Question ID c966ad55

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: c966ad55
The following text is from Srimati Svarna Kumari Devi’s 1894 novel The Fatal Garland (translated by A. Christina Albers in
1910). Shakti is walking near a riverbank that she visited frequently during her childhood.

She crossed the woods she knew so well. The trees seemed to extend their branches like welcoming arms. They
greeted her as an old friend. Soon she reached the river-side.

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

A. It suggests that Shakti feels uncomfortable near the river.

B. It indicates that Shakti has lost her sense of direction in the woods.

C. It emphasizes Shakti’s sense of belonging in the landscape.

D. It conveys Shakti’s appreciation for her long-term friendships.

Question ID d4732483
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: d4732483
Studying late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artifacts from an agricultural and domestic site in Texas,
archaeologist Ayana O. Flewellen found that Black women employed as farm workers utilized hook-and-eye closures to
fasten their clothes at the waist, giving themselves a silhouette similar to the one that was popular in contemporary
fashion and typically achieved through more restrictive garments such as corsets. Flewellen argues that this sartorial
practice shows that these women balanced hegemonic ideals of femininity with the requirements of their physically
demanding occupation.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To describe an unexpected discovery that altered a researcher’s view of how rapidly fashions among Black female
farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas changed during the period

B. To discuss research that investigated the ways in which Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century Texas used fashion practices to resist traditional gender ideals

C. To evaluate a scholarly work that offers explanations for the impact of urban fashion ideals on Black female
farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas

D. To summarize the findings of a study that explored factors influencing a fashion practice among Black female
farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas
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 5f56fdec
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 5f56fdec
The following text is from George Marion McClellan’s 1895 poem “Eternity.”

My spirit swoons, and all my senses cry

For Ocean’s breast and covering of the sky.
Rock me to sleep, ye waves, and outward bound,
Just let me drift far out from toil and care,
Where lapping of the waves shall be the sound,
Which mingled with the winds that gently bear
Me on between a peaceful sea and sky,
To make my soothing slumberous lullaby.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To illustrate the increasing intensity of the speaker’s desire to escape ongoing hardship by gliding on the ocean

B. To contrast the demands of the speaker’s everyday life with the serenity of being rocked to sleep by the ocean

C. To convey the speaker’s longing for the ocean to impart a sense of inner tranquility

D. To justify the speaker’s qualms about being transported by the ocean to a quiet destination
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 066a3295
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 066a3295
Researchers have found a nearly 164,000-year-old molar from a member of the archaic human species known as
Denisovans in a cave in Laos, suggesting that Denisovans lived in a wider range of environments than indicated by earlier
evidence. Before the discovery, Denisovans were thought to have lived only at high altitudes in relatively cold climates in
what are now Russia and China, but the discovery of the tooth in Laos suggests that they may have lived at low altitudes
in relatively warm climates in Southeast Asia as well.

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

A. It dismisses as untrue the research presented in the previous sentence.

B. It defines a term used in the description that follows in the rest of the sentence.

C. It emphasizes the main goal of the research introduced in the previous sentence.

D. It provides context that clarifies the significance of the information that follows in the rest of the sentence.
Question ID b0f7541b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: b0f7541b
The following text is adapted from Herman Melville’s 1857 novel The Confidence-Man. Humphry Davy was a prominent
British chemist and inventor.

Years ago, a grave American savant, being in London, observed at an evening party there, a certain coxcombical
fellow, as he thought, an absurd ribbon in his lapel, and full of smart [banter], whisking about to the admiration of as
many as were disposed to admire. Great was the savant’s disdain; but, chancing ere long to find himself in a corner
with the jackanapes, got into conversation with him, when he was somewhat ill-prepared for the good sense of the
jackanapes, but was altogether thrown aback, upon subsequently being [informed that he was] no less a personage
than Sir Humphry Davy.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It portrays the thoughts of a character who is embarrassed about his own behavior.

