fe8
In Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, an almost imperceptible smile from potential suitor Henry
Crawford causes the protagonist Fanny Price to blush; her embarrassment grows when she suspects
that he is aware of it. This moment—in which Fanny not only infers Henry’s mental state through his
gestures, but also infers that he is drawing inferences about her mental state—illustrates what literary
scholar George Butte calls “deep intersubjectivity,” a technique for representing interactions between
consciousnesses through which Austen’s novels derive much of their social and psychological drama.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It states a claim about Austen’s skill at representing psychological complexity that is reinforced by an
example presented in the following sentence.
C. It describes a recurring theme in Austen’s novels that is the focus of a literary scholar’s analysis
summarized in the following sentence.
D. It provides a synopsis of an interaction in an Austen novel that illustrates a literary concept discussed
in the following sentence.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 815b354f
Using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Mercedes López-Morales and
colleagues measured the wavelengths of light traveling through the atmosphere of WASP-39b, an
exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system. Different molecules absorb different wavelengths of light,
and the wavelength measurements showed the presence of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in WASP-39b’s
atmosphere. This finding not only offers the first decisive evidence of CO₂ in the atmosphere of an
exoplanet but also illustrates the potential for future scientific breakthroughs held by the JWST.
B. It describes how researchers made a scientific discovery, then explains the importance of that
discovery.
C. It outlines the steps taken in a scientific study, then presents a hypothesis based on that study.
D. It examines how a group of scientists reached a conclusion, then shows how other scientists have
challenged that conclusion.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 7ec676d1
The following text is from Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Jane, the narrator, works as a
governess at Thornfield Hall.
I went on with my day’s business tranquilly; but ever and anon vague suggestions kept wandering
across my brain of reasons why I should quit Thornfield; and I kept involuntarily framing
advertisements and pondering conjectures about new situations: these thoughts I did not think to
check; they might germinate and bear fruit if they could.
B. To emphasize Jane’s loyalty to the people she works for at Thornfield Hall
C. To demonstrate that Jane finds her situation both challenging and deeply fulfilling
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: cc00a8cf
Works of moral philosophy, such as Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, are partly
concerned with how to live a morally good life. But philosopher Jonathan Barnes argues that works that
present a method of living such a life without also supplying a motive are inherently useful only to those
already wishing to be morally good—those with no desire for moral goodness will not choose to follow
their rules. However, some works of moral philosophy attempt to describe what constitutes a morally
good life while also proposing reasons for living one.
B. It mentions two renowned works and then claims that despite their popularity it is impossible for
these works to serve the purpose their authors intended.
C. It summarizes the history of a field of thought by discussing two works and then proposes a topic of
further research for specialists in that field.
D. It describes two influential works and then explains why one is more widely read than the other.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 720b79de
In the Here and Now Storybook (1921), educator Lucy Sprague Mitchell advanced the then controversial
idea that books for very young children should imitate how they use language, since toddlers, who
cannot yet grasp narrative or abstract ideas, seek reassurance in verbal repetition and naming. The most
enduring example of this idea is Margaret Wise Brown’s 1947 picture book Goodnight Moon, in which a
young rabbit names the objects in his room as he drifts off to sleep. Scholars note that the book’s
emphasis on repetition, rhythm, and nonsense rhyme speaks directly to Mitchell’s influence.
B. The text summarizes an argument about how children’s literature should be evaluated and then
discusses a contrasting view on that subject.
C. The text lists the literary characteristics that are common to many classics of children’s literature and
then indicates the narrative subjects that are most appropriate for young children.
D. The text presents a philosophy about what material is most suitable for children’s literature and then
describes a book influenced by that philosophy.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 02e06d14
Streams and rivers carry soil and rocks from one location to another. But there is another way for these
geological materials to move. Scientists call this process “aeolian transport.” In aeolian transport, winds
move small particles of soil or rock over potentially great distances. Geologist Melisa Diaz and her team
studied dust in Antarctica to find out if it was moved by aeolian transport. They discovered that the dust
matched geological material in Australia. Aeolian transport had carried it from one continent to another,
across thousands of miles of open ocean.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It presents Melisa Diaz’s remarks about difficulties that her team encountered.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 380dee07
The following text is from Charlotte Forten Grimké’s 1888 poem “At Newport.”
Oh, deep delight to watch the gladsome waves
Exultant leap upon the rugged rocks;
Ever repulsed, yet ever rushing on—
Filled with a life that will not know defeat;
To see the glorious hues of sky and sea.
The distant snowy sails, glide spirit like,
Into an unknown world, to feel the sweet
Enchantment of the sea thrill all the soul,
Clearing the clouded brain, making the heart
Leap joyous as it own bright, singing waves!
