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SAT Reading & Writing: Text Structure and Purpose (Drill 3)

Drill 3 · Reading & Writing · Text Structure and Purpose

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About This Drill

SAT Reading & Writing: Text Structure and Purpose (Drill 3) 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 focuses on comparative and argumentative texts, where identifying the author's structural choices, contrast, qualification, illustration, is key to answering correctly.

Questions & Explanations

Text
The following text is adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel Little Women. Jo March, an aspiring writer, has just received a rejection letter from a publisher. Jo laid her head down on a comfortable rag-bag and cried, as if in earnest. ‘I can’t help it, I must cry, and I will!’ She gave way to what she privately called a ‘good cry,’ knowing that tears would relieve the ache in her heart more quickly than brooding over her disappointment. When the shower was over, she washed her face, sharpened her pencils, and sat down to write the next story with a resolute expression that was rather pathetic.

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

  • A) To criticize publishers for rejecting talented young writers
  • B) To portray Jo’s resilience in returning to her writing after experiencing a setback ✓
  • C) To describe the typical process of submitting manuscripts to publishers in the nineteenth century
  • D) To explain why Jo prefers writing to other creative pursuits

Explanation: The passage shows Jo crying after a rejection, then deliberately recovering and sitting down to write the next story with a ‘resolute expression.’ The arc from disappointment to determination portrays her resilience. Choice A misses the mark: the text doesn’t criticize publishers. Choice C is off because the text doesn’t describe the submission process. Choice D doesn't fit: the text doesn’t compare writing to other pursuits.

Text
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 have complicated this picture. Using radiocarbon dating, a team of researchers concluded that a 1.39-kilometer-long canal near the Gulf Coast of Alabama was most likely constructed between 576 and 650 CE by an Indigenous society that was relatively free of social classes. The canal’s construction would have required coordinated labor from hundreds of workers over several years, yet the archaeological evidence suggests no centralized authority directed the effort.

Question 2. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

  • 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.
  • C) It presents contradictory conclusions drawn by archaeologists, then evaluates a study that has apparently resolved that contradiction.
  • D) It identifies a gap in scientific research, then presents a strategy used by some archaeologists to remedy that gap.

Explanation: The text introduces a common assumption (elite class needed for large projects), then presents a discovery (canal built by a classless society) that challenges it. Choice B is wrong because the text doesn’t compare archaeological methods. Choice C doesn't work because the study introduces a challenge rather than resolving a contradiction. Choice D falls short because no research gap or remedy is described.

Text
The following text is 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.

Question 3. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

  • A) It presents alternating descriptions of night in a rural area and in a city.
  • B) It sketches an image of nightfall, then an image of sunrise.
  • C) It makes an extended comparison of night to a human being. ✓
  • D) It portrays how night changes from one season of the year to the next.

Explanation: Throughout the text, the speaker characterizes night as a person who wears ‘a garment’ that is ‘velvet soft,’ draws ‘a veil’ over ‘her face,’ and moves ‘her’ hands through ‘her hair.’ The entire poem is structured as an extended comparison of night to a human being. Choice A doesn't work because no particular location is mentioned. Choice B falls short because no sunrise appears. Choice D misses the mark: no seasonal changes are described.

Text
Pteropods are small swimming snails with thin, delicate calcium carbonate shells. These animals are thought to be especially vulnerable to ocean acidification due to calcium carbonate’s susceptibility to dissolution at lower pH values. Victoria L. Peck and colleagues recently found that the periostracum (a protective coating on pteropods’ outer shells) prevents this dissolution when intact. The team was surprised to discover that even when the periostracum is breached, pteropods can still mitigate damage by rebuilding the inner shell wall.

Question 4. Which choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

  • A) To call for additional research on biological mechanisms that improve pteropod survival rates
  • B) To discuss a conclusion drawn in a study of calcium carbonate’s role in protecting the periostracum of pteropods, as described in the passage
  • C) To address some of the ways ocean acidification has altered pteropod behavior over time
  • D) To present findings that suggest that a concern about the effects of ocean acidification on pteropod shells may be unwarranted ✓

Explanation: The text introduces the concern that pteropods are vulnerable to ocean acidification, then presents findings (protective periostracum, ability to rebuild shell wall) suggesting this concern may be unwarranted. Choice A falls short because the text doesn’t call for additional research. Choice B reverses the relationship; the periostracum protects the calcium carbonate shell, not the other way around. Choice C misses the mark: the text doesn’t address behavioral changes.

Text
The following text is adapted from Louise Erdrich’s 1986 novel The Beet Queen. The narrator discusses her relationship with her young niece, Dot. Celestine, the narrator’s sister-in-law, is Dot’s mother. Dot was as impatient with babyhood as I. She tried at once to grow out of it. Celestine never saw that, because she, and only she, took pleasure in Dot’s helpless softness. Only Celestine was saddened by her daughter’s fierce progress. Day by day, Dot grew stronger. In her shopping-cart stroller she exercised to exhaustion, bouncing for hours to develop her leg muscles.

Question 5. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

  • A) It offers a detail that shows how Dot is growing stronger. ✓
  • B) It expresses hope that Celestine will mature psychologically.
  • C) It explores some of the narrator’s psychological characteristics.
  • D) It indicates how sad Celestine is by describing a behavior she engages in.

Explanation: The preceding sentence states that ‘Day by day, Dot grew stronger.’ The underlined sentence provides a concrete detail, bouncing in her stroller to exhaustion, that illustrates this growing strength. Choice B falls short because the sentence doesn’t address Celestine’s maturation. Choice C misses the mark: the sentence describes Dot’s behavior, not the narrator’s psychology. Choice D is off because the sentence describes Dot’s actions, not Celestine’s.