Question 113·Medium·Text Structure and Purpose
The following text is from the 1908 essay “The City at Night,” by journalist Ada Huxtable.
We congratulate ourselves on this modern miracle we call electric night, as if by stretching daylight we had conquered fatigue itself. Storefronts glitter long after their clerks have begun to yawn; elevated trains sparkle like necklaces across the river; and every incandescent bulb seems a tiny declaration of victory. Yet peer beneath that brilliance and you find the droop of shoulders, the slackened pace of porters sweeping empty platforms. The city glows, but its citizens are dimming. I wonder whether our new brightness illuminates progress or merely disguises weariness that once sent us sensibly to bed.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
For main-purpose questions, first skim the passage, then reread the first and last sentences to capture the overall aim. Put the passage into your own one-sentence summary (what is the author mainly doing—describing, criticizing, questioning, comparing?). Next, quickly eliminate any choices that introduce new topics not in the passage (like money, specific people, or social issues that never appear). Among the remaining options, pick the one that matches both the contrast or development you see in the middle of the passage and the overall tone (positive, negative, or mixed). Avoid choices that are too narrow (only one detail) or that sound like they come from a different article altogether.
Hints
Focus on the whole passage, not a detail
Reread the first and last sentences: what question or idea does the author introduce at the beginning, and how does she return to or develop it by the end?
Notice the contrast in the middle
Pay close attention to the word “Yet” and what comes after it. How does what you see “beneath that brilliance” differ from the earlier images of glittering storefronts and sparkling trains?
Check which topics are actually present
Ask yourself: Does the passage really discuss social inequality, money and economic gains, or specific inventors? Eliminate any choice whose main topic never appears in the text.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify the task: main purpose
The question asks for the main purpose of the text, which means you must decide what the author is mainly doing in the passage as a whole (describing, arguing, commemorating, etc.), not small details.
To do this efficiently, pay special attention to the first sentence and the last sentence, then check how the middle details support that overall idea.
Summarize what the author actually says and does
Look at the key parts of the passage:
- Beginning: The author calls electric night a “modern miracle” and describes glittering storefronts, sparkling trains, and bulbs as “tiny declaration[s] of victory.” That sounds admiring on the surface.
- Middle: Then she says, “Yet peer beneath that brilliance and you find the droop of shoulders, the slackened pace of porters…” This introduces a contrast between what the lights show (brightness, victory) and what is really happening (tired people).
- Ending: She wonders whether the new brightness shows real progress or hides the weariness that used to send people to bed.
So overall, the passage contrasts the shiny look of the city at night with the underlying exhaustion of its citizens, and it questions whether the lighting represents true progress or a kind of disguise.
Match that summary to the answer choices
Now compare your summary with each choice:
- Choice A talks about technology erasing social inequalities, which the passage never mentions.
- Choice B focuses on economic benefits for workers, but the author emphasizes their fatigue, not any financial gain.
- Choice C says the purpose is to honor heroic inventors, but the passage doesn’t name inventors or celebrate them directly; it’s more doubtful than purely praising.
The remaining option, D) To illustrate how artificial nighttime illumination both conceals and reveals the city’s true condition, fits the passage: the lights make the city appear bright and victorious (reveal one “condition”), but they also hide the growing exhaustion and weariness underneath (conceal the deeper truth). Therefore, D is the correct answer.