Question 100·Easy·Text Structure and Purpose
People often assume that all varieties of basil taste alike. But chef Akira Tanaka suspected that there were subtle flavor differences among them. To find out, he prepared identical tomato sauces, each seasoned with a different basil cultivar, and invited diners to compare the dishes. Most participants agreed that the sauces did, in fact, have distinct flavors.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
For function-of-sentence questions, first read the entire short passage so you see the logical flow: what comes before the sentence, what comes after, and how ideas progress. Then, paraphrase the target sentence in simple words and decide whether it is introducing a claim, explaining a term, giving evidence, describing a method, or stating a result. Finally, test each answer choice against that role and eliminate any choice that does not match both the content of the sentence and its position in the paragraph; avoid being tricked by words that appear elsewhere in the passage but not in the underlined sentence.
Hints
Clarify what the underlined sentence is saying
Paraphrase the underlined sentence in your own words. Is it describing what happened, what someone thinks might be true, a definition, or a reaction?
Notice the order of ideas in the paragraph
Look at what comes right before and right after the underlined portion. Is the underlined part setting something up, explaining something that just happened, or reacting to something that already happened?
Identify where the conclusion appears
Ask yourself: which sentence in the paragraph tells you what the diners actually decided about the flavors? Then, compare that to what the underlined sentence is doing.
Eliminate answers that do not fit the sentence
Check each choice against the exact content of the underlined sentence: does that sentence report results, define a term, describe others’ reactions, or do something else?
Step-by-step Explanation
Restate the underlined sentence in your own words
The underlined part says that chef Akira Tanaka suspected (thought) there were small flavor differences between different kinds of basil. So it is describing his belief or idea about basil flavors before he does anything to test it.
Look at where it appears in the passage
First, the passage states a common assumption: people think all basil tastes the same. Immediately after, the underlined sentence shows Tanaka’s contrasting belief. Then the next sentence begins, "To find out, he prepared…" which describes the experiment he runs. This means the underlined sentence comes before the experiment and seems to be the reason the experiment happens.
Compare what the other sentences do
After the experiment is described (preparing sauces and inviting diners), the final sentence gives the diners’ responses: most participants agreed the sauces had distinct flavors. That last sentence is the result or conclusion of the experiment, not the underlined one. The underlined sentence, in contrast, explains what Tanaka thinks before testing and what he wants to investigate.
Match this role to the best answer choice
Because the underlined sentence expresses Tanaka’s initial idea (that different basil cultivars might have subtle flavor differences) and this idea leads him to conduct the taste test, the best description of its function is: It presents a hypothesis that motivates the experiment described.