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
D. It draws a contrast between the sea’s waves and the speaker’s thoughts.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 4c27795c
“How lifelike are they?” Many computer animators prioritize this question as they strive to create ever
more realistic environments and lighting. Generally, while characters in computer-animated films appear
highly exaggerated, environments and lighting are carefully engineered to mimic reality. But some
animators, such as Pixar’s Sanjay Patel, are focused on a different question. Rather than asking first
whether the environments and lighting they’re creating are convincingly lifelike, Patel and others are
asking whether these elements reflect their films’ unique stories.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined question in the text as a whole?
A. It reflects a primary goal that many computer animators have for certain components of the
animations they produce.
B. It represents a concern of computer animators who are more interested in creating unique
backgrounds and lighting effects than realistic ones.
C. It conveys the uncertainty among many computer animators about how to create realistic animations
using current technology.
D. It illustrates a reaction that audiences typically have to the appearance of characters created by
computer animators.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 2e6f2fb0
Researchers have found a nearly 164,000-year-old molar from a member of the archaic human species
known as Denisovans in a cave in Laos, suggesting that Denisovans lived in a wider range of
environments than indicated by earlier evidence. Before the discovery, Denisovans were thought to have
lived only at high altitudes in relatively cold climates in what are now Russia and China, but the discovery
of the tooth in Laos suggests that they may have lived at low altitudes in relatively warm climates in
Southeast Asia as well.
Which choice best states the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
B. It defines a term used in the description that follows in the rest of the sentence.
C. It emphasizes the main goal of the research introduced in the previous sentence.
D. It provides context that clarifies the significance of the information that follows in the rest of the
sentence.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 5b71d7b1
In 1973, poet Miguel Algarín started inviting other writers who, like him, were Nuyorican—a term for New
Yorkers of Puerto Rican heritage—to gather in his apartment to present their work. The gatherings were
so well attended that Algarín soon had to rent space in a cafe to accommodate them. Thus, the
Nuyorican Poets Cafe was born. Moving to a permanent location in 1981, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe
expanded its original scope beyond the written word, hosting art exhibitions and musical performances
as well. Half a century since its inception, it continues to foster emerging Nuyorican talent.
B. To situate the Nuyorican Poets Cafe within the cultural life of New York as a whole
C. To discuss why the Nuyorican Poets Cafe expanded its scope to include art and music
D. To provide an overview of the founding and mission of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 8be97589
Hiroshi Senju is known worldwide for his paintings of waterfalls. These paintings are large and tend not
to show the entire waterfall. Instead, Senju focuses on just the point where the falling water reaches the
pool below, keeping the top of the waterfall out of view. While Senju’s paintings are rooted in art
movements originating in the United States, the artist uses traditional Japanese techniques and
materials that make his work instantly recognizable.
A. It introduces an artist and then explains some common characteristics of well-known paintings by
that artist.
B. It explains a specific painting technique and then provides examples of artists who use the
technique.
C. It describes a famous painting and then compares it to a lesser-known painting from the same time
period.
D. It gives an opinion on an artist and then suggests multiple reasons why the artist’s work has been
largely overlooked.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: a0d54459
The following text is adapted from Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 1902 novel The Sport of the Gods. Joe and
some of his family members have recently moved to New York City.
[Joe] was wild with enthusiasm and with a desire to be a part of all that the metropolis meant. In the
evening he saw the young fellows passing by dressed in their spruce clothes, and he wondered with
a sort of envy where they could be going. Back home there had been no place much worth going to,
except church and one or two people’s houses.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 3bb49e6e
The following text is adapted from Gwendolyn Bennett’s 1926 poem “Street Lamps in Early Spring.”
Night wears a garment
All velvet soft, all violet blue...
And over her face she draws a veil
As shimmering fine as floating dew...
And here and there
In the black of her hair
The subtle hands of Night
Move slowly with their gem-starred light.
D. It portrays how night changes from one season of the year to the next.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 042d162c
The following text is adapted from Susan Glaspell’s 1912 short story “‘Out There.’” An elderly shop owner
is looking at a picture that he recently acquired and hopes to sell.
It did seem that the picture failed to fit in with the rest of the shop. A persuasive young fellow who
claimed he was closing out his stock let the old man have it for what he called a song. It was only a
little out-of-the-way store which subsisted chiefly on the framing of pictures. The old man looked
around at his views of the city, his pictures of cats and dogs, his flaming bits of landscape. “Don’t
belong in here,” he fumed.
And yet the old man was secretly proud of his acquisition. There was a hidden dignity in his scowling
as he shuffled about pondering the least ridiculous place for the picture.
