16Hit1600
Craft and StructureVery hardFunction of the final sentence in a passage on a dialect

Craft and Structure practice question

The valley's dialect has perhaps two hundred speakers left, most of them over seventy. Linguists have recorded it thoroughly; there are dictionaries, grammars, and hundreds of hours of tape. None of this will keep it alive. A language lives in the mouths of children, and no child in the valley has learned it since the 1960s.

Which choice best describes the function of the last sentence in the text as a whole?

  1. A. It explains why the recordings described earlier cannot save the dialect.Correct
  2. B. It praises the linguists' work.
  3. C. It suggests that children will revive the dialect.
  4. D. It describes the contents of the dictionaries.

Answer: A. It explains why the recordings described earlier cannot save the dialect.

Recordings are not speakers.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. It praises the linguists' work.
The praise is in the second sentence and is then qualified.
C. It suggests that children will revive the dialect.
No child has learned it since the 1960s.
D. It describes the contents of the dictionaries.
No contents.

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