Question 4·Easy·Text Structure and Purpose
The following text is from a contemporary nonfiction essay.
The museum’s basement holds drawers of pinned butterflies, arranged with the care of a jeweler. Visitors see only the polished exhibits upstairs, but our work begins below: we thaw specimens, record colors that have faded, and trace the routes collectors took to find them. It’s tempting to mistake this for mere preservation. But the point is not nostalgia; it is to build a map of change so future scientists can see what we were too close to notice. Each label is a thread that, together, makes a net: where a species once flourished, where it has retreated, where new arrivals have slipped in. With enough threads the pattern emerges, and with a pattern we can act.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
For function-of-sentence questions, first bracket the sentence and then read 1–2 sentences before and after it to see how the idea shifts. Ask: Does this sentence introduce, contrast, explain, give an example, or conclude? Put its role into your own words, then eliminate choices that mention things the sentence simply does not do (like telling a story, giving history, or admitting weakness). Finally, choose the option whose description best matches your paraphrase of the sentence’s role in the passage.
Hints
Look just before the underlined sentence
Reread the sentence right before the underlined one: "It’s tempting to mistake this for mere preservation." Ask yourself: what idea about the work in the basement is being mentioned there?
Pay attention to the word "But"
The underlined sentence begins with "But the point is not nostalgia;" that word "But" shows a shift. Think about how the underlined sentence changes or corrects the idea in the sentence before it.
Connect the underlined sentence to what comes after
After the underlined sentence, the author talks about labels as threads and patterns that let people "act." How does the underlined sentence set up this explanation of why the work matters?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand what the question is asking
The question asks for the function of the underlined sentence "in the text as a whole." That means you need to explain why the author included this sentence and how it connects to the sentences before and after it, not just what it literally says.
Review the context around the underlined sentence
Look at the sentences just before and after the underlined one:
- Before: "Visitors see only the polished exhibits upstairs, but our work begins below... It’s tempting to mistake this for mere preservation."
- Underlined: "But the point is not nostalgia; it is to build a map of change so future scientists can see what we were too close to notice."
- After: "Each label is a thread that, together, makes a net... With enough threads the pattern emerges, and with a pattern we can act."
The author first describes behind-the-scenes work and then says people might wrongly see it as "mere preservation." Immediately after, the underlined sentence begins with "But," signalling a turn away from that idea.
Figure out what the underlined sentence is doing
In the underlined sentence, the author says "the point is not nostalgia" and then explains the real goal: "to build a map of change" that will help future scientists notice patterns. So this sentence:
- Rejects the earlier, tempting but incorrect view (that the work is just nostalgic preservation).
- Explains the actual goal of the work (building a scientific record of change over time).
Then the next sentences expand on that goal by describing labels as threads that form a pattern we can act on.
Match your understanding to the answer choices
Now compare your understanding to the options:
- It does not tell a story about a visitor (so not A).
- It does not give a history of butterfly collecting (so not B).
- It does not say the evidence is useless or incomplete (so not D).
Instead, it corrects a wrong way of seeing the basement work ("mere preservation" / "nostalgia") and states the true purpose: making a map of change for future science. That is exactly what choice C) It clarifies the main purpose of the work by contrasting it with a mistaken assumption. describes.