Question 87·Hard·Text Structure and Purpose
The following text is adapted from Helena Warrick’s 1874 travel diary Across the Gilded Steppe.
Paragraph 1 I had been warned—by city newspapers no less than by anxious friends—that the hamlet of Petrova was a place where progress halted at the gate, where lamps guttered with whale-oil smoke and the physician still prescribed leeches with a shrug. Imagining a village frozen in antique sepia, I prepared myself for dreariness.
Paragraph 2 Instead, I arrived to find a surprisingly tidy main road, edged by neat plaster cottages whose windows glittered with imported glass. A steam-driven mill, its iron flywheel humming like an over-contented bumblebee, stood at the river bend. Children in starched shirts dashed past me carrying slates from a freshly built schoolhouse, and the blacksmith—whom I had pictured as a soot-blackened Hephaestus—sat beneath a striped awning calmly reading a Paris newspaper. Progress, it appeared, had not merely visited Petrova; it had unpacked its trunks and settled in for an extended stay.
Which choice best describes the primary purpose of paragraph 2 in the passage?
For SAT purpose/structure questions, first summarize in your own words what the target paragraph says, then ask how it connects to the paragraph before and after (for example, does it give an example, offer a contrast, explain a cause, or describe a result?). Look for signal words like "Instead," "However," or "For example" to see the relationship. Once you have a one-sentence description of the paragraph’s job, quickly test each answer: eliminate any choice that adds ideas not in the text or that describes something the paragraph mentions only in passing, and pick the choice that best matches your summary of its role.
Hints
Connect paragraph 1 and paragraph 2
Reread the last sentence of paragraph 1 and then the first sentence of paragraph 2. How does the word "Instead" signal a change in what the narrator is describing?
Look at the kinds of details in paragraph 2
List a few concrete details from paragraph 2 (for example, the mill, the schoolhouse, the blacksmith). Ask yourself: what overall picture of Petrova do these details create?
Think about paragraph 2’s job in the story
Is paragraph 2 mainly describing Europe in general, or is it mainly showing how the actual Petrova differs from what the narrator expected?
Step-by-step Explanation
Summarize paragraph 1 (the setup)
First, focus on what paragraph 1 tells you about Petrova before the narrator arrives. The narrator reports warnings that "progress halted at the gate," with old-fashioned whale-oil lamps and a doctor using leeches. She even imagines a village "frozen in antique sepia" and prepares herself for "dreariness." This paragraph is all about her negative, old-fashioned image of Petrova, based on what others told her.
Summarize paragraph 2 (the new information)
Now look closely at paragraph 2. It starts with the word "Instead," which signals that what follows will differ from what came before. The narrator finds a "tidy main road," "neat plaster cottages" with "imported glass," a steam-driven mill, a freshly built schoolhouse, and a blacksmith calmly reading a Paris newspaper. The closing sentence says that progress has "settled in for an extended stay." All of these details show Petrova is unexpectedly modern and progressive.
Decide how paragraph 2 functions in the passage
Think about the relationship between the two paragraphs. Paragraph 1 was about what the narrator had been told and imagined; paragraph 2 is about what she actually sees when she arrives. The signal word "Instead" and the surprising modern details show that her experience in paragraph 2 is very different from the picture painted in paragraph 1.
Match this role to the best answer choice
Now compare this understanding to the answer choices. Only choice A) To contrast the narrator’s preconceived notions of Petrova with the reality she encounters upon arrival correctly describes how paragraph 2 functions: it sets the real, modern Petrova against the old-fashioned, gloomy version the narrator had expected.