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Passage Drill Videos 153 videos
Wishing upon a star may help you pass your AP English Language and Composition test, but answering this question would be a safer bet.
AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 2. What is the speaker's primary purpose in using onomatopoeia in line four?
Feel like shifting gears and answering a question about shifting tones? We've got you covered. Take a look at this question and see if you can foll...
AP English Language and Composition 2.3 Passage Drill 236 Views
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Description:
AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill 2, Problem 3. The subject of the passage can best be described as what?
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by bloodshed.
- 00:07
It's the creepy one right next to the woodshed. [ scream ]
- 00:12
All right, check out the following passage.
- 00:14
[ mumbles ]
Full Transcript
- 00:21
[ mumbling continues ]
- 00:30
You done? All right.
- 00:31
The subject of the passage can best be described as... what?
- 00:36
And here are the potential answers.
- 00:39
[ mumbles ]
- 00:41
Okay, well, here we go. So, what's this question asking?
- 00:44
Well, it wants to know about the subject of the entire passage.
- 00:48
Not one paragraph, not one line, the whole kit and caboodle.
- 00:51
Not really any shortcuts here. We kind of have to
- 00:53
read the whole thing from start to finish
- 00:55
and hopefully form some sense of what it's all about.
- 00:57
Let's start with A.
- 00:58
Is it about the precariousness of civil war?
- 01:02
Well, there's no doubt war can be described as precarious,
- 01:05
but it's pretty broad. This passage is referring specifically
- 01:08
to one king and one war
- 01:09
and doesn't seem to be making a commentary about war in general,
- 01:12
which would nix option B, too.
- 01:14
So it's gone. All right, what about C -
- 01:17
a revolt of secular followers against religious governments?
- 01:22
Huh. We didn't even get into the religion thing until
- 01:24
later in the passage, so it has to be more than that.
- 01:28
E - the origins of a historical lapse in diplomacy?
- 01:32
Well, it might be.
- 01:34
But the passage doesn't really place this event in
- 01:36
a historical perspective, so we can't be sure.
- 01:39
D is the best answer.
- 01:40
The difficulties facing the king at the start of the civil war.
- 01:44
Yeah, everything in the passage relates to that one:
- 01:47
botched negotiations, lazy and incompetent underlings,
- 01:50
a reputation as a dupe.
- 01:51
When you think about it,
- 01:52
it's kind of incredible the guy never ran for U.S. Congress.
- 01:57
[ applause ]
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