Log inSign up free
Back to Reading & Writing

Text Structure and Purpose

Reading & Writing · Craft and Structure · 72 questions · every one comes with a full explanation.

Practice this skill
DifficultyAllEasyMediumHard
  1. 1"How lifelike are they?" Many computer animators prioritize this question as they strive to create ever more realistic environments and lighting. Generally, while characters in comHard · Craft and Structure
  2. 2The field of study called affective neuroscience seeks instinctive, physiological causes for feelings such as pleasure or displeasure. Because these sensations are linked to a chemHard · Craft and Structure
  3. 3The following text is from Srimati Svarna Kumari Devi's 1894 novel The Fatal Garland (translated by A. Christina Albers in 1910). Shakti is walking near a riverbank that she visiteEasy · Craft and Structure
  4. 4Early in the Great Migration of 1910–1970, which involved the mass migration of Black people from the southern to the northern United States, political activist and Chicago DefendeMedium · Craft and Structure
  5. 5Studying late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artifacts from an agricultural and domestic site in Texas, archaeologist Ayana O. Flewellen found that Black women employed asHard · Craft and Structure
  6. 6Astronomers are confident that the star Betelgeuse will eventually consume all the helium in its core and explode in a supernova. They are much less confident, however, about when Hard · Craft and Structure
  7. 7Archeological excavation of Market Street Chinatown, a nineteenth-century Chinese American community in San Jose, California, provided the first evidence that Asian food products wMedium · Craft and Structure
  8. 8Using NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Mercedes López-Morales and colleagues measured the wavelengths of light traveling through the atmosphere of WASP-39b, an exMedium · Craft and Structure
  9. 9Researchers have found a nearly 164,000-year-old molar from a member of the archaic human species known as Denisovans in a cave in Laos, suggesting that Denisovans lived in a widerEasy · Craft and Structure
  10. 10According to historian Vicki L. Ruiz, Mexican American women made crucial contributions to the labor movement during World War II. At the time, food processing companies entered inHard · Craft and Structure
  11. 11The following text is from Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Jane, the narrator, works as a governess at Thornfield Hall. I went on with my day's business tranquilly; but eHard · Craft and Structure
  12. 12Yawn contagion occurs when one individual yawns in response to another's yawn. Studies of this behavior in primates have focused on populations in captivity, but biologist ElisabetMedium · Craft and Structure
  13. 13The following text is adapted from Herman Melville's 1857 novel The Confidence-Man. Humphry Davy was a prominent British chemist and inventor. Years ago, a grave American savant, Hard · Craft and Structure
  14. 14Historians Tiya Miles and Roy E. Finkenbine have both documented the assistance Indigenous peoples gave to Black freedom seekers leaving the South before the US Civil War. Much of Easy · Craft and Structure
  15. 15The following text is from Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale. Mr. Verloc is navigating the London streets on his way to a meeting. Before reaching KnightsMedium · Craft and Structure
  16. 16In 1973, poet Miguel Algarín started inviting other writers who, like him, were Nuyorican—a term for New Yorkers of Puerto Rican heritage—to gather in his apartment to present theiMedium · Craft and Structure
  17. 17Some studies have suggested that posture can influence cognition, but we should not overstate this phenomenon. A case in point: In a 2014 study, Megan O'Brien and Alaa Ahmed had suHard · Craft and Structure
  18. 18The following text is from the 1923 poem "Black Finger" by Angelina Weld Grimké, a Black American writer. A cypress is a type of evergreen tree. I have just seen a most beautiful Medium · Craft and Structure
  19. 19In Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park, an almost imperceptible smile from potential suitor Henry Crawford causes the protagonist Fanny Price to blush; her embarrassment grows when Hard · Craft and Structure
  20. 20In 2007, computer scientist Luis von Ahn was working on converting printed books into a digital format. He found that some words were distorted enough that digital scanners couldn'Easy · Craft and Structure
  21. 21The following text is from Edith Wharton's 1905 novel The House of Mirth. Lily Bart and a companion are walking through a park. Lily had no real intimacy with nature, but she had Hard · Craft and Structure
  22. 22Composer Florence Price won first place for her score Symphony in E Minor at the 1932 Wanamaker Foundation Awards. The piece was performed the following year by the Chicago SymphonEasy · Craft and Structure
  23. 23Some bird species don't raise their own chicks. Instead, adult females lay their eggs in other nests, next to another bird species' own eggs. Female cuckoos have been seen quickly Easy · Craft and Structure
  24. 24Mathematician Claude Shannon is widely regarded as a foundational figure in information theory. His most important paper, "A Mathematical Theory of Communication," published in 194Hard · Craft and Structure
  25. 25A study by a team including finance professor Madhu Veeraraghavan suggests that exposure to sunshine during the workday can lead to overly optimistic behavior. Using data spanning Hard · Craft and Structure
  26. 26The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston's 1921 short story "John Redding Goes to Sea." John is a child who lives in a town in the woods. Perhaps ten-year-old John waHard · Craft and Structure
  27. 27The following text is adapted from Charles Dickens's 1854 novel Hard Times. Coketown is a fictional town in England. [Coketown] contained several large streets all very like one Medium · Craft and Structure
  28. 28The following text is adapted from Louisa May Alcott's 1869 novel An Old-Fashioned Girl. Polly, a teenager, is visiting her friend Fanny. Fanny's friends did not interest Polly muEasy · Craft and Structure
  29. 29A number of Indigenous politicians have been elected to the United States Congress since 2000 as members of the country's two established political parties. In Canada and several LHard · Craft and Structure
  30. 30The following text is adapted from Paul Laurence Dunbar's 1902 novel The Sport of the Gods. Joe and some of his family members have recently moved to New York City. [Joe] was wildMedium · Craft and Structure
