Author’s purpose

HESI A2
Reading Comprehension
Multiple choice
Difficulty 3 of 5

Question

Passage

A neighborhood association is designing a power-outage handout for residents who own portable generators. Its first draft has a large blank space on the back, and the designer suggests using that space for a sketch of a generator outside a house. Federal emergency guidance says generators belong outdoors, at least 20 feet from windows. A picture could show the general relationship between the machine and the building, while a caption gives the specific distance. The sketch would not need to portray a particular resident’s home. Its job would be to make the instruction easier to notice when a reader scans the page. Before printing, the association plans to ask a few residents what they understand from the image and caption. Their comments may reveal whether the two parts communicate the same instruction clearly.

What is the primary purpose of this passage?

To show how a handout might make generator guidance easier to notice✓ Correct

The proposed sketch and caption are intended to communicate the guidance.
To teach readers how to repair a generator engine✗ Incorrect

Engine repair is never discussed.
To argue that pictures should replace all written instructions✗ Incorrect

The author pairs a picture with a caption rather than replacing text.
To describe an outage that affected the association✗ Incorrect

The handout concerns outages, but no particular outage is recounted.

Answer

A. To show how a handout might make generator guidance easier to notice

Rationale

The author describes a design decision and a way to test it with readers. Both serve the goal of communicating a safety instruction clearly.

RememberPurpose is revealed by how examples and details work together.

Sources

Power Outages Ready.gov (FEMA) · License: US government work (public domain) · Retrieved November 2, 2026 · Using Appliances During Power Outages

Last verified: November 5, 2026 2 independent automated checks Question teas-rcs-00276, version 1

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