Question 161·Medium·Text Structure and Purpose
Although many visitors assume that museum labels simply relay facts about an artwork, curators often design them to shape how viewers look. A label might pose a question—"What pattern repeats across this canvas?"—directing attention to structure rather than subject. By steering viewers’ noticing in this way, labels can make first encounters more exploratory.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
For text-structure questions, quickly label what each part of the passage is doing (e.g., introducing a belief, contrasting it, giving an example, explaining a result) rather than what it is about. Then scan the answer choices and first cross out any that mention elements not present in the passage, such as statistics, personal stories, or lists. Finally, choose the option that best captures the sequence of moves you identified in the text, in the correct order.
Hints
Look at the first sentence’s job
Focus on the first sentence. Is it telling a story, listing things, giving data, or setting up a contrast between what people think and what actually happens?
Consider how the next sentences relate to the first
Ask yourself: do the second and third sentences give a list, tell a story, show numbers, or provide a concrete example and explanation of the idea in the first sentence?
Eliminate choices that add things not in the passage
Check each option for elements like a personal narrative, a list of features, or numerical data. If the passage doesn’t contain those things, you can safely rule that option out.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand what each sentence is doing
Read the passage and, instead of focusing on details, think about the job of each sentence.
- Sentence 1: introduces what “many visitors assume” and what curators “often” do.
- Sentence 2: gives a specific sample label question.
- Sentence 3: explains what that kind of label does to a viewer’s experience. This sets up a pattern you’ll match to an answer choice.
Identify the role of the first sentence
The first sentence starts with the word “Although,” which signals contrast between two ideas.
- It mentions visitors’ assumption about labels (“simply relay facts”).
- Then it contrasts that with what curators often do (design them “to shape how viewers look”). So the first sentence is not a story, a list, or data; it contrasts a common assumption with a different reality.
Identify the role of the second and third sentences
The second sentence gives a concrete example of a label: a question about patterns on a canvas, which shows how curators shape viewers’ attention. The third sentence explains the effect: by “steering viewers’ noticing,” such labels make “first encounters more exploratory.” So together, these sentences illustrate and explain the impact of the idea introduced in sentence 1.
Match this pattern to the correct answer choice
Now compare this structure to the choices:
- None of the answer choices that mention a personal story, a list of features, or data about visitors match what you saw.
- One choice describes a move from challenging a common assumption to giving an example and explaining its effect. That exactly matches the passage’s pattern, so the best answer is D) It challenges a common assumption about museum labels, then offers an example and explains its effect on viewers.