Text Structure and Purpose Drills

TEXT STRUCTURE AND PURPOSE DRILL 1

Question 1

There are four major branches of engineering, including chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical
engineering, each of which has several subdisciplines. Then there are different interdisciplinary areas of
engineering. From the smallest scope, where nanoengineers and biomolecular engineers design at the level
of atoms and molecules, to the largest scope, where civil engineers design bridges and buildings, the
options are many.

Which choice best states the main function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

(A) To convince students that engineering is applicable to any field

(B) To inform the reader of the range of engineering careers
(C) To make the case that engineering is an intellectually stimulating career
(D) To review the four main branches of engineering

Question 2

The following text is from the 1885 poem “Bed in Summer” from the collection A Child’s Garden of Verses by
Robert Louis Stevenson.

In winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

(A) To express a child’s dissatisfaction with the constraints of a schedule that is not attuned to seasonal
changes
(B) To emphasize the importance of structure and routine to the overall happiness of young people
(C) To consider how children are more fortunate than adults because of the lack of commitments that
children have
(D) To provide childlike speculation as to the causes of changes in the temperature as seasons shift
throughout the year

Question 3

The following text is from M. Ernest Nickles’s 1856 article titled “On the Purification of Amorphous
Phosphorus.”

It is known that phosphorus not spontaneously inflammable (amorphous phosphorus) is obtained by heating
common phosphorus for some time at a temperature between 230 and 250 degrees Celsius, in an
atmosphere of nitrogen, hydrogen, or other gas free from oxygen. But however long the treatment be
continued, a portion of the phosphorus always escapes the change . . .

Impressed with these difficulties while experimenting with the red phosphorus, I have sought, by a study of
the distinctive qualities of the two kinds of phosphorus to arrive at a safer and more expeditious mode of
preparations; I have looked more particularly to the physical properties of the two bodies. In this way, I have
arrived at a process, which is both simple and rapid, and may be trusted even to inexperienced hands—the
last thing of importance since red phosphorus has become an article of commerce.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

(A) To express the author’s belief that red phosphorus will be successfully bought and sold by nonscientists.
(B) To state the author’s fear that the supply of red phosphorus will become scarce
(C) To demonstrate the author’s faith that commercial applications for red phosphorus will be found
(D) To explain the author’s disappointment with the commercialization of scientific discovery

Question 4

The heart has long been considered a symbol of love. To describe a loss of love, one may be labeled as
heartbroken, and when describing euphoria, one may say one’s heart is full. These expressions capture the
cultural significance of the heart—one of the body’s most vital organs. For centuries, many have believed it
contains the soul, symbolically resting in the center of the body. But from where did this significance
originate? Surely, it cannot be coincidental that the heart has symbolized these traits across cultures and
time. Recent research suggests that the heart’s connection to emotion is more than just symbolic, finding
that it is indeed physically affected by a loss of love. Researchers have noted that individuals with recent lost
loves are more likely to experience mild to severe physical discomfort in their chest. This phenomenon has
come to be known as broken-heart syndrome.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined selections in the text as a whole?

(A) To connect common idioms to the ideas discussed in the text

(B) To explain the scientific grounding behind key research terminology
(C) To share the author’s personal experiences with lost love
(D) To use metaphorical language to consider objections to the argument of the text

Question 5

The following text is adapted from Charles Dickens’s 1864 story Our Mutual Friend. In it, a newly wealthy
couple, the Veneerings, discuss their own situation as well as that of a newfound party companion, Mr.
Twemlow.

