ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


Foreign Language Videos 385 videos

Probabilidad Básica (Spanish)
239 Views

Pobre Batman, la probabilidad básica está haciendo su vida más difícil. Solamente cuando el ha tomado al pingüino , lo ha encerrado tras las r...

Rational and Irrational Numbers (Spanish)
341 Views

¿Has estado pasando todo tu tiempo alrededor números irracionales? Están cheveres del todo, y definitivamente interesantes, pero; ¿no valoras...

See All

SAT Reading 2.4 Long Passages 176 Views


Share It!


Description:

Reading Long Passages: Drill 2, Problem 4

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour... If you need to review your old friend, Mr.

00:06

Long Passage, feel free to press the pause.

00:33

In line 32, "alight" most nearly means...what?

00:37

And here are the potential answers...

00:41

Our narrator's waiting by the train—but

00:43

where's Aunt Georgiana? Oh, she's just busy being the "last of the passengers to alight."

00:51

Though these days "alight" is usually used to describe when something lands from

00:55

the sky--like an airplane or a flying monkey...

00:57

The context of this passage makes it crystal clear that the narrator is simply referring

01:02

to his aunt exiting the train--which apparently took her a very long time.

01:07

What, did she get locked in the bathroom or something?

01:14

Just turn and push, Auntie G. Armed with this context, we can start throwing

01:18

incorrect answers from the train.

01:20

Let's begin by eliminating (C), since she must have had a ticket to board the train

01:24

in the first place--unless she's an evil master of deception.

01:28

We find that quite doubtful. (B) is easy to nix as well. It seems highly

01:32

unlikely that such an old and weathered woman is going to be taking any leaps, or giant

01:36

jumps from the train.

01:38

The narrator probably would have seen her if she went to retrieve her baggage, so (D)

01:42

is out as well.

01:43

"Attend" is usually used to describe when somebody shows up at an event.

01:47

Though Auntie G is showing up somewhere, exiting a train isn't much of an event--for most

01:52

people anyway.

01:53

Really, (A) just doesn't make any sense at all, so ... buh-bye.

01:57

The prefix "dis" can sometimes mean to separate from something, while "embark"

02:02

means "to begin a journey."

02:03

Aunt Georgiana is at last separating herself from this train and heading off to meet her

02:08

nephew. Knowing all this, we're proud to declare (E) the correct answer.

02:12

Maybe Auntie G should take some disembarking lessons before her next train ride.

Related Videos

SAT Reading: Citing Evidence to Identify a Theme in Walden
35 Views

Contemplating one's life is key to fulfilled happiness. Thoreau's theme revolves around the simple life well lived. He clearly never tried virtual...

What Does the Author Mean by "Front" in this Context?
25 Views

Thoreau uses "front" to mean "face". He wants to face The Facts of Life without shying away from our natural tendencies, roots, and the simply way...

SAT Reading: Using Context to Define a Word
12 Views

What does "frittered away" mean in this context? Wasted. Wasted by the way. Thoreau claims we fritter away our lives praying to modern complex dist...

SAT Reading: Classifying the Relationship Between Two Passages
179 Views

How was the Beanie Baby era parallel to the Tulip Bubble? Similar events, only the TulipMania almost bankrupted Holland. Bean Babies only bankrupte...

SAT Reading: Why Does Thoreau Use the Phrase "Mechanical Aids" in this Passage?
58 Views

Thoreau was all about simplicity; anything that took away from his vision was the enemy. Mechanical aids were one of them. Guess he had to train a...