A. To reveal the shop owner’s conflicted feelings about the new picture
B. To convey the shop owner’s resentment of the person he got the new picture from
C. To describe the items that the shop owner most highly prizes
D. To explain differences between the new picture and other pictures in the shop
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: d6b84972
The following text is from Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale. Mr. Verloc is
navigating the London streets on his way to a meeting.
Before reaching Knightsbridge, Mr. Verloc took a turn to the left out of the busy main thoroughfare,
uproarious with the traffic of swaying omnibuses and trotting vans, in the almost silent, swift flow of
hansoms [horse-drawn carriages]. Under his hat, worn with a slight backward tilt, his hair had been
carefully brushed into respectful sleekness; for his business was with an Embassy. And Mr. Verloc,
steady like a rock—a soft kind of rock—marched now along a street which could with every propriety be
described as private.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined phrase in the text as a whole?
A. It qualifies an earlier description of Mr. Verloc.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 36f95e96
The following text is from Georgia Douglas Johnson’s 1922 poem “Benediction.”
Go forth, my son,
Winged by my heart’s desire!
Great reaches, yet unknown,
Await
For your possession.
I may not, if I would,
Retrace the way with you,
My pilgrimage is through,
But life is calling you!
C. To warn a child that he will face many challenges throughout his life
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: ce4a476d
The following text is adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s 1869 novel An Old-Fashioned Girl. Polly, a
teenager, is visiting her friend Fanny.
Fanny’s friends did not interest Polly much; she was rather afraid of them [because] they seemed so
much older and wiser than herself, even those younger in years. They talked about things of which
she knew nothing and when Fanny tried to explain, she didn’t find them interesting; indeed, some of
them rather shocked and puzzled her.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: a05fe244
The 1967 release of Harold Cruse’s book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual isolated him from almost all
other scholars and activists of the American Civil Rights Movement—though many of those thinkers
disagreed with each other, he nonetheless found ways to disagree with them all. He thought that
activists who believed that Black people such as himself should culturally assimilate were naïve. But he
also sharply criticized Black nationalists such as Marcus Garvey who wanted to establish independent,
self-contained Black economies and societies, even though Cruse himself identified as a Black
nationalist.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It describes a direction that Cruse felt the Civil Rights Movement ought to take.
C. It describes a controversy that Cruse’s work caused within the Black nationalist movement.
D. It helps explain Cruse’s position with respect to the community of civil rights thinkers.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 74ce57b4
Genetic studies have led researchers to suggest that turtles are most closely related to the group that
includes modern crocodiles. But studies of fossils have suggested instead that turtles are most closely
related to other groups, such as the one that contains modern snakes. However, many of the fossil
studies have relied on incomplete data sets. For a 2022 investigation, biologist Tiago R. Simões and
colleagues examined more than 1,000 reptile fossils collected worldwide. From this large data set, they
found clear agreement with the results of the genetic studies.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 01785861
In most building demolitions, the building materials are destroyed and sent to landfills. City officials in
Portland, Oregon, wanted to reduce this waste. The officials passed a law requiring demolition
companies to deconstruct some buildings instead. Deconstruction involves carefully taking buildings
apart piece by piece. Damage to the materials is avoided so that they can be reused in new
constructions. A 2019 study found that 27 percent of materials from deconstructions in Portland were
able to be reused. The remaining materials were processed for recycling instead of going to a landfill.
B. To show that popular support for measures that reduce demolition waste has increased since 2019
C. To argue that building deconstruction is not as effective as other measures at reducing demolition
waste
D. To discuss laws aimed to reduce demolition waste in Portland and compare them to similar laws in
other cities
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: a7038ee7
Yawn contagion occurs when one individual yawns in response to another’s yawn. Studies of this
behavior in primates have focused on populations in captivity, but biologist Elisabetta Palagi and her
colleagues have shown that it can occur in wild primate populations as well. In their study, which
focused on a wild population of gelada monkeys (Theropithecus gelada) in Ethiopia, the researchers
further reported that yawn contagion most commonly occurred in males and across different social
groups instead of within a single social group.
Which choice best describes the function of the first sentence in the text as a whole?
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 5085d3c6
In 2007, computer scientist Luis von Ahn was working on converting printed books into a digital format.
He found that some words were distorted enough that digital scanners couldn’t recognize them, but
most humans could easily read them. Based on that finding, von Ahn invented a simple security test to
keep automated “bots” out of websites. The first version of the reCAPTCHA test asked users to type one
known word and one of the many words scanners couldn’t recognize. Correct answers proved the users
were humans and added data to the book-digitizing project.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: dbcaf826
Many films from the early 1900s have been lost. These losses include several films by the first wave of
Black women filmmakers. We know about these lost movies only from small pieces of evidence. For
example, an advertisement for Jennie Louise Touissant Welcome’s documentary Doing Their Bit still
exists. There’s a reference in a magazine to Tressie Souders’s film A Woman’s Error. And Maria P.
