Wakako Yamauchi is best known for And the Soul Shall Dance, her 1977 play about a Japanese American family in...

GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions

Source: Practice Test

Craft and Structure

Text Structure and Purpose

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Notes

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Wakako Yamauchi is best known for And the Soul Shall Dance, her 1977 play about a Japanese American family in Southern California. The play is based on a short story Yamauchi had published three years earlier. Adapting the story wasn't easy. Theater relies on dialogue between characters, but the original story features little dialogue and instead describes its characters' silent thoughts. To transform the story into a play, Yamauchi created situations where characters reveal their thoughts by speaking them aloud during conversations with each other.

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

It offers information about how Yamauchi adapted her short story into a play.

It argues that Yamauchi's play influenced later playwrights.

It explains why Yamauchi's short story is better known than the play adaptation is.

It describes how Yamauchi chose the actors who performed in the play.

Solution

Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage

Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table

Text from Passage	Analysis
Wakako Yamauchi is best known for And the Soul Shall Dance, her 1977 play about a Japanese American family in Southern California.	What it says: Yamauchi = famous for 1977 play re: Japanese American family What it does: Introduces Yamauchi and her most famous work What it is: Opening context/background
The play is based on a short story Yamauchi had published three years earlier.	What it says: Play based on her 1974 short story What it does: Explains the play's origin as an adaptation What it is: Background information
Adapting the story wasn't easy.	What it says: Adaptation = difficult What it does: Presents a challenge that arose during adaptation What it is: Problem statement
Theater relies on dialogue between characters, but the original story features little dialogue and instead describes its characters' silent thoughts.	What it says: Theater needs dialogue; story had mostly internal thoughts, little dialogue What it does: Explains the specific reason why adaptation was difficult What it is: Evidence/explanation
To transform the story into a play, Yamauchi created situations where characters reveal their thoughts by speaking them aloud during conversations with each other.	What it says: Solution = made characters speak thoughts in conversations What it does: Describes how she solved the adaptation challenge What it is: Solution/method

Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements

Main Point: The passage explains how Yamauchi overcame the challenge of adapting a dialogue-light short story into a dialogue-dependent theatrical format.

Argument Flow: The passage moves from introducing Yamauchi's well-known play to explaining its origin as an adaptation, then identifies the specific challenge this created (needing dialogue when the source had internal thoughts), and finally describes her creative solution to this problem.

Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely

What's being asked? The function of the underlined sentence within the text as a whole

What type of answer do we need? How this specific sentence serves the overall structure and purpose of the passage

Any limiting keywords? 'underlined sentence' limits us to analyzing just that final sentence, and 'in the text as a whole' means we need to consider its role in the complete passage structure

Step 3: Prethink the Answer

The underlined sentence comes after we've learned about the adaptation challenge
The sentence describes Yamauchi's specific method for solving the problem of converting internal thoughts into spoken dialogue
So the right answer should recognize that this sentence explains her adaptation technique or solution
It should capture that the sentence shows HOW she transformed the story format

Answer Choices Explained

It offers information about how Yamauchi adapted her short story into a play.

✓ Correct

This perfectly captures what the underlined sentence does - it explains the specific technique Yamauchi used to adapt her story
It matches our prethinking exactly: the sentence describes HOW she solved the adaptation challenge
The phrase 'offers information about how' accurately describes the sentence's explanatory function

It argues that Yamauchi's play influenced later playwrights.

✗ Incorrect

The underlined sentence says nothing about Yamauchi's play influencing other playwrights
This passage is entirely focused on her adaptation process, not the play's impact on others

It explains why Yamauchi's short story is better known than the play adaptation is.

✗ Incorrect

The passage never compares the popularity of the story versus the play
The underlined sentence is about adaptation technique, not relative fame

It describes how Yamauchi chose the actors who performed in the play.

✗ Incorrect

The underlined sentence discusses creating dialogue situations, not casting decisions
Nothing in the passage mentions actors or casting at all

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