Before the shops opened

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

Before the shops opened, the street sweeper worked along the kerb with a brush wider than my doorway. He moved steadily past shutters and dark windows, gathering the previous evening into a narrow line: paper cups, a broken straw, leaves caught around a bottle top. From a distance the task looked repetitive. Close by, his hands made constant small adjustments, directing different kinds of rubbish without scattering them back into the road.

A delivery van stopped across his path. He waited, then worked around the tyres with a smaller brush. There was no flourish, no visible announcement of skill. The cleaned strip simply lengthened behind him. I realised that I normally noticed this work only when it had not been done, treating a clear pavement as though it were a natural condition rather than somebody's result.

By eight, people were crossing the street towards cafés. The sweeper moved on before the busiest part of the morning. His work disappeared into use: shoes crossed the clear stones, doors opened over them, and nobody needed to think about the paper cup that was no longer there. I watched him turn the corner, leaving a small absence that made everybody else's arrival easier.

Refer to the whole of Source A. Analyse how the writer uses language to convey the skill and value of the street sweeper’s work. Explain the effects of specific words, phrases and language choices, using evidence from the passage.