B. It presents an account of a misunderstanding.

C. It offers a short history of how a person came to be famous.

D. It explains why one character dislikes another.

Question ID e13171c4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: e13171c4
Historians Tiya Miles and Roy E. Finkenbine have both documented the assistance Indigenous peoples gave to Black
freedom seekers leaving the South before the US Civil War. Much of the historical evidence of this help comes from
Indigenous oral traditions and from autobiographies written by the freedom seekers. One such narrative is Jermain
Loguen’s autobiography, which tells about how Neshnabé (Potawatomi) villagers offered him food, lodging, and
directions during his 1835 journey from Tennessee to Canada.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?

A. It provides an example of an autobiography that describes help given by an Indigenous people to a Black freedom
seeker.

B. It shows why Loguen decided to write in great detail about his experiences traveling from Tennessee to Canada in his
autobiography.

C. It argues that autobiographies are particularly important sources of information about geography in the United States
before the Civil War.

D. It suggests that most historians believe that Neshnabé villagers were more successful in assisting freedom seekers
than other people were.
Question ID 190857f0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 190857f0
Why do sand cats purr but lions roar? Researchers hypothesize that this difference between the two feline species may
be partly due to a U-shaped bone in their throats called the hyoid. Sand cats, which are much smaller than lions, have a
rigid hyoid that rumbles when the cat’s larynx vibrates, resulting in a purr. By contrast, lions have a somewhat flexible
hyoid, and the bone is attached to the skull with a stretchy ligament that sand cats lack. These traits allow lions and most
other species of big cats to produce powerful roars. The same traits may also prevent most big cats from purring.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. The text presents a theory about two species, then discusses facts that weaken it.

B. The text compares the habitats of two species, then explains how those habitats are changing.

C. The text describes a behavior shared by two species, then discusses other behaviors shared by them.

D. The text poses a question about two species, then presents a possible answer.
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 c61a7c4a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: c61a7c4a
Some studies have suggested that posture can influence cognition, but we should not overstate this phenomenon. A
case in point: In a 2014 study, Megan O’Brien and Alaa Ahmed had subjects stand or sit while making risky simulated
economic decisions. Standing is more physically unstable and cognitively demanding than sitting; accordingly, O’Brien
and Ahmed hypothesized that standing subjects would display more risk aversion during the decision-making tasks than
sitting subjects did, since they would want to avoid further feelings of discomfort and complicated risk evaluations. But
O’Brien and Ahmed actually found no difference in the groups’ performance.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It argues that research findings about the effects of posture on cognition are often misunderstood, as in the case of
O’Brien and Ahmed’s study.

B. It presents the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to critique the methods and results reported in previous studies of the
effects of posture on cognition.

C. It explains a significant problem in the emerging understanding of posture’s effects on cognition and how O’Brien and
Ahmed tried to solve that problem.

D. It discusses the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to illustrate why caution is needed when making claims about the
effects of posture on cognition.
Question ID aa5897b8
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: aa5897b8
In Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, an almost imperceptible smile from potential suitor Henry Crawford causes the
protagonist Fanny Price to blush; her embarrassment grows when she suspects that he is aware of it. This moment—in
which Fanny not only infers Henry’s mental state through his gestures, but also infers that he is drawing inferences about
her mental state—illustrates what literary scholar George Butte calls “deep intersubjectivity,” a technique for representing
interactions between consciousnesses through which Austen’s novels derive much of their social and psychological
drama.

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

A. It states a claim about Austen’s skill at representing psychological complexity that is reinforced by an example
presented in the following sentence.

B. It advances an interpretation of an Austen protagonist who is contrasted with protagonists from other Austen novels
cited in the following sentence.

C. It describes a recurring theme in Austen’s novels that is the focus of a literary scholar’s analysis summarized in the
following sentence.

