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It's time for your daily dose of shmoop...

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This guy should look familiar. If it doesn't, you may have amnesia. See a doctor.

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The chief effect of the sentence beginning in line 11 is to... what?

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And here are the potential answers:

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Okay, so this question wants to know why line 11 was put here on this Earth.

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How does it go?

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"In Princeton every one bantered in public and told themselves privately that their deaths

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at least would be heroic."

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All righty, first of all, what is this sentence saying?

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Well, basically that everyone was saying one thing in public, and telling themselves something

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else in private.

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In other words, they were puffing out their feathers when talking to other people about

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the war...

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...but when left with their own thoughts, they started molting.

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A and D don't work, because they only focus on one half of the equation.

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B and E are out, because this isn't about deception.

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It's less about what's said in public, and more about the distinction between that outward

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cockiness and the inward fear...

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...which option C nails right on the head.

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At least "nails on the head" are one thing you generally don't have to worry about during war time.

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