Williams’s The Flames of Wrath is mentioned in a letter and a newspaper article, and one image from the
movie was discovered in the 1990s.
A. The text identifies a complex problem, then presents examples of unsuccessful attempts to solve
that problem.
B. The text summarizes a debate among researchers, then gives reasons for supporting one side in that
debate.
C. The text describes a general situation, then illustrates that situation with specific examples.
D. The text discusses several notable individuals, then explains commonly overlooked differences
between those individuals.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 86cd2c78
The following text is from Walt Whitman’s 1860 poem “Calamus 24.”
I HEAR it is charged against me that I seek to destroy institutions;
But really I am neither for nor against institutions
(What indeed have I in common with them?—Or what with the destruction of them?),
Only I will establish in the Mannahatta [Manhattan] and in every city of These States, inland and
seaboard,
And in the fields and woods, and above every keel [ship] little or large, that dents the water,
Without edifices, or rules, or trustees, or any argument,
The institution of the dear love of comrades.
A. The speaker questions an increasingly prevalent attitude, then summarizes his worldview.
B. The speaker regrets his isolation from others, then predicts a profound change in society.
C. The speaker concedes his personal shortcomings, then boasts of his many achievements.
D. The speaker addresses a criticism leveled against him, then announces a grand ambition of his.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 0a9b75f3
The following text is adapted from Herman Melville’s 1857 novel The Confidence-Man. Humphry Davy
was a prominent British chemist and inventor.
Years ago, a grave American savant, being in London, observed at an evening party there, a certain
coxcombical fellow, as he thought, an absurd ribbon in his lapel, and full of smart [banter], whisking
about to the admiration of as many as were disposed to admire. Great was the savant’s disdain; but,
chancing ere long to find himself in a corner with the jackanapes, got into conversation with him,
when he was somewhat ill-prepared for the good sense of the jackanapes, but was altogether
thrown aback, upon subsequently being [informed that he was] no less a personage than Sir
Humphry Davy.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 014ae202
The following text is adapted from Charles Dickens’s 1854 novel Hard Times. Coketown is a fictional
town in England.
[Coketown] contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more
like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours,
with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the
same as yesterday and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next.
A. To emphasize the uniformity of both the town and the people who live there
C. To reveal how the predictability of the town makes it easy for people lose track of time
D. To argue that the simplicity of life in the town makes it a pleasant place to live
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: d3fe0b12
The following text is adapted from Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto’s 1925 memoir A Daughter of the Samurai. As
a young woman, Sugimoto moved from feudal Japan to the United States.
The standards of my own and my adopted country differed so widely in some ways, and my love for
both lands was so sincere, that sometimes I had an odd feeling of standing upon a cloud in space,
and gazing with measuring eyes upon two separate worlds. At first I was continually trying to
explain, by Japanese standards, all the queer things that came every day before my surprised eyes;
for no one seemed to know the origin or significance of even the most familiar customs, nor why
they existed and were followed.
A. To convey the narrator’s experience of observing and making sense of differences between two
cultures she embraces
B. To establish the narrator’s hope of forming connections with new companions by sharing customs
she learned as a child
C. To reveal the narrator’s recognition that she is hesitant to ask questions about certain aspects of a
culture she is newly encountering
D. To emphasize the narrator’s wonder at discovering that the physical distance between two countries
is greater than she had expected
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 06346bcd
Some studies have suggested that posture can influence cognition, but we should not overstate this
phenomenon. A case in point: In a 2014 study, Megan O’Brien and Alaa Ahmed had subjects stand or sit
while making risky simulated economic decisions. Standing is more physically unstable and cognitively
demanding than sitting; accordingly, O’Brien and Ahmed hypothesized that standing subjects would
display more risk aversion during the decision-making tasks than sitting subjects did, since they would
want to avoid further feelings of discomfort and complicated risk evaluations. But O’Brien and Ahmed
actually found no difference in the groups’ performance.
A. It argues that research findings about the effects of posture on cognition are often misunderstood,
as in the case of O’Brien and Ahmed’s study.
B. It presents the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to critique the methods and results reported in previous
studies of the effects of posture on cognition.
C. It explains a significant problem in the emerging understanding of posture’s effects on cognition and
how O’Brien and Ahmed tried to solve that problem.
D. It discusses the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to illustrate why caution is needed when making claims
about the effects of posture on cognition.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 52aa1317
Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word
poetry album, The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids, in collaboration with producer Ian Brennan. The album
contains both autobiographical and reflective pieces combining Antrobus’s spoken words with
Brennan’s fragmented audio elements and pieces of music to convey how people who are deaf may
experience sound, both its presence and absence. Some critics suggest that the album questions the
function of sound in the world, highlighting that the experience of sound is multifaceted.