D. It provides a synopsis of an interaction in an Austen novel that illustrates a literary concept discussed in the following
sentence.
Question ID e929fe98
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: e929fe98
Composer Florence Price won first place for her score Symphony in E Minor at the 1932 Wanamaker Foundation Awards.
The piece was performed the following year by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a significant recognition of its quality.
Price continued to compose many musical pieces throughout her career, blending traditional Black spirituals with
classical European Romantic musical traditions. In recent years, Price’s concertos and symphonies have been performed
and recorded by several major orchestras, further preserving her work for others to enjoy.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To provide examples of Price’s importance as a composer

B. To argue that more major orchestras should perform Price’s compositions

C. To describe the musical styles that inspired many of Price’s symphonies

D. To compare Price’s scores with those of classical European composers

Question ID b4887dae
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: b4887dae
Mathematician Claude Shannon is widely regarded as a foundational figure in information theory. His most important
paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” published in 1948 when he was employed at Bell Labs, utilized a
concept called a “binary digit” (shortened to “bit”) to measure the amount of information in any signal and determine the
fastest rate at which information could be transmitted while still being reliably decipherable. Robert Gallagher, one of
Shannon’s colleagues, said that the bit was “[Shannon’s] discovery, and from it the whole communications revolution has
sprung.”

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It presents a theoretical concept, illustrates how the name of the concept has changed, and shows how the name has
entered common usage.

B. It introduces a respected researcher, describes an aspect of his work, and suggests why the work is historically
significant.

C. It names the company where an important mathematician worked, details the mathematician’s career at the
company, and provides an example of the recognition he received there.

D. It mentions a paper, offers a summary of the paper’s findings, and presents a researcher’s commentary on the paper.
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 65406d2c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 65406d2c
Dubautia carrii is a species in a family of plants known collectively as the silversword alliance, all of which grow only on
the Hawaiian Islands. Members of this alliance exhibit an extraordinary range of phenotypes, with some species
maturing into vines and others into shrubs and trees. All species in the alliance descended from a single ancestral
tarweed plant that arrived on the islands around 5 million years ago. The tarweed’s descendants diversified into distinct
species as they adapted to live in the wide variety of habitats found on the Hawaiian Islands.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To indicate the specific tarweed ancestor of all plants that grow on the Hawaiian Islands and explain why the plants
have such varied physical characteristics

B. To describe the specific habitat where Dubautia carrii are found and identify other plants that share a common
ancestor with them

C. To describe the silversword alliance and explain how the plant family became so varied

D. To advance the claim that all plants on the Hawaiian Islands are part of the silversword alliance and list possible
ancestors of the plants that make up the alliance
Question ID 809addda
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 809addda
The following text is from Ameen Rihani’s 1921 poem “The Wanderer.”

I wander among the hills of alien lands

Where Nature her prerogative resigns
To Man; where Comfort in her shack reclines
And all the arts and sciences commands.
But in my soul
The eastern billows roll—
I hear the voices of my native strands.

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

A. It establishes that the speaker’s enthusiasm about current travels conflicts with the growing urge to return home.

B. It illustrates the speaker’s uncertainty about maintaining strong links with relatives in distant places.

C. It conveys the speaker’s sense of feeling a pull toward home while traveling in an unfamiliar place.

D. It reveals that upon returning after an extended absence, the speaker longs for the way a location once felt.
Question ID 4ed09415
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 4ed09415
Vadamalai Elangovan and Ganapathi Marimuthu showed that high moonlight intensity inhibits the activity of the greater
short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx), a result explicable in terms of benefits and costs: greater lunar intensity may
not enable the bats to increase foraging success enough to offset the higher chance of detection by predatory owls or
hawks. Most other nocturnal mammals respond to lunar intensity variations similarly to greater short-nosed fruit bats,
but mongoose lemurs (Eulemur mongoz) display the opposite pattern, as their heavy reliance on visual foraging results in
a different balance of reward and risk.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It discusses two different responses to the same natural phenomenon, explains why one of those responses occurs,
and then suggests that the other response still needs to be explained.

B. It describes and accounts for a finding, characterizes the finding as representative of a general pattern, and then
describes and accounts for an exception to that pattern.

C. It presents and explains a study result, indicates that the result is similar to the results of many other studies, and
then attributes a conflicting study result to a difference in that study’s methods.

