掃く and 拭く: Sweeping leaves and wiping water
Compare sweeping fallen leaves or a floor with wiping spilled water or a mirror. Read the action and its object together with the broom, cloth, or paper used in each example.
掃く as sweeping
掃く（はく） means to sweep. In 「朝、店の前に落ちた葉をほうきで掃いた。」, the speaker swept fallen leaves in front of the shop with a broom in the morning. 葉 names what is swept, and ほうき names the tool.
In 「教室の床を掃く係を交代で担当する。」, people take turns being responsible for sweeping the classroom floor. 掃く describes the cleaning action on 床, while the sentence as a whole describes taking turns in that role.
拭く as wiping
拭く（ふく） means to wipe. In 「こぼれた水を布で拭いた。」, the speaker wiped spilled water with a cloth. The water is what is removed, and the cloth is the tool used.
In 「曇った鏡を乾いた紙で拭く。」, a fogged mirror is wiped with dry paper. The English translation is the instruction “Wipe the fogged mirror with dry paper.” The mirror's condition and the paper's condition are stated separately.
Reading the action, object, and tool together
Sweeping fallen leaves with a broom and wiping spilled water with a cloth differ in both movement and object. Compare what is being cleared and how it is cleared, rather than treating location alone as the distinction.
The classroom floor and mirror examples support the same distinction. In the two examples that name a broom and a cloth, the tools belong to concrete actions: sweeping leaves and wiping water.
What helps distinguish 落ちた葉をほうきで掃いた from こぼれた水を布で拭いた?
Show the answer and why
Compare sweeping fallen leaves with a broom and wiping spilled water with a cloth. Reading the action together with its object shows the difference between 掃く and 拭く.