Question ID b13378c8

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: b13378c8
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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

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
Question ID 236fee8e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 236fee8e
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.
Question ID 2903a041
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 2903a041
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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It discusses a method used by some researchers, then states why an alternative method is superior to it.

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.
Question ID 47598085
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 47598085
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?

A. It defines a phenomenon that is discussed in the text.

B. It introduces a problem that is examined in the text.

C. It makes a claim that is challenged in the text.

D. It presents a hypothesis that is evaluated in the text.

Question ID df46a2ee
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: df46a2ee
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.

Question ID ff97fd53
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: ff97fd53
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.

Which choice best describes the overall purpose of the text?

A. To explain what motivated Algarín to found the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

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
Question ID acb852e7
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: acb852e7
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?

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

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.
Question ID 6f5fc289
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 6f5fc289
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 ID 2b085bc6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 2b085bc6
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 ID 8963273a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 8963273a
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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

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.
Question ID c4900368
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: c4900368
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.....

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

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
Question ID 74446089
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 74446089
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?

A. It urges contemporary musicians to adopt the unique sound of Keyboard Fantasies.

B. It responds to criticism of Keyboard Fantasies by some younger musicians.

C. It offers examples of younger musicians whose work has been impacted by Keyboard Fantasies.

D. It contrasts Keyboard Fantasies with the recordings of two younger musicians.

Question ID f2c48e47
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: f2c48e47
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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

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.
Question ID c0e1b70a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: c0e1b70a
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 ID f631132b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: f631132b
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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. The text outlines a debate between two authors of children’s literature and then traces how that debate shaped
theories on early childhood education.

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.
Question ID 749f3334
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 749f3334
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?

A. It portrays the surroundings as an imposing and intimidating scene.

B. It characterizes the sea’s waves as a relentless and enduring force.

C. It conveys the speaker’s ambivalence about the natural world.

D. It draws a contrast between the sea’s waves and the speaker’s thoughts.
Question ID 54c6128b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 54c6128b
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.

D. It describes common methods used in Roman subway construction.

Question ID a2be625e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: a2be625e
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 ID 14b7dced
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 14b7dced
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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

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.
Question ID 6d44060a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 6d44060a
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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It provides a characterization about a field of thought by noting two works in it and then details a way in which some
works in that field are more comprehensive than others.

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.
Question ID 590f0ad2
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 590f0ad2
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.
Question ID 19688783
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 19688783
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.

Anne reveled in the world of color about her.

“Oh, Marilla,” she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, “I’m
so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to
November, wouldn’t it? Look at these maple branches. Don’t they give you a thrill—several thrills? I’m going to
decorate my room with them.”
“Messy things,” said Marilla, whose aesthetic sense was not noticeably developed. “You clutter up your room entirely
too much with out-of-doors stuff, Anne. Bedrooms were made to sleep in.”

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To demonstrate that Anne has a newly developed appreciation of nature

B. To describe an argument that Anne and Marilla often have

C. To emphasize Marilla’s disapproval of how Anne has decorated her room

D. To show that Anne and Marilla have very different personalities

Question ID d69bc408
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: d69bc408
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.
Question ID 97360a00
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 97360a00
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.

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.
Question ID aa7fc89b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: aa7fc89b
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 ID 48555763
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 48555763
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 elaborates on the previous sentence’s description of the character.

B. It introduces the setting that is described in the sentences that follow.

C. It establishes a contrast with the description in the previous sentence.

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

Question ID e7247766
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: e7247766
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.
Question ID ae2b3112
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: ae2b3112
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.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To examine how Derksen’s musical compositions blend cultures

B. To argue that Derksen should be recognized for creating a new style of music

C. To describe the difficulties Derksen encountered when producing her album

D. To establish a contrast between Derksen’s classical training and her Cree heritage
Question ID 8bc66f89
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 8bc66f89
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.
Question ID b4d29611
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: b4d29611
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.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

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.
Question ID f6352bd3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: f6352bd3
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.

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.