A. It introduces a collaborative spoken word poetry project, details the approach taken to produce the
work, and then provides an example of critique the album received upon release.
B. It mentions a collection of spoken word poems, distinguishes one poem as being an exemplar on the
album, and then offers a summary of the subject matter of the whole collection.
C. It summarizes the efforts to produce a collection of spoken word poems, presents biographies of
two people who worked on the album, and speculates about the meaning behind the poetry.
D. It connects two artists to the same spoken word poetry project, explains the extent of their
collaboration on each poem, and then provides an overview of the technique used to produce the
work.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 333f6512
The following text is from the 1923 poem “Black Finger” by Angelina Weld Grimké, a Black American
writer. A cypress is a type of evergreen tree.
I have just seen a most beautiful thing,
Slim and still,
Against a gold, gold sky,
A straight black cypress,
Sensitive,
Exquisite,
A black finger
Pointing upwards.
Why, beautiful still finger, are you black?
And why are you pointing upwards?
A. The speaker assesses a natural phenomenon, then questions the accuracy of her assessment.
B. The speaker describes a distinctive sight in nature, then ponders what meaning to attribute to that
sight.
C. The speaker presents an outdoor scene, then considers a human behavior occurring within that
scene.
D. The speaker examines her surroundings, then speculates about their influence on her emotional
state.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: f3a51fa6
Horizontal gene transfer occurs when an organism of one species acquires genetic material from an
organism of another species through nonreproductive means. The genetic material can then be
transferred “vertically” in the second species—that is, through reproductive inheritance. Scientist Atma
Ivancevic and her team have hypothesized infection by invertebrate parasites as a mechanism of
horizontal gene transfer between vertebrate species: while feeding, a parasite could acquire a gene from
one host, then relocate to a host from a different vertebrate species and transfer the gene to it in turn.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It explains why parasites are less susceptible to horizontal gene transfer than their hosts are.
B. It clarifies why some genes are more likely to be transferred horizontally than others are.
C. It contrasts how horizontal gene transfer occurs among vertebrates with how it occurs among
invertebrates.
D. It describes a means by which horizontal gene transfer might occur among vertebrates.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 1a3cbb81
The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1897 nonfiction work De Profundis.
People whose desire is solely for self-realisation never know where they are going. They can’t know.
In one sense of the word it is of course necessary to know oneself: that is the first achievement of
knowledge. But to recognise that the soul of a man is unknowable, is the ultimate achievement of
wisdom. The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured
the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself.
Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined question in the text as a whole?
A. It reinforces the text’s skepticism about the possibility of truly achieving self-knowledge.
B. It speculates that some readers will share the doubts expressed in the text about the value of self-
knowledge.
C. It cautions readers that the text’s directions for how to achieve self-knowledge are hard to follow.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 95195865
By combining Indigenous and classical music, Cree composer and cellist Cris Derksen creates works
that reflect the diverse cultural landscape of Canada. For her album Orchestral Powwow, Derksen
composed new songs in the style of traditional powwow music that were accompanied by classical
arrangements played by an orchestra. But where an orchestra would normally follow the directions of a
conductor, the musicians on Orchestral Powwow are led by the beat of a powwow drum.
B. To argue that Derksen should be recognized for creating a new style of music
D. To establish a contrast between Derksen’s classical training and her Cree heritage
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: d7048b13
The field of study called affective neuroscience seeks instinctive, physiological causes for feelings such
as pleasure or displeasure. Because these sensations are linked to a chemical component (for example,
the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain when one receives or expects a reward), they
can be said to have a partly physiological basis. These processes have been described in mammals, but
Jingnan Huang and his colleagues have recently observed that some behaviors of honeybees (such as
foraging) are also motivated by a dopamine-based signaling process.
B. It illustrates processes by which certain insects can express how they are feeling.
C. It summarizes a finding suggesting that some mechanisms in the brains of certain insects resemble
mechanisms in mammalian brains.
D. It presents research showing that certain insects and mammals behave similarly when there is a
possibility of a reward for their actions.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 5405400f
The following text is from Herman Melville’s 1854 novel The Lightning-rod Man.
The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had first planted himself. His
singularity impelled a closer scrutiny. A lean, gloomy figure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over
his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes were ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of
lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak
floor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side.
Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: e2aebe0a
Early in the Great Migration of 1910–1970, which involved the mass migration of Black people from the
southern to the northern United States, political activist and Chicago Defender writer Fannie Barrier
Williams was instrumental in helping other Black women establish themselves in the North. Many
women hoped for better employment opportunities in the North because, in the South, they faced much
competition for domestic employment and men tended to get agricultural work. To aid with this
transition, Barrier Williams helped secure job placement in the North for many women before they even
began their journey.
