Question 133·Easy·Text Structure and Purpose
The following text is from a short narrative.
I told my brother the party would be dull.
Then the band began to play, and the floor filled in seconds.
We looked at each other and laughed at how wrong I’d been.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?
For function questions in Reading & Writing, always read at least one sentence before and after the underlined portion to see how it connects to the surrounding text. Ask: Does this sentence contrast with, illustrate, explain, or continue the idea before it? Then eliminate answer choices that describe roles not supported by the passage (like definitions, research plans, or conversations that never occur), and pick the one that accurately describes how the sentence changes or develops the situation.
Hints
Look at the sentence before the underlined one
What does the narrator say about the party in the first sentence? Is that a prediction, a memory, or something else?
Check what happens in the underlined sentence
Does the underlined sentence show the party staying dull, becoming dull, or changing in some way?
Use the last sentence as a clue
Why do the narrator and the brother laugh at "how wrong I’d been"? What does that tell you about how the underlined sentence relates to the first one?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the context before and after the sentence
Read the first and last sentences together:
- "I told my brother the party would be dull."
- "We looked at each other and laughed at how wrong I’d been."
From these, you can see that the narrator made a prediction about the party and later realizes that prediction was incorrect.
Focus on what the underlined sentence actually describes
The underlined sentence says: "Then the band began to play, and the floor filled in seconds."
This describes a moment when the band starts playing and the dance floor quickly becomes crowded. That means the party is energetic and busy, not dull.
Connect the underlined sentence to the narrator’s earlier statement
The narrator first said the party would be dull, but the underlined sentence shows the opposite: things become lively and exciting. Then, the last sentence has them laughing at "how wrong I’d been," confirming that the event in the underlined sentence contradicts the original expectation.
Match that role to the best answer choice
The underlined sentence shows that what actually happens at the party is the opposite of what the narrator expected. Among the choices, only A) It signals a reversal of the narrator’s earlier expectation. correctly describes this function.