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ACT English 3.8 Passage Drill 212 Views


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ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 3, Problem 8. Which adjective best describes "funnel" in this passage?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by mature storms. Though dropping frogs and

00:08

fish on people seems pretty immature to us.

00:35

How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

00:40

identifiable

00:41

And here are the potential answers...

00:45

This sentence is in bad need of the correct adjective to describe the noun "funnel."

00:50

(Quick reminder: nouns are words that represent people, places, and things, while adjectives

00:56

are the words that describe them.)

00:58

The purpose of the paragraph in which the sentence appears is to help the reader know

01:01

the stages of a tornadic waterspout. Huh, you never know when that might come in use.

01:07

So, we're looking for the adjective that best conveys this idea.

01:11

Choice (C) suggests the word "expected," but this really isn't the best answer. Yeah, the

01:16

funnel might be expected after the sequence of events the paragraph describes...

01:20

But this adjective doesn't convey the idea that the sentence is geared toward helping

01:24

the reader recognize waterspouts.

01:27

Choice (B) thinks "ordinary" is the right answer, but we can't agree. Describing the

01:31

funnel as "ordinary" makes it seem like these waterspouts happen everywhere on a daily basis.

01:36

We're glad this isn't true, because it would really put a damper on our beach time.

01:40

And then there's choice (A), which offers the word "identifiable." We can see why someone

01:45

might go for this one, since the funnel is identifiable, meaning that when someone looks

01:50

at it they can say what it is.

01:53

However, we're more in the market for a word that conveys that the funnel is typical of

01:57

a waterspout, not that they're generally recognizable.

02:00

This best answer is (D), which does just this with word "characteristic."

02:06

Flinging frogs and fish everywhere? These waterspouts are real characters all right.

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