16Hit1600
Craft and StructureVery hardOverall structure: a claim tested and refined

Craft and Structure practice question

It is often said that cities are noisier than the countryside. Sound meters tell a more complicated story: a city street at night is quieter than a rookery at dawn, and a wheat field in August is louder than a library. What differs is not the volume but the kind of sound — mechanical in one, living in the other — and it is the kind, not the level, that people find wearing.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

  1. A. It states a common claim, complicates it with measurements, and then reframes the difference in terms of kind rather than degree.Correct
  2. B. It argues that the countryside is noisier than cities.
  3. C. It lists the loudest places in the countryside.
  4. D. It explains how sound meters work.

Answer: A. It states a common claim, complicates it with measurements, and then reframes the difference in terms of kind rather than degree.

Claim, complication, reframing.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. It argues that the countryside is noisier than cities.
The passage says the difference is not in volume.
C. It lists the loudest places in the countryside.
Two examples, not a list of loudest places.
D. It explains how sound meters work.
No explanation of the instruments.

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