There was an innocent piece of dinner furniture that went upon easy castors and was kept over a livery
stable-yard in Duke Street, Saint James’s, when not in use, to whom the Veneerings were a source of blind
confusion. The name of this article was Twemlow. Being first cousin to Lord Snigsworth, he was in frequent
requisition, and at many houses might be said to represent the dining-table in its normal state. Mr. and Mrs.
Veneering, for example, arranging a dinner, habitually started with Twemlow, and then put leaves in him, or
added guests to him. Sometimes, the table consisted of Twemlow and half a dozen leaves.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

(A) To show how Twemlow was someone around whom the Veneerings arranged their party guests
(B) To argue that Twemlow was a worthy guest simply on the strength of his own personality
(C) To illustrate how Twemlow was warmly appreciative of the friendships he had cultivated through the
Veneerings
(D) To highlight how Twemlow was largely interested in the superficial aspects of socializing instead of
making deeper connections

TEXT STRUCTURE AND PURPOSE DRILL 2

Question 1

Adolescence is a relatively recent concept. In years past, children and adults lived and worked together; as
soon as children were old enough to fend for themselves, they often did. This is evidenced by pictures of
children working in factories at ages as young as six or seven.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

(A) To highlight the unjust treatment of young people in today’s factories

(B) To show how difficult it is for social evolution to take place
(C) To argue why new legislation is needed
(D) To illustrate the significant change in a paradigm

Question 2

The following text is adapted from an editorial in the May 3, 1916, edition of The Day Book. Written during
World War One, the editor is discussing the source of much anti–German American sentiment in the United
States.

Newspaper comment on the attitude of so-called German Americans toward this country hasn’t been
altogether fair. Practically all of them have been blamed for the attitude of only the vociferous few. One
reason for this big mistake as to the American patriotism of Americans of German birth or ancestry is that
the opinions of German newspapers are taken as the opinion of German Americans. Before the war broke
out there were German papers all over the country that were leading a hand-to-mouth existence—with a few
notable exceptions. Most of the readers were elderly Germans, as the rising generation was educated in the
public schools and read newspapers printed in the English language. There were very few big German
editors, and circulation was small.

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

(A) To demonstrate public education’s success in fully assimilating new immigrants

(B) To explain the reason behind the decreasing appeal of German-language publications
(C) To analyze the causes of a decline in overall newspaper readership
(D) To underscore the importance of advertising to increase the consumption of media

Question 3

Because of the high costs to run air conditioning systems and concern about the effect on the environment,
alternate systems have been developed. One of these is a water system in which cooled water is piped
throughout buildings, acting like a giant refrigerant coil. Another uses cool hours in the evening and night to
freeze large ice deposits, which are then used during the hottest hours of the next day to cool the building.
Even geothermal air conditioning is being used in some places where it is possible to tap into cool air
underground.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

(A) It discusses possible replacements for mainstream air conditioning systems.

(B) It illustrates the economic challenges that typical Americans face.
(C) It showcases alternative electrical energy sources that will reduce pollution.
(D) It describes the most popular air conditioning systems in use today.
Question 4

Many Native American tribes had a unique way of planting crops in what today are the Northeastern and
Midwestern regions of the United States. They would plant corn, climbing beans, and winter squash together
on a mound of earth. The corn acted as a pole for the beans to grow on, and the vine of the squash would
spread along the ground, helping to keep weeds down and preventing soil erosion. But besides the
convenience of these crops helping each other in an observably physical way, and whether indigenous
peoples realized it or not, planting in this manner also helped the crops and the soil chemically. Today’s
farmers employ a similar but much more complex system to ensure the continued fertility of soil: crop
rotation.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined selection in the text as a whole?

(A) To explain that Native Americans lacked a plan for how to grow their crops
(B) To highlight how pesticides were an unknown technology to Native Americans
(C) To point out that scientific concerns outweighed agricultural concerns in earlier periods
(D) To show that a way of arranging crops happened to be chemically advantageous

Question 5

The following text is from Henry David Thoreau’s 1849 work Civil Disobedience.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper
place today, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less desponding spirits, is in
her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves
out by their principles.

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

(A) To declare the importance of incarceration

(B) To undermine the concept of moral governance
(C) To underscore an ethical paradox
(D) To contend that prisons are overcrowded