SAT OwlQuestion bank / Text Structure and Purpose
The following text is from a 1925 poem by Martha Quincey.
The fog came in at morning
And swallowed up the town;
It hid the church's steeple
And pulled the hilltops down.
By noon the sun had found it
And sent it out to sea,
And there stood every rooftop
As plain as plain could be.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
It compares the weather in two different towns.
It recalls a sea voyage that the speaker once took.
It describes fog covering a town and then the town becoming visible again as the fog clears.
It argues that towns should not be built close to the sea.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
The first four lines show the fog hiding the town, steeple, and hills. The last four show the sun driving the fog away so the rooftops can be seen clearly. Choice C describes this two-part structure.
Choice B misreads "sent it out to sea," which describes the fog leaving, not a journey by the speaker.
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