The following text is from Annie Dillard's 1987 autobiographical novel An American Childhood. The narrator is a young girl living...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The following text is from Annie Dillard's 1987 autobiographical novel An American Childhood. The narrator is a young girl living in Pittsburgh.
I walked. My mother had given me the freedom of the streets as soon as I could say our telephone number. I walked and memorized the neighborhood. I made a mental map and located myself upon it. At night in bed I rehearsed the small world's scheme and set challenges: Find the store using backyards only. Imagine a route from the school to my friend's house.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
It describes the narrator trying to memorize her telephone number.
It provides examples of what the narrator thinks about at night.
It gives directions to the narrator's favorite local store.
It portrays the narrator's relationship with her mother.
TASK: Format Solution with Surgical Precision
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "I walked." |
|
| "My mother had given me the freedom of the streets as soon as I could say our telephone number." |
|
| "I walked and memorized the neighborhood." |
|
| "I made a mental map and located myself upon it." |
|
| "At night in bed I rehearsed the small world's scheme and set challenges:" |
|
| "Find the store using backyards only. Imagine a route from the school to my friend's house." |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: A young girl describes how she explores her neighborhood on foot and continues to mentally navigate it at night through self-imposed challenges.
Argument Flow: The passage moves from the physical activity of walking to the mental activity of mapping, then transitions to nighttime when she continues this mental mapping through specific navigational challenges she creates for herself.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
What's being asked? The function of the underlined portion (the final sentence with the two specific challenges) within the text as a whole.
What type of answer do we need? A description of what role or purpose this specific portion serves in the overall passage structure.
Any limiting keywords? "Function" tells us we need to identify the job this portion does, and "in the text as a whole" means we should consider how it relates to everything that came before.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- Looking at our analysis, the underlined portion comes right after "set challenges:" - it's clearly providing concrete examples of those challenges
- The narrator had just told us she rehearses the neighborhood layout and sets challenges for herself at night, and then these two sentences show us exactly what those challenges look like
- The right answer should recognize that this portion gives specific examples of the mental activities the narrator does at night, particularly the navigational challenges she creates for herself
It describes the narrator trying to memorize her telephone number.
✗ Incorrect
- This choice focuses on memorizing the telephone number
- The passage mentions the phone number only as background context - it was the condition for getting street freedom
- The underlined portion is about navigational challenges, not phone number memorization
It provides examples of what the narrator thinks about at night.
✓ Correct
- Perfectly matches our analysis - the underlined portion gives two specific examples
- These examples directly illustrate what the narrator thinks about at night
- Follows logically from "At night in bed I rehearsed... and set challenges:"
- Shows the concrete form her nighttime mental activities take
It gives directions to the narrator's favorite local store.
✗ Incorrect
- This misreads the function entirely
- The text isn't giving directions to anyone - it's showing examples of mental challenges
- The challenges are imaginary exercises, not actual directions to locations
It portrays the narrator's relationship with her mother.
✗ Incorrect
- While the mother is mentioned earlier, the underlined portion doesn't involve her
- The final sentence is about the narrator's solo mental activities