Question 127·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure

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A literary critic discussing Nadiya Vale's novel "Morrow House" notes that the alternating accounts of two estranged sisters initially seem to establish a simple opposition: Amara's memories are associative and image-filled, whereas Leven's inventory-like narration appears exact. Midway through the novel, however, both sisters describe a childhood fire. Leven's supposedly exact account repeats an impossible detail about blue lilacs from Amara's memories, while Amara unexpectedly records times in Leven's distinctive phrasing. The scene does not merely blur the distinction between the sisters' styles; it makes that distinction newly legible as something each sister has learned from the other. Thereafter, the accounts retain different rhythms, but images and details increasingly migrate between them. The novel ultimately presents identity not as isolated and fixed but as shaped through unacknowledged exchange.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

For a function question, identify what the passage establishes before the underlined material, what the underlined material changes or contributes, and how the passage develops that contribution afterward. Favor the option that accurately describes both the sentence's immediate role and its connection to the text's larger progression; reject choices that treat an ongoing pattern as temporary or introduce unsupported causes.

Hints

Hint 1
Compare before and after
Determine how the passage characterizes the sisters' styles before the underlined sentence and how it characterizes them afterward.
Hint 2
Notice the distinction
Pay attention to the difference between eliminating a contrast and changing what that contrast reveals.
Hint 3
Check the later pattern
Ask which option accounts for the images and details that increasingly move between the sisters' narratives.

Step-by-step

Step 1
Identify the initial interpretation
The passage first presents the sisters' narrative styles as opposites: Amara's is associative, while Leven's appears exact.
Step 2
Examine the underlined sentence
The sentence explains that the shared details do more than make the styles less distinct. They reveal that each sister's style has been shaped by the other.
Step 3
Connect the sentence to what follows
The later sentences broaden this idea by describing images and details that migrate between the accounts and identities formed through exchange. Therefore, the underlined sentence reinterprets the opening contrast and prepares for the passage's larger conclusion.

Lessons that teach this

SAT Reading: Craft and StructureIntermediateCoreFunction of the underlined sentence: what does this sentence do?

Question 127·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Craft and Structure

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