Structure and Purpose

(Summarize and predict)

Example 1

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To convey a contrast between Jane’s outward calmness and internal restlessness

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
D. To describe Jane’s determination to secure employment outside of Thornfield Hall

Example 2

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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It describes the delivery of a letter, and then portrays a character’s happiness at reading that letter.
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.
 Example 3

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.

B. It emphasizes an internal struggle Mr. Verloc experiences.
C. It contrasts Mr. Verloc with his surroundings.
D. It reveals a private opinion Mr. Verloc holds.

Example 4

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?

A. It creates a detailed image of the physical setting of the scene.

B. It establishes that a character is experiencing an internal conflict.
C. It makes an assertion that the next sentence then expands on.
D. It illustrates an idea that is introduced in the previous sentence.

Example 5

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?

A. It provides an extended description of a location that John likes to visit.

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.
 Question 1

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To emphasize the uniformity of both the town and the people who live there
B. To explain the limited work opportunities available to the town’s residents
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

Question 2

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To portray Polly’s reaction to Fanny’s friends

B. To identify the topics Polly talks about with Fanny’s friends
C. To explain how Fanny met some of her friends
D. To illustrate how Fanny’s friends feel about Polly

Question 3

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It illustrates a character’s reaction to a new environment.

B. It explains why a character has traveled to a city.
C. It compares a character’s thoughts about an event at two different times of day.
D. It presents a character feeling regret over leaving home.
 Question 4

The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1897 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.
D. It concedes that the definition of self-knowledge advanced in the text is unpopular.

Question 5

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It explains why the narrator always wanted a piano close to her bedroom.
B. It establishes how the narrator feels about the piano.
C. It suggests that the narrator’s brothers are talented piano players.
D. It describes the event that led the narrator’s parents to buy a piano.
 Question 6

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.

Which choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

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.

Question 7

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.
B. It foregrounds the beneficial relationship between humans and maple trees.
C. It demonstrates how human behavior can be influenced by the natural environment.
D. It elaborates on an aspect of the maple trees that the women evaluate.
 Question 8

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

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

Question 9

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To convey the worries brought about by a new guest

B. To describe how the characters have changed over time
C. To contrast the activity indoors with the stillness outside
D. To depict the setting as the characters await a visitor’s arrival

Question 10

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It portrays the thoughts of a character who is embarrassed about his own behavior.
B. It presents an account of a misunderstanding.
C. It offers a short history of how a person came to be famous.
D. It explains why one character dislikes another.
 Question 11

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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

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

Question 12

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?

A. It sets up the character description presented in the sentences that follow.

B. It establishes a contrast with the description in the previous sentence.
C. It elaborates on the previous sentence’s description of the character.
D. It introduces the setting that is described in the sentences that follow.

Question 13

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.
C. It emphasizes Shakti’s sense of belonging in the landscape.
D. It conveys Shakti’s appreciation for her long-term friendships.