D. It introduces an observation of a behavioral pattern, presents an explanation for the pattern, and then describes an
exception to the pattern that casts doubt on that explanation.
Question ID 0b5ecf0e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 0b5ecf0e
During Rome’s republican period, which ended in the first century BCE, libraries were predominantly owned by wealthy
individuals who tightly controlled access to their book collections. The first public library became available in Rome in 28
BCE and was soon followed by one commissioned by Emperor Augustus. As modern scholar Fabio Fernandes notes,
however, these two traditions aren’t as distinct as they seem, as both the emperor and the private library owners viewed
their libraries as extensions of their personal patronage, just on vastly differing scales.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To give a brief overview of public access to libraries throughout Rome’s republican period

B. To contend that early imperial leaders in Rome wielded too much influence over libraries

C. To assert that private and early public libraries in ancient Rome had an essential similarity

D. To call into question the notion that private Roman libraries disappeared during the first century BCE
Question ID c6bd3447
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: c6bd3447
The following text is from Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel Night and Day. The text describes a gathering of young artists and
intellectuals.

One person after another rose, and, as with an ill-balanced axe, attempted to hew out his conception of art a little
more clearly, and sat down with the feeling that, for some reason which he could not grasp, his strokes had gone
awry. As they sat down they turned almost invariably to the person sitting next them, and rectified and continued
what they had just said in public.

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

A. To demonstrate individuals’ puzzlement over the reputation of a certain artwork

B. To highlight the physical effort involved in individuals’ construction of large-scale works of art

C. To draw attention to individuals’ discontent with the group’s conversation about art

D. To emphasize the extent of individuals’ struggles to articulate thoughts on art

Question ID a68239ed
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: a68239ed
The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1897 nonfiction work De Profundis.

People whose desire is solely for self-realisation never know where they are going. They can’t know. In one sense of
the word it is of course necessary to know oneself: that is the first achievement of knowledge. But to recognise that
the soul of a man is unknowable, is the ultimate achievement of wisdom. The final mystery is oneself. When one
has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star
by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?

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

A. It reinforces the text’s skepticism about the possibility of truly achieving self-knowledge.

B. It speculates that some readers will share the doubts expressed in the text about the value of self-knowledge.

C. It cautions readers that the text’s directions for how to achieve self-knowledge are hard to follow.

D. It concedes that the definition of self-knowledge advanced in the text is unpopular.

Question ID a2dd51c1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: a2dd51c1
In most building demolitions, the building materials are destroyed and sent to landfills. City officials in Portland, Oregon,
wanted to reduce this waste. The officials passed a law requiring demolition companies to deconstruct some buildings
instead. Deconstruction involves carefully taking buildings apart piece by piece. Damage to the materials is avoided so
that they can be reused in new constructions. A 2019 study found that 27 percent of materials from deconstructions in
Portland were able to be reused. The remaining materials were processed for recycling instead of going to a landfill.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To explain an effort made by the city of Portland to reduce demolition waste and some results of that effort

B. To show that popular support for measures that reduce demolition waste has increased since 2019

C. To argue that building deconstruction is not as effective as other measures at reducing demolition waste

D. To discuss laws aimed to reduce demolition waste in Portland and compare them to similar laws in other cities
Question ID 48e4021d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 48e4021d
The following text is from Holly Goldberg Sloan’s 2017 novel Short.

More than two years ago my parents bought a piano from some people who were moving to Utah. Mom and Dad
gave it to my brothers and me for Christmas. I had to act really happy because it was such a big present, but I pretty
much hated the thing from the second it was carried into the hallway upstairs, which is right next to my bedroom.
The piano glared at me. It was like a songbird in a cage. It wanted to be set free.
©2017 by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It explains why the narrator always wanted a piano close to her bedroom.

