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Craft and Structure / Text Structure and Purpose Difficulty: Medium

The following text is from Herman Melville’s 1854 novel The Lightning-rod Man.

The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had first planted himself. His singularity impelled a closer scrutiny. A lean, gloomy figure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes were ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak floor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side.

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

It elaborates on the previous sentence’s description of the character.

It introduces the setting that is described in the sentences that follow.

It establishes a contrast with the description in the previous sentence.

It sets up the character description presented in the sentences that follow.

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Explanation

Choice D is the best answer. This best states the function of the underlined sentence. The sentence basically says: “He stood out, so I looked more closely at him.” Then the rest of the text describes him in detail.

Choice A is incorrect. This doesn’t state the function of the underlined sentence. The previous sentence basically says: “He was still standing in the middle of the cottage”—it doesn’t include any description of the character himself. Choice B is incorrect. This doesn’t state the function of the underlined sentence. The following sentences describe the character, not the setting. Choice C is incorrect. This doesn’t state the function of the underlined sentence. The underlined sentence basically says: “He stood out, so I looked more closely at him.” The previous sentence basically says: “He was still standing in the middle of the cottage.” There’s no contrast between these two sentences.