16Hit1600
Craft and StructureVery hardPurpose of a text about a cathedral's two centuries

Craft and Structure practice question

Every guidebook to the city repeats that the cathedral took two hundred years to build. It did, if one counts from the first stone to the last spire. The building people worshipped in was finished in forty years; the rest was ornament, added as money allowed. The two-hundred-year figure is true and misleading at once.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

  1. A. To show that a commonly quoted fact, though accurate, gives a misleading impression.Correct
  2. B. To argue that the guidebooks are lying.
  3. C. To describe the cathedral's ornament.
  4. D. To explain how cathedrals were financed.

Answer: A. To show that a commonly quoted fact, though accurate, gives a misleading impression.

True, and misleading.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. To argue that the guidebooks are lying.
The figure is called true.
C. To describe the cathedral's ornament.
Ornament is mentioned, not described.
D. To explain how cathedrals were financed.
Money is an aside.

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