B. It establishes how the narrator feels about the piano.

C. It suggests that the narrator’s brothers are talented piano players.

D. It describes the event that led the narrator’s parents to buy a piano.
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 34d7bb25
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 34d7bb25
According to Indian economist and sociologist Radhakamal Mukerjee (1889–1968), the Eurocentric concepts that
informed early twentieth-century social scientific methods—for example, the idea that all social relations are reducible to
struggles between individuals—had little relevance for India. Making the social sciences more responsive to Indians’
needs, Mukerjee argued, required constructing analytical categories informed by India’s cultural and ecological
circumstances. Mukerjee thus proposed the communalist “Indian village” as the ideal model on which to base Indian
economic and social policy.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. The text recounts Mukerjee’s early training in the social scientific disciplines and then lists social policies whose
implementation Mukerjee oversaw.

B. The text mentions some of Mukerjee’s economic theories and then traces their impact on other Indian social
scientists of the twentieth century.

C. The text presents Mukerjee’s critique of the social sciences and then provides an example of his attempts to address
issues he identified in his critique.

D. The text explains an influential economic theory and then demonstrates how that theory was more important to
Mukerjee’s work than other social scientists have acknowledged.
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 47904792
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 47904792
Animals use many objects as tools to achieve goals more easily. Such goals include grooming, finding food, and
protecting themselves. For a long time, people thought tool use was unique to primates. Dolphins and other animals,
though, have busted the myth that tool use requires hands. Inventively, dolphins use sponges to protect their noses from
scratches when foraging on the seafloor. Palm cockatoos also get creative. They use leaves to pad their beaks when
opening nuts.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To question the belief that birds are intelligent

B. To compare tool use in humans with tool use in palm cockatoos

C. To establish that tool use doesn’t indicate intelligence

D. To argue that a variety of animals use tools

Question ID ac5bf490
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: ac5bf490
The following text is from Reyna Grande’s 2012 memoir The Distance Between Us. In the text, Grande reflects on a time
when she and her older sister Mago were children. A Barbie is a type of doll.

I begged Mago to come play with me. She wasn’t as interested in my Barbie as she had been just two months
before, which made me sad because that was the only thing Mago had envied me for. Usually, it was me doing the
envying. After I pestered her relentlessly, she finally put her notebook down and came over to me.
©2012 by Reyna Grande

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text?

A. It indicates Grande’s unhappiness over Mago’s disinterest in Grande’s doll.

B. It expresses Grande’s anger over Mago’s refusal to spend time with her.

C. It presents an example of how Mago and Grande generally played together as children.

D. It provides a reason for why Mago is unwilling to play with Grande.

Question ID 0ed94d4c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 0ed94d4c
Jackie Ormes’s Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem (1937–38) was the first comic strip by a Black woman to appear in a
widely read newspaper. The strip tells the story of Torchy, a young woman who leaves Mississippi to become a performer
in New York City. Torchy’s story reflects the experience of the Great Migration (1910–1970), when millions of Black
Americans left the South in search of opportunities in other parts of the United States. Torchy Brown thus shows how
Ormes used comics to comment humorously on issues affecting Black Americans, which she continued to do
throughout her career.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To show how Ormes’s Torchy Brown inspired other Black women to write comic strips in the 1930s

B. To illustrate how the subjects Ormes addressed in her comic strips changed over the course of her career

C. To give an example of how Ormes presented the experiences of Black Americans in her comic strips

D. To claim that several characters in Torchy Brown were based on people that Ormes knew personally
Question ID 4eee64fa
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 4eee64fa
Space scientists Anna-Lisa Paul, Stephen M. Elardo, and Robert Ferl planted seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana in samples of
lunar regolith—the surface material of the Moon—and, serving as a control group, in terrestrial soil. They found that while
all the seeds germinated, the roots of the regolith-grown plants were stunted compared with those in the control group.
Moreover, unlike the plants in the control group, the regolith-grown plants exhibited red pigmentation, reduced leaf size,
and inhibited growth rates—indicators of stress that were corroborated by postharvest molecular analysis.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It describes an experiment that addressed an unresolved question about the extent to which lunar regolith resembles
terrestrial soils.

