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How Does Thoreau Feel about Commerce?
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How does Thoreau feel about commerce? He writes, "We don't ride upon the railroad; it rides upon us." He wants and end to the war fighting for the...

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

SAT Reading 1.2 Passage Comparison
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SAT Reading: Passage Comparison Drill 1, Problem 2

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SAT Reading 3.2 Short Passages 188 Views


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Description:

SAT Reading: Short Passages Drill 3, Problem 2

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

This question has come down with an acute case of Shmoopitis...

00:07

Pause us while you read the passage. It's cool; we like being paused. Gives us time

00:12

to reflect.

00:16

The author's attitude toward the theme of this National Public Health Week is best characterized

00:20

as...what?

00:22

And here are the potential answers...

00:27

So we're trying to guess how our author

00:29

feels about the subject matter. Too bad we can't just call him, right?

00:33

Guess we'll have to figure it out on our own.

00:35

The passage is peppered with positive terms like "healthy," "protect," and "safe," so

00:40

we're going to assume that the author has a generally positive view of the built environment.

00:45

If the author were "dissatisfied," "anxious," or "antagonistic," he probably wouldn't

00:50

use any positive words to describe his subject...

00:56

So we can get rid of A, B and D. If the author were "reluctant" about his

01:02

subject, he wouldn't be too positive either...

01:04

Therefore we can hit delete on (E). "Supportive" has a nice positive connotation,

01:10

which goes along with the author's general tone, so (C) is the right answer.

01:14

See, we didn't have to call the author after all.

01:16

But sometimes it's fun just to crank him.

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