SAT OwlQuestion bank / Text Structure and Purpose
In early 1915, explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance became trapped in the sea ice of Antarctica's Weddell Sea. For months, the crew lived aboard as the ice slowly crushed the hull. After the ship sank, the men camped on drifting ice floes and then sailed small lifeboats to remote Elephant Island. Remarkably, every member of the ship's crew survived.
Which choice best describes the function of the last sentence in the overall structure of the text?
It explains why the ship became trapped in the ice.
It introduces a new expedition that the text goes on to describe.
It questions the accuracy of the account in the previous sentences.
It states a surprising outcome of the events described earlier in the text.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
The earlier sentences describe a long series of dangers: a trapped ship, a crushed hull, life on drifting ice, and a lifeboat voyage. The last sentence, introduced by "Remarkably," reports that everyone survived. It gives the surprising outcome, choice D.
Choice A does not work because the cause of the ship's entrapment is never explained; the last sentence concerns the outcome.
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