All 3 Uses

passage
in
Dear John
(Edited)

Toward the end of each letter, there would always be a few sentences, maybe even a paragraph, where she would write something that made me pause, words that made me remember, and I would find myself rereading passages and trying to imagine her voice as I read them.
Chpt 12

passages = short parts of longer written works
Gone were long passages in which she described the way she envisioned our life together, passages that in the past had always filled me with anticipation.
Chpt 15 *
Gone were long passages in which she described the way she envisioned our life together, passages that in the past had always filled me with anticipation.
Chpt 15

Definitions:

(1) (passage as in: In lines 1-9 of the passage...)
a short part of a longer written work

This meaning of passage is commonly seen on standardized tests like the SAT and ACT.
(2) (meaning too common or too rare to warrant focus)
More frequently, passage refers to a passageway for travel or to the act of traveling. It can also refer to the passing of time or of a law. See a comprehensive dictionary for the many meanings of passage, but for comfort taking standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, be very familiar with passage being used to refer to a short excerpt from a longer written work.