Question 93·Hard·Text Structure and Purpose
Urban ecologists investigating how best to cool overheated city blocks often point to "pocket parks"—tiny, strategically placed green spaces—as an efficient intervention. In a recent multi-city analysis, neighborhoods that added such parks saw afternoon surface temperatures fall relative to comparable areas without new greenery. Yet the authors immediately note that these declines were clustered around sites that already possessed ample shade and permeable pavements, leaving tree-poor, heavily paved corridors largely unaffected. The report concludes by arguing that pocket parks are useful only when paired with complementary infrastructure and long-term maintenance.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
For function-of-a-part questions, first bracket the sentence or phrase in question and read a few lines before and after it to understand the local context. Ask: What was just claimed, and how does this part respond—does it give an example, add a limitation, contrast, define a term, or restate a conclusion? Pay close attention to signal words like "Yet," "However," "For example," and "Therefore," since they often reveal the role. Then eliminate choices that describe a task the sentence clearly is not doing (like defining a term it never explains, or stating a conclusion that appears elsewhere) and choose the option that best matches the sentence’s actual effect on the argument or explanation.
Hints
Zoom out to the surrounding sentences
Reread the sentence just before the underlined portion and the sentence just after it. Ask yourself: what is the main result reported, and what is the final conclusion of the report?
Focus on the word "Yet"
Look at how the underlined sentence begins. What does the word "Yet" usually signal about the relationship between two statements?
Ask what changes after the underlined sentence
Does the underlined sentence make the earlier result stronger, weaker, or more limited in scope? Think about whether it shows that the earlier result applies everywhere or mostly in specific kinds of places.
Eliminate clearly mismatched roles
Check whether the underlined sentence actually defines a term, directly states the main conclusion about maintenance, or completely disproves the usefulness of pocket parks. Remove any choices that describe something the sentence clearly does not do.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify what the question is asking
The question asks about the function of the underlined portion "in the text as a whole." That means you need to explain how this specific sentence is working in the larger argument, not just what it says in isolation.
Summarize the context and the underlined sentence
First, the passage says that urban ecologists see pocket parks as an efficient way to cool city blocks. Then it gives a finding: in many cities, neighborhoods that added pocket parks had lower afternoon surface temperatures than similar neighborhoods without new greenery.
Now look closely at the underlined sentence: it starts with "Yet" and explains that the declines in temperature were clustered in areas that already had ample shade and permeable pavements, while tree-poor, heavily paved corridors were largely unaffected.
Decide how the underlined sentence relates to the previous finding
The word "Yet" signals a contrast or complication. The previous sentence sounds like a broad success story for pocket parks—temperatures fell in neighborhoods that added them. The underlined sentence explains that this effect did not occur everywhere, only in certain conditions (places that already had shade and permeable pavement). So it shows that the earlier finding is not universally true; it depends on context.
Match that role to the best answer choice
Now compare that understanding to the choices:
- The sentence does not say pocket parks have no value; it just says the cooling effect is uneven.
- It does not define what pocket parks are (that definition already appeared earlier: "tiny, strategically placed green spaces").
- It does not summarize the final conclusion about maintenance; that comes in the last sentence.
Instead, the underlined sentence adds a limiting condition to the earlier broad finding, showing that the cooling benefits only applied in certain kinds of sites. Therefore, the correct answer is: It introduces a qualification that limits the generality of the preceding finding.