B. It compares two distinct methods of assessing indicators of stress in plants grown in a simulated lunar environment.

C. It presents evidence in support of the hypothesis that seed germination in lunar habitats is an unattainable goal.

D. It discusses the findings of a study that evaluated the effects of exposing a plant species to lunar soil conditions.
Question ID a70cbc53
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: a70cbc53
Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word poetry album,
The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids, in collaboration with producer Ian Brennan. The album contains both
autobiographical and reflective pieces combining Antrobus’s spoken words with Brennan’s fragmented audio elements
and pieces of music to convey how people who are deaf may experience sound, both its presence and absence. Some
critics suggest that the album questions the function of sound in the world, highlighting that the experience of sound is
multifaceted.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It introduces a collaborative spoken word poetry project, details the approach taken to produce the work, and then
provides an example of critique the album received upon release.

B. It mentions a collection of spoken word poems, distinguishes one poem as being an exemplar on the album, and then
offers a summary of the subject matter of the whole collection.

C. It summarizes the efforts to produce a collection of spoken word poems, presents biographies of two people who
worked on the album, and speculates about the meaning behind the poetry.

D. It connects two artists to the same spoken word poetry project, explains the extent of their collaboration on each
poem, and then provides an overview of the technique used to produce the work.
Question ID 5e732e67
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 5e732e67
Many films from the early 1900s have been lost. These losses include several films by the first wave of Black women
filmmakers. We know about these lost movies only from small pieces of evidence. For example, an advertisement for
Jennie Louise Touissant Welcome’s documentary Doing Their Bit still exists. There’s a reference in a magazine to Tressie
Souders’s film A Woman’s Error. And Maria P. Williams’s The Flames of Wrath is mentioned in a letter and a newspaper
article, and one image from the movie was discovered in the 1990s.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. The text identifies a complex problem, then presents examples of unsuccessful attempts to solve that problem.

B. The text summarizes a debate among researchers, then gives reasons for supporting one side in that debate.

C. The text describes a general situation, then illustrates that situation with specific examples.

D. The text discusses several notable individuals, then explains commonly overlooked differences between those
individuals.
Question ID 56ec23a0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 56ec23a0
Hiroshi Senju is known worldwide for his paintings of waterfalls. These paintings are large and tend not to show the
entire waterfall. Instead, Senju focuses on just the point where the falling water reaches the pool below, keeping the top
of the waterfall out of view. While Senju’s paintings are rooted in art movements originating in the United States, the artist
uses traditional Japanese techniques and materials that make his work instantly recognizable.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It introduces an artist and then explains some common characteristics of well-known paintings by that artist.

B. It explains a specific painting technique and then provides examples of artists who use the technique.

C. It describes a famous painting and then compares it to a lesser-known painting from the same time period.

D. It gives an opinion on an artist and then suggests multiple reasons why the artist’s work has been largely overlooked.
Question ID 1782cdd7
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 1782cdd7
In many agricultural environments, the banks of streams are kept forested to protect water quality, but it’s been unclear
what effects these forests may have on stream biodiversity. To investigate the issue, biologist Xingli Giam and
colleagues studied an Indonesian oil palm plantation, comparing the species richness of forested streams with that of
nonforested streams. Giam and colleagues found that species richness was significantly higher in forested streams, a
finding the researchers attribute to the role leaf litter plays in sheltering fish from predators and providing food resources.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It discusses research intended to settle a debate about how agricultural yields can be increased without negative
effects on water quality.

B. It explains the differences between stream-protection strategies used in oil palm plantations and stream-protection
strategies used in other kinds of agricultural environments.

C. It describes findings that challenge a previously held view about how fish that inhabit streams in agricultural
environments attempt to avoid predators.

D. It presents a study that addresses an unresolved question about the presence of forests along streams in agricultural
environments.
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 02e49a0c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 02e49a0c
Genetic studies have led researchers to suggest that turtles are most closely related to the group that includes modern
crocodiles. But studies of fossils have suggested instead that turtles are most closely related to other groups, such as
the one that contains modern snakes. However, many of the fossil studies have relied on incomplete data sets. For a
2022 investigation, biologist Tiago R. Simões and colleagues examined more than 1,000 reptile fossils collected
worldwide. From this large data set, they found clear agreement with the results of the genetic studies.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?