A. To introduce and illustrate Barrier Williams’s integral role in supporting other Black women as their
circumstances changed during part of the Great Migration
B. To establish that Barrier Williams used her professional connections to arrange employment for
other Black women, including jobs with the Chicago Defender
C. To demonstrate that the factors that motivated the start of the Great Migration were different for
Black women than they were for Black men
D. To provide an overview of the employment challenges faced by Black women in the agricultural and
domestic spheres in the southern United States
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 3fcc2cee
The following text is from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables. Anne, an eleven-
year-old girl, has come to live on a farm with a woman named Marilla in Nova Scotia, Canada.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: bf2915a9
Mathematician Claude Shannon is widely regarded as a foundational figure in information theory. His
most important paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” published in 1948 when he was
employed at Bell Labs, utilized a concept called a “binary digit” (shortened to “bit”) to measure the
amount of information in any signal and determine the fastest rate at which information could be
transmitted while still being reliably decipherable. Robert Gallagher, one of Shannon’s colleagues, said
that the bit was “[Shannon’s] discovery, and from it the whole communications revolution has sprung.”
A. It presents a theoretical concept, illustrates how the name of the concept has changed, and shows
how the name has entered common usage.
B. It introduces a respected researcher, describes an aspect of his work, and suggests why the work is
historically significant.
C. It names the company where an important mathematician worked, details the mathematician’s
career at the company, and provides an example of the recognition he received there.
D. It mentions a paper, offers a summary of the paper’s findings, and presents a researcher’s
commentary on the paper.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 672d26e8
When ancient oak planks were unearthed during subway construction in Rome, Mauro Bernabei and his
team examined the growth rings in the wood to determine where these planks came from. By comparing
the growth rings on the planks to records of similar rings in oaks from Europe, the team could trace the
wood to the Jura region of France, hundreds of kilometers from Rome. Because timber could only have
been transported from distant Jura to Rome by boat, the team’s findings suggest the complexity of
Roman trade routes.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It presents a conclusion about Roman trade routes based on the team’s findings.
B. It questions how the team was able to conclude that the planks were used to build a boat.
C. It explains why the planks were made from oak rather than a different kind of wood.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: a1b07d88
The mimosa tree evolved in East Asia, where the beetle Bruchidius terrenus preys on its seeds. In 1785,
mimosa trees were introduced to North America, far from any B. terrenus. But evolutionary links
between predators and their prey can persist across centuries and continents. Around 2001, B. terrenus
was introduced in southeastern North America near where botanist Shu-Mei Chang and colleagues had
been monitoring mimosa trees. Within a year, 93 percent of the trees had been attacked by the beetles.
Which choice best describes the function of the third sentence in the overall structure of the text?
A. It states the hypothesis that Chang and colleagues had set out to investigate using mimosa trees
and B. terrenus.
B. It presents a generalization that is exemplified by the discussion of the mimosa trees and B. terrenus.
C. It provides context that clarifies why the species mentioned spread to new locations.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 7d1c8a2b
Musician Joni Mitchell, who is also a painter, uses images she creates for her album covers to
emphasize ideas expressed in her music. For the cover of her album Turbulent Indigo (1994), Mitchell
painted a striking self-portrait that closely resembles Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
(1889). The image calls attention to the album’s title song, in which Mitchell sings about the legacy of
the postimpressionist painter. In that song, Mitchell also hints that she feels a strong artistic connection
to Van Gogh—an idea that is reinforced by her imagery on the cover.
A. It presents a claim about Mitchell, then gives an example supporting that claim.
B. It discusses Van Gogh’s influence on Mitchell, then considers Mitchell’s influence on other artists.
C. It describes a similarity between two artists, then notes a difference between them.
D. It describes the songs on Turbulent Indigo, then explains how they relate to the album’s cover.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: cd920288
The following text is from Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel The House of Mirth. Lily Bart and a companion are
walking through a park.
Lily had no real intimacy with nature, but she had a passion for the appropriate and could be keenly
sensitive to a scene which was the fitting background of her own sensations. The landscape
outspread below her seemed an enlargement of her present mood, and she found something of
herself in its calmness, its breadth, its long free reaches. On the nearer slopes the sugar-maples
wavered like pyres of light; lower down was a massing of grey orchards, and here and there the
lingering green of an oak-grove.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: cd742fda
Michelene Pesantubbee, a historian and citizen of the Choctaw Nation, has identified a dilemma
inherent to research on the status of women in her tribe during the 1600s and 1700s: the primary
sources from that era, travel narratives and other accounts by male European colonizers, underestimate
the degree of power conferred on Choctaw women by their traditional roles in political, civic, and
ceremonial life. Pesantubbee argues that the Choctaw oral tradition and findings from archaeological
sites in the tribe’s homeland supplement the written record by providing crucial insights into those roles.
