SAT OwlQuestion bank / Text Structure and Purpose
The following text is from a 1921 poem by Lydia Fenn.
I kept your letters in a cedar box
And read them till the folded edges tore;
I know them as one knows the creaking stair,
The sound of every latch on every door.
And yet I've never answered one. I find
The words I need are nowhere in my store.
Which choice best describes the function of the last two lines in the text as a whole?
They reveal that the speaker, despite treasuring the letters, has been unable to reply to them.
They explain where and how the speaker stored the letters.
They describe the speaker's house in greater detail.
They express the speaker's anger at the person who wrote the letters.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The first four lines show how much the speaker values the letters, reading them until they tear and knowing them by heart. The last two lines, beginning "And yet," reveal that the speaker has never replied because the right words are missing. Choice A describes this turn.
Choice B describes the first line, not the last two; "store" in the final line refers to the speaker's supply of words.
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