A. It offers an overview of the tools scientists use to examine fossils.

B. It describes a limitation of some studies about the origin of turtles.

C. It summarizes previous research on the evolution of crocodiles.

D. It criticizes a widely held belief about genetic studies of reptiles.

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 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.
Question ID 764331f8
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 764331f8
The following text is 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.
©1986 by Louise Erdrich

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.

Question ID ad4f7362
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: ad4f7362
The following text is from John Dryden’s 1697 translation of Virgil’s poem the Aeneid, written in the first century BCE.
Queen Dido has just heard the Trojan hero Aeneas recount a sad tale.

But anxious cares already seiz’d the queen:

She fed within her veins a flame unseen;
The hero’s valor, acts, and birth inspire
Her soul with love, and fan the secret fire.
His words, his looks, imprinted in her heart,
Improve the passion, and increase the smart.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To indicate that Dido is hiding her skepticism of Aeneas’s account

B. To emphasize that Dido has been deeply affected by Aeneas’s story

C. To imply that Dido engages both emotionally and intellectually with Aeneas

D. To suggest that Dido is worried that Aeneas might discover a secret she is keeping from him
Question ID 9b01bcf4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 9b01bcf4
The 1967 release of Harold Cruse’s book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual isolated him from almost all other scholars
and activists of the American Civil Rights Movement—though many of those thinkers disagreed with each other, he
nonetheless found ways to disagree with them all. He thought that activists who believed that Black people such as
himself should culturally assimilate were naïve. But he also sharply criticized Black nationalists such as Marcus Garvey
who wanted to establish independent, self-contained Black economies and societies, even though Cruse himself
identified as a Black nationalist.

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

A. It describes a direction that Cruse felt the Civil Rights Movement ought to take.

B. It indicates that Cruse’s reputation as a persistent antagonist of other scholars is undeserved.

C. It describes a controversy that Cruse’s work caused within the Black nationalist movement.

D. It helps explain Cruse’s position with respect to the community of civil rights thinkers.
Question ID 40270820
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 40270820
Catherine L. Cardelús is a researcher who studies canopy soil. Canopy soil is formed in a tree’s branches (its canopy)
when dead leaves and other falling things collect. This material breaks down, becoming canopy soil. Canopy soil helps
preserve a healthy water cycle (how water moves through the environment) in rainforests. This benefit is one reason
Cardelús is interested in the canopy soils in large choibá trees in rainforests in Costa Rica.

Which choice best describes the text’s overall structure?

A. It explains a disagreement between researchers and how it was resolved.

B. It presents an idea and mentions a researcher who disagrees with that idea.

C. It compares the sizes of two types of trees over several years.

D. It introduces a researcher and gives information about what she researches.

Question ID dcd9ad50
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: dcd9ad50
The following text is adapted from George Eliot’s 1857 short story “The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton.” Mr. Ely is
a clergyman in the town of Milby.

By the laity of Milby and its neighbourhood [Mr. Ely] was regarded as a man of quite remarkable powers and
learning, who must make a considerable sensation in London pulpits and drawing-rooms on his occasional visit to
the metropolis; and by his brother clergy he was regarded as a discreet and agreeable fellow. Mr. Ely never got into a
warm discussion; he suggested what might be thought, but rarely said what he thought himself; he never let either
men or women see that he was laughing at them, and he never gave any one an opportunity of laughing at him.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It shows that Mr. Ely had originally been held in high regard by his friends and then details the events that caused their
regard for him to subside.

B. It implies that Mr. Ely’s neighbors are more naïve in their estimation of him than people in London are and then
explains why his neighbors have been so easily misled.

C. It stresses the discrepancy between Mr. Ely’s public and private conduct and then alludes to his motivation for hiding
his true personality.

D. It presents the favorable opinion of Mr. Ely that other people hold and then describes the behaviors of Mr. Ely that
enable him to maintain that favorable opinion.