A. It details the shortcomings of certain historical sources, then argues that research should avoid
those sources altogether.
B. It describes a problem that arises in research on a particular topic, then sketches a historian’s
approach to addressing that problem.
C. It lists the advantages of a particular research method, then acknowledges a historian’s criticism of
that method.
D. It characterizes a particular topic as especially challenging to research, then suggests a related topic
for historians to pursue instead.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: f242d54d
Many archaeologists assume that large-scale engineering projects in ancient societies required an elite
class to plan and direct the necessary labor. However, recent discoveries, such as the excavation of an
ancient canal near the Gulf Coast of Alabama, have complicated this picture. Using radiocarbon dating,
a team of researchers concluded that the 1.39-kilometer-long canal was most likely constructed
between 576 and 650 CE by an Indigenous society that was relatively free of social classes.
A. It describes a common view among archaeologists, then discusses a recent finding that challenges
that view.
B. It outlines a method used in some archaeological fieldwork, then explains why an alternative method
is superior to it.
D. It identifies a gap in scientific research, then presents a strategy used by some archaeologists to
remedy that gap.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: 9fa95c2c
The following text is from Sarah Orne Jewett’s 1899 short story “Martha’s Lady.” Martha is employed by
Miss Pyne as a maid.
Miss Pyne sat by the window watching, in her best dress, looking stately and calm; she seldom went
out now, and it was almost time for the carriage. Martha was just coming in from the garden with the
strawberries, and with more flowers in her apron. It was a bright cool evening in June, the golden
robins sang in the elms, and the sun was going down behind the apple-trees at the foot of the garden.
The beautiful old house stood wide open to the long-expected guest.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: fb052096
Part of the Atacama Desert in Peru has surprisingly rich plant life despite receiving almost no rainfall.
Moisture from winter fog sustains plants once they’re growing, but the soil’s tough crust makes it hard
for seeds to germinate in the first place. Local birds that dig nests in the ground seem to be of help: they
churn the soil, exposing buried seeds to moisture and nutrients. Indeed, in 2016 Cristina Rengifo Faiffer
found that mounds of soil dug up by birds were far more fertile and supported more seedlings than soil
in undisturbed areas.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It elaborates on the idea that the top layer of Atacama Desert soil forms a tough crust.
B. It describes the process by which seeds are deposited into Atacama Desert soil.
C. It identifies the reason particular bird species dig nests in Atacama Desert soil.
D. It explains how certain birds promote seed germination in Atacama Desert soil.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 9115eb54
Composer Florence Price won first place for her score Symphony in E Minor at the 1932 Wanamaker
Foundation Awards. The piece was performed the following year by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a
significant recognition of its quality. Price continued to compose many musical pieces throughout her
career, blending traditional Black spirituals with classical European Romantic musical traditions. In
recent years, Price’s concertos and symphonies have been performed and recorded by several major
orchestras, further preserving her work for others to enjoy.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 45f3c80a
Historians Tiya Miles and Roy E. Finkenbine have both documented the assistance Indigenous peoples
gave to Black freedom seekers leaving the South before the US Civil War. Much of the historical
evidence of this help comes from Indigenous oral traditions and from autobiographies written by the
freedom seekers. One such narrative is Jermain Loguen’s autobiography, which tells about how
Neshnabé (Potawatomi) villagers offered him food, lodging, and directions during his 1835 journey from
Tennessee to Canada.
B. It shows why Loguen decided to write in great detail about his experiences traveling from Tennessee
to Canada in his autobiography.
C. It argues that autobiographies are particularly important sources of information about geography in
the United States before the Civil War.
D. It suggests that most historians believe that Neshnabé villagers were more successful in assisting
freedom seekers than other people were.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 9f04b826
A study by a team including finance professor Madhu Veeraraghavan suggests that exposure to
sunshine during the workday can lead to overly optimistic behavior. Using data spanning from 1994 to
2010 for a set of US companies, the team compared over 29,000 annual earnings forecasts to the actual
earnings later reported by those companies. The team found that the greater the exposure to sunshine
at work in the two weeks before a manager submitted an earnings forecast, the more the manager’s
forecast exceeded what the company actually earned that year.
Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: df5d1a01
The following text is from Holly Goldberg Sloan’s 2017 novel Short.
More than two years ago my parents bought a piano from some people who were moving to Utah.
