Question ID 236fee8e

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 236fee8e 2.1

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 2.2

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 2.3

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 2.4

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 2.5

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 6f5fc289
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 6f5fc289 2.6

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 2.7

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 f2c48e47
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: f2c48e47 2.8

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 2.9

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 2.10

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 6d44060a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 6d44060a 2.11

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 2.12

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 48555763
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 48555763 2.13

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 2.14

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 8bc66f89
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 8bc66f89 2.15

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 2.16

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 2.17

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.
Question ID 1090b367
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 1090b367
2.18
Today composer Scott Joplin is mainly celebrated for his catchy ragtime pieces “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer.”
However, by overlooking his less famous works, listeners will miss the full range of Joplin’s creativity. For instance, his waltz
“Pleasant Moments” and his opera Treemonisha skillfully blend ragtime and classical music. These masterpieces deserve as
much fame as Joplin’s biggest hits.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To describe the similarities and differences between ragtime music and opera

B. To argue that more attention should be given to Joplin’s lesser-known works

C. To encourage music lovers to listen to music by many different composers

D. To explain how Joplin learned to compose and perform ragtime music

Question ID d9e55268
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: d9e55268
2.19
The following text is adapted from Louise Erdrich’s 2020 novel The Night Watchman. Louis Pipestone is collecting signatures
for a petition from fellow members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa on the tribe’s reservation in North Dakota.

Louis Pipestone tended the petition like a garden. He kept it with him at all times. In town, his eyes sharpened when he
noticed a tribal member who hadn’t yet signed. Wherever they were—at the gas pump, mercantile [general store], at
Henry’s [Café], on the road, or outside the clinic and hospital—Louis cornered them. If they were waiting for a baby to be
born, he’d have them sign. If they were laughing, if they were arguing. If they were taking a child home from school, they
signed.
©2020 by Louise Erdrich

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To suggest that some tribal members refuse to sign the petition because they dislike Louis Pipestone

B. To show that attitudes toward the petition within the tribal community change over time

C. To demonstrate that most tribal members are enthusiastic about signing the petition

D. To portray Louis Pipestone’s strong commitment to collecting signatures for the petition
Question ID 617a8a10
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 617a8a10
2.20
Very little is known about the role nocturnal insects, such as moths, play in flower pollination because it is difficult to monitor
insects at night. To address this problem, a team of scientists used time-lapse cameras to record pollinator visits to red
clover all day and night. The recordings showed that while most pollinator visits were by bumblebees, one-third of visits were
by moths. Additionally, flowers that were visited by both moths and bees produced more seeds than flowers that were only
visited by bees.

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence?

A. To describe an approach a team of scientists used to study pollinators

B. To question a claim scientists make about pollinators

C. To explain why moths prefer red clover to other flowers

D. To announce an unexpected research finding about red clover