SAT Text Structure and Purpose practice questions

Question 1

The ginkgo is often called a living fossil. Trees very much like it grew alongside the dinosaurs, and the species has survived nearly unchanged while countless others vanished. Hardy and resistant to pests and pollution, the ginkgo now thrives as a street tree in cities around the world.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Accepted Answer

To describe the ginkgo as an ancient, hardy species that still flourishes today.

Answer

To compare the ginkgo tree with the dinosaurs in terms of its size.

Answer

To argue that the ginkgo ought to replace other trees in cities.

Answer

To explain the way in which the ginkgo tree reproduces.

Question 2

In the late 1940s, shepherds searching for a stray animal near the Dead Sea entered a cave and found clay jars holding ancient scrolls. The discovery led scholars to nearby caves, where hundreds more manuscripts came to light. Written two thousand years ago, these texts include some of the oldest known copies of biblical writings, and they have reshaped what scholars understand about the period in which they were composed.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Accepted Answer

To describe the discovery of a set of ancient manuscripts and explain why they matter to scholars.

Answer

To explain the techniques used to make scrolls in the ancient world.

Answer

To argue that the shepherds should have been rewarded for finding the scrolls.

Answer

To compare the Dead Sea Scrolls with other surviving collections of ancient writing.

Question 3

The following is from an original short story.
"My aunt never threw away a jar. The pantry shelves bowed under rows of them, washed and dried and waiting, lids sorted by size in a drawer. I teased her for it until the winter the storm cut the power for nine days, and we ate by candlelight from those same jars — peaches, beans, tomatoes, a whole summer she had sealed away against exactly such a night. Her thrift, I learned, was a kind of foresight wearing plain clothes."

Which choice best states the function of the last sentence ("Her thrift, I learned, was a kind of foresight wearing plain clothes")?

Accepted Answer

It reinterprets the aunt's habit, once mocked, as quiet foresight.

Answer

It introduces a disagreement that the family never resolved.

Answer

It explains how the narrator learned to can vegetables.

Answer

It reveals that the aunt's jars were empty.

SAT Text Structure and Purpose practice questions

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