Mom and Dad gave it to my brothers and me for Christmas. I had to act really happy because it was
such a big present, but I pretty much hated the thing from the second it was carried into the hallway
upstairs, which is right next to my bedroom. The piano glared at me. It was like a songbird in a cage.
It wanted to be set free.
©2017 by Holly Goldberg Sloan
A. It explains why the narrator always wanted a piano close to her bedroom.
D. It describes the event that led the narrator’s parents to buy a piano.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 77b9ccd9
The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.”
John is a child who lives in a town in the woods.
Perhaps ten-year-old John was puzzling to the folk there in the Florida woods for he was an
imaginative child and fond of day-dreams. The St. John River flowed a scarce three hundred feet from
his back door. On its banks at this point grow numerous palms, luxuriant magnolias and bay trees. On
the bosom of the stream float millions of delicately colored hyacinths. [John Redding] loved to wander
down to the water’s edge, and, casting in dry twigs, watch them sail away down stream to
Jacksonville, the sea, the wide world and [he] wanted to follow them.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
B. It reveals that some residents of John’s town are confused by his behavior.
C. It illustrates the uniqueness of John’s imagination compared to the imaginations of other children.
D. It suggests that John longs to experience a larger life outside the Florida woods.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: 98ed45b9
The following text is adapted from Charles Chesnutt’s 1899 short story “Mars Jeems’s Nightmare.” The
narrator and his wife have recently moved to the southern United States, and Julius is their carriage
driver.
Julius [was] very useful when we moved to our new residence. He had a thorough knowledge of the
neighborhood, was familiar with the roads and the watercourses, knew the qualities of the various
soils and what they would produce, and where the best hunting and fishing were to be had. He was
a marvelous hand in the management of horses and dogs.
C. To show that the narrator and Julius often hunt and fish together
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: f78b6c18
The following text is adapted from Jane Austen’s 1814 novel Mansfield Park. The speaker, Tom, is
considering staging a play at home with a group of his friends and family.
We mean nothing but a little amusement among ourselves, just to vary the scene, and exercise our
powers in something new. We want no audience, no publicity. We may be trusted, I think, in choosing
some play most perfectly unexceptionable; and I can conceive no greater harm or danger to any of us
in conversing in the elegant written language of some respectable author than in chattering in words
of our own.
A. To offer Tom’s assurance that the play will be inoffensive and involve only a small number of people
B. To clarify that the play will not be performed in the manner Tom had originally intended
C. To elaborate on the idea that the people around Tom lack the skills to successfully stage a play
D. To assert that Tom believes the group performing the play will be able to successfully promote it
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Easy
Purpose
ID: aeba704b
San Francisco is known for the colorful murals painted on many of its buildings. The densest collection
of murals is found on Balmy Alley in the Mission District neighborhood. In the 1970s, Latina artists
painted vivid scenes of community life on walls along this block. As the original murals have faded, later
generations of artists have painted new ones over them. As a result, Balmy Alley has become a living
showcase of San Francisco’s artistic spirit, with its murals reflecting changes in the cultural life of the
city.
B. To offer an overview of the history and importance of the Balmy Alley murals
D. To describe the rise of mural painting in San Francisco beginning in the 1970s
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Hard
Purpose
ID: 9555ec64
The following text is adapted from Indian Boyhood, a 1902 memoir by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman), a
Santee Dakota writer. In the text, Ohiyesa recalls how the women in his tribe harvested maple syrup
during his childhood.
Now the women began to test the trees—moving leisurely among them, axe in hand, and striking a
single quick blow, to see if the sap would appear. The trees, like people, have their individual
characters; some were ready to yield up their life-blood, while others were more reluctant. Now one of
the birchen basins was set under each tree, and a hardwood chip driven deep into the cut which the
axe had made. From the corners of this chip—at first drop by drop, then more freely—the sap trickled
into the little dishes.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It portrays the range of personality traits displayed by the women as they work.
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and Medium
Purpose
ID: b2b791a3
Industrial activity is often assumed to be a threat to wildlife, but that isn’t always so. Consider the silver-
studded blue butterfly (Plebejus argus): as forest growth has reduced grasslands in northern Germany,
many of these butterflies have left meadow habitats and are now thriving in active limestone quarries. In
a survey of multiple active quarries and patches of maintained grassland, an ecologist found silver-
studded blue butterflies in 100% of the quarries but only 57% of the grassland patches. Moreover,
butterfly populations in the quarries were four times larger than those in the meadows.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It challenges a common assumption about the species under investigation in the research referred to
in the text.
B. It introduces discussion of a specific example that supports the general claim made in the previous
sentence.
C. It suggests that a certain species should be included in additional studies like the one mentioned
later in the text.
D. It provides a definition for an unfamiliar term that is central to the main argument in the text.