It designates a shift of topic at the section level. / Alt.: It designates a separation of sections within an <article>. This is a confusing question and there can be an arguments for both the second and the third options being correct. MDN: The HTML <hr> element represents a thematic break between paragraph-level elements. Historically, this has been presented as a horizontal rule or line. While it may still be displayed as a horizontal rule in visual browsers, this element is now defined in semantic terms, rather than presentational terms, so if you wish to draw a horizontal line, you should do so using appropriate CSS.