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SAT Reading & Writing: Text Structure and Purpose (Drill 2)

Drill 2 · Reading & Writing · Text Structure and Purpose

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Text Structure and Purpose (Drill 2) is a Reading & Writing practice drill covering Text Structure and Purpose. It contains 5 original questions developed by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

Text Structure and Purpose questions ask you to identify what a text is doing and how it is organized. This drill emphasizes function questions, analyzing what a specific sentence or paragraph contributes to the larger text rather than simply identifying overall structure.

Questions & Explanations

Text
The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie, the protagonist, has just left her comfortable but emotionally stifling marriage to Joe Starks. She sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world. She let her hair down in long, thick braids and wrapped her head in gay kerchiefs. She was able to find her thoughts and think them over once a day. The young buds of her soul were beginning to open in the sun.

Question 1. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

  • A) To describe the customs associated with funerals in Janie’s community
  • B) To illustrate Janie’s grief over the loss of her marriage
  • C) To convey Janie’s sense of personal liberation and renewal after leaving a restrictive relationship ✓
  • D) To explain why Janie decided to change her physical appearance

Explanation: The passage describes Janie’s emotional transformation: she ‘sent her face’ to the funeral (went through the motions) while ‘herself went rollicking with the springtime.’ She lets her hair down, finds her own thoughts, and feels her soul ‘beginning to open in the sun.’ These images convey liberation and renewal. Choice A is incorrect: funeral customs are not the focus. Choice B contradicts the text; Janie feels freedom, not grief. Choice D is too narrow; the hair is one detail within a broader depiction of personal renewal.

Text
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been a staple of genetics research for over a century, valued for its short generation time, small genome, and ease of laboratory breeding. However, behavioral ecologist Theresa Jones and her colleagues have cautioned that decades of laboratory breeding may have altered the flies’ behavior, making them poor models for understanding how genes influence behavior in wild populations. Jones’s team found that laboratory-raised flies showed reduced mating selectivity, diminished aggression, and altered circadian rhythms compared to wild-caught flies of the same species, even when both groups were raised under identical conditions for two generations.

Question 2. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

  • A) To advocate for using a different species in genetics research instead of Drosophila melanogaster
  • B) To present research suggesting that a widely used laboratory organism may not accurately represent the behavior of its wild counterparts ✓
  • C) To describe the history of genetics research and the role that fruit flies have played in advancing the field
  • D) To explain the process by which laboratory breeding alters the genome of Drosophila melanogaster over successive generations, as described in the passage

Explanation: The text introduces the fruit fly as a research staple, then presents Jones’s finding that lab-bred flies behave differently from wild flies, suggesting they may be poor behavioral models. Choice A doesn't fit: the text does not advocate for a different species. Choice C is too broad; the text is not a history of genetics research. Choice D is wrong because the text describes behavioral differences but does not explain the genomic process behind them.

Text
Economists have traditionally measured a country’s prosperity using gross domestic product, or GDP, which calculates the total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a nation’s borders. Critics of this approach argue that GDP fails to account for important dimensions of well-being, such as environmental sustainability, income inequality, and citizens’ mental health. In 2008, the Kingdom of Bhutan formally adopted Gross National Happiness as an alternative metric, measuring prosperity through indicators such as ecological diversity, cultural preservation, and the psychological well-being of its population. Several other nations have since experimented with similar alternative metrics, though none has fully replaced GDP as the dominant measure.

Question 3. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

  • A) It explains why economists originally chose GDP as a measure of prosperity.
  • B) It presents evidence that GDP is a more reliable measure than its critics suggest.
  • C) It describes a limitation of an alternative metric that was implemented by a small country.
  • D) It provides a specific example of a country that has adopted an alternative to the measure criticized earlier in the text. ✓

Explanation: The text describes GDP and presents criticisms of it. The underlined sentence provides a concrete example, Bhutan’s adoption of Gross National Happiness, of a country that responded to those criticisms by adopting an alternative metric. Choice A doesn't work because the underlined sentence addresses an alternative to GDP, not the original rationale for GDP. Choice B falls short because the sentence supports the critics by showing alternatives have been adopted. Choice C misses the mark: the sentence describes the metric’s adoption, not its limitations.

Text
Literary scholars have long debated whether Shakespeare’s plays were intended primarily as performance texts, scripts meant to be realized on stage, or as literary works designed to be read and studied. Performance-centered scholars point to the plays’ sparse stage directions and heavy reliance on dialogue, arguing that Shakespeare wrote with actors and audiences in mind, not solitary readers. Scholars favoring the literary interpretation, however, note that Shakespeare participated in the publication of his sonnets and that several of his plays appeared in printed editions during his lifetime, suggesting he was attentive to how his work would be received on the page. Recent scholarship has increasingly argued that this debate presents a false dichotomy, since the plays likely functioned in both contexts simultaneously.

Question 4. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

  • A) It presents two opposing scholarly positions on a question and then describes a more recent view that reconciles them. ✓
  • B) It traces the historical development of a literary debate from its origins to its resolution.
  • C) It describes a flaw in a traditional scholarly approach and then proposes a new methodology to replace it.
  • D) It introduces a research question and then evaluates the evidence that led one scholar to answer that question.

Explanation: The text presents the performance-centered view, then the literary interpretation, and finally a recent view that the two are not mutually exclusive. This three-part structure, two opposing positions plus a reconciling view, matches Choice A. Choice B doesn't fit: the text does not trace the debate’s historical development. Choice C is wrong because no flaw or new methodology is described. Choice D doesn't work because the text presents multiple scholarly perspectives rather than evaluating evidence for one scholar’s conclusion.

Text
The following text is adapted from Jean Webster’s 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs. The narrator is a young college student writing letters about her weekly experiences. The college is organizing the Freshman basket-ball team and there’s just a chance that I shall make it. I’m little of course, but terribly quick and wiry and tough. While the others are hopping about in the air, I can dodge under their feet and grab the ball.

Question 5. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

  • A) To compare basketball with other sports
  • B) To provide details of how to play basketball
  • C) To state how players will be chosen for the basketball team
  • D) To explain why the narrator thinks she might make the basketball team ✓

Explanation: The narrator states there’s a chance she will make the team, then explains why: she is ‘quick and wiry and tough’ and can ‘dodge under their feet and grab the ball.’ The purpose is to explain her reasoning. Choice A doesn't fit: no other sports are mentioned. Choice B is wrong because the text doesn’t describe how basketball is played. Choice C doesn't work because the text doesn’t describe the selection process.