  31. 31San Francisco is known for the colorful murals painted on many of its buildings. The densest collection of murals is found on Balmy Alley in the Mission District neighborhood. In tEasy · Craft and Structure
  32. 32The following text is from Georgia Douglas Johnson's 1922 poem "Benediction." Go forth, my son, Winged by my heart's desire! Great reaches, yet unknown, Await For your possession.Easy · Craft and Structure
  33. 33Musician Joni Mitchell, who is also a painter, uses images she creates for her album covers to emphasize ideas expressed in her music. For the cover of her album Turbulent Indigo (Medium · Craft and Structure
  34. 34The following text is from the 1924 poem "Cycle" by D'Arcy McNickle, who was a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. There shall be new roads wending, A new beatMedium · Craft and Structure
  35. 35The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde's 1897 nonfiction work De Profundis. People whose desire is solely for self-realisation never know where they are going. They can'tEasy · Craft and Structure
  36. 36For his 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies, Beverly Glenn-Copeland wrote songs grounded in traditional soul and folk music, then accompanied them with futuristic synthesizer arrangementMedium · Craft and Structure
  37. 37In most building demolitions, the building materials are destroyed and sent to landfills. City officials in Portland, Oregon, wanted to reduce this waste. The officials passed a laEasy · Craft and Structure
  38. 38The following text is from Holly Goldberg Sloan's 2017 novel Short. More than two years ago my parents bought a piano from some people who were moving to Utah. Mom and Dad gave iEasy · Craft and Structure
  39. 39The following text is from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1910 poem "The Earth's Entail." No matter how we cultivate the land, Taming the forest and the prairie free; No matter howMedium · Craft and Structure
  40. 40According to Indian economist and sociologist Radhakamal Mukerjee (1889–1968), the Eurocentric concepts that informed early twentieth-century social scientific methods—for example,Hard · Craft and Structure
  41. 41The following text is adapted from Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto's 1925 memoir A Daughter of the Samurai. As a young woman, Sugimoto moved from feudal Japan to the United States. The stanMedium · Craft and Structure
  42. 42In the Here and Now Storybook (1921), educator Lucy Sprague Mitchell advanced the then controversial idea that books for very young children should imitate how they use language, sMedium · Craft and Structure
  43. 43The following text is adapted from Indian Boyhood, a 1902 memoir by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman), a Santee Dakota writer. In the text, Ohiyesa recalls how the women in his tribe haHard · Craft and Structure
  44. 44The following text is from Charlotte Forten Grimké's 1888 poem "At Newport." Oh, deep delight to watch the gladsome waves Exultant leap upon the rugged rocks; Ever repulsed, yet eMedium · Craft and Structure
  45. 45The following text is adapted from Charles Chesnutt's 1899 short story "Mars Jeems's Nightmare." The narrator and his wife have recently moved to the southern United States, and JuEasy · Craft and Structure
  46. 46When ancient oak planks were unearthed during subway construction in Rome, Mauro Bernabei and his team examined the growth rings in the wood to determine where these planks came frMedium · Craft and Structure
  47. 47Jackie Ormes's Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem (1937–38) was the first comic strip by a Black woman to appear in a widely read newspaper. The strip tells the story of Torchy, a youEasy · Craft and Structure
  48. 48The following text is adapted from Jane Austen's 1814 novel Mansfield Park. The speaker, Tom, is considering staging a play at home with a group of his friends and family. We meanHard · Craft and Structure
  49. 49Streams and rivers carry soil and rocks from one location to another. But there is another way for these geological materials to move. Scientists call this process "aeolian transpoEasy · Craft and Structure
  50. 50Space scientists Anna-Lisa Paul, Stephen M. Elardo, and Robert Ferl planted seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana in samples of lunar regolith—the surface material of the Moon—and, servingHard · Craft and Structure
  51. 51Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word poetry album, The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids, in collaboration with producerHard · Craft and Structure
  52. 52The following text is from Sarah Orne Jewett's 1899 short story "Martha's Lady." Martha is employed by Miss Pyne as a maid. Miss Pyne sat by the window watching, in her best dresMedium · Craft and Structure
  53. 53Many films from the early 1900s have been lost. These losses include several films by the first wave of Black women filmmakers. We know about these lost movies only from small piecEasy · Craft and Structure
  54. 54The following text is from Walt Whitman's 1860 poem "Calamus 24." I HEAR it is charged against me that I seek to destroy institutions; But really I am neither for nor against instMedium · Craft and Structure
  55. 55Hiroshi Senju is known worldwide for his paintings of waterfalls. These paintings are large and tend not to show the entire waterfall. Instead, Senju focuses on just the point wherEasy · Craft and Structure
  56. 56In 1801, a Blackfoot chief named Ac Ko Mok Ki drew a finely detailed map of the Upper Missouri region. This work demonstrates a vast amount of topographic knowledge, as the map feaEasy · Craft and Structure
  57. 57In many agricultural environments, the banks of streams are kept forested to protect water quality, but it's been unclear what effects these forests may have on stream biodiversityEasy · Craft and Structure
  58. 58Works of moral philosophy, such as Plato's Republic or Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, are partly concerned with how to live a morally good life. But philosopher Jonathan Barnes arMedium · Craft and Structure
  59. 59Industrial activity is often assumed to be a threat to wildlife, but that isn't always so. Consider the silver-studded blue butterfly (Plebejus argus): as forest growth has reducedMedium · Craft and Structure
  60. 60The following text is from Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables. Anne, an eleven-year-old girl, has come to live on a farm with a woman named Marilla in Nova ScotMedium · Craft and Structure