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Sentence Structure Videos 40 videos

ACT English 1.1 Sentence Structure
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ACT English: Sentence Structure Drill 1, Problem 1. Properly punctuating dependent clauses. 

ACT English 1.2 Sentence Structure
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ACT English: Sentence Structure Drill 1, Problem 2. What punctuation do we need between these clauses?

ACT English 1.3 Sentence Structure
378 Views

ACT English: Sentence Structure Drill 1, Problem 3. Proper word choice for independent clauses.

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ACT English 4.6 Passage Drill 174 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill 4, Problem 6. Which word creates the most logical transition between the two sentences?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by confused timelines.

00:07

So we’ve been waiting a while for this one. Check out the following passage...

00:19

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

00:25

And here are the potential answers...

00:28

Here, we need to find the word that creates the most logical transition between the two sentences.

00:33

In order to do this, we have to have a firm idea of what each sentence is

00:36

trying to get across.

00:37

We’ll take a quick glance back at the passage to get it fixed in our heads.

00:41

OK, so this is easy. The first sentence informs us that a lot of people think Hagiwara created

00:45

fortune cookies, while the second sentence says that a bunch of other people think a

00:49

dude named Jung had the honor.

00:51

Looks like these two sentences are butting heads.

00:54

So we’re on the hunt for a word that helps to establish this contrasting relationship.

00:59

Option (A) suggests the word “anyway,” but this doesn’t get across the meaning we need.

01:03

“Anyway” is usually used when a writer wants to move on to a new topic,

01:07

not when a writer is contrasting two connected ideas.

01:10

Anyway, now it’s time to check out option (C).

01:13

See what we did there?

01:14

Yeah, yeah...we’re not as clever as we’d like to be.

01:16

(C) gives us the word “before.” This doesn’t work either, though. The sentence talks about

01:20

how people “still hold” to a certain idea.

01:23

If the sentence is trying to talk about how people are still doing something, then throwing

01:27

the word “before” in there does nothing but confuse the timeline.

01:31

(D) is incorrect because "although” is what’s known as a subordinating conjunction.

01:37

When this type of conjunction appears before a clause, it makes that clause subordinate to another.

01:42

Subordinate clauses can’t exist on their own and need a main clause to hang on to.

01:47

If we kick off the sentence in question with “although,” it turns the entire thing

01:51

into a subordinate clause with no main clause to hold hands with.

01:54

This prospect makes us sad, so we’ll nix option (D).

01:57

The correct answer is (B).

01:59

It’s totally OK to kick off a sentence with the word “however,”

02:03

and the word signals contrast, making it perfect for what the writer wants to communicate.

02:08

When we see “however” at the top of a sentence, we know that sentence is going to

02:12

disagree with the sentence that came before it.

02:15

When will these sentences learn to get along?

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