ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


Usage and Mechanics Videos 116 videos

ELA Drills, Advanced: Punctuation 1
301 Views

ELA Drills, Advanced: Punctuation 1. Which option best completes the sentence?

ACT English 1.1 Grammar and Usage
748 Views

ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 1, Problem 1. What should replace the underlined word?

ACT English 1.2 Grammar and Usage
568 Views

ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 1, Problem 2. Does the underlined word match the subject and tense?

See All

ACT English 5.3 Passage Drill 194 Views


Share It!


Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 5, Problem 3. How would you correct the underlined segment, if at all?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

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

00:06

The female counterparts to spinneros.

00:31

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

00:35

that are extruded?

00:38

And here are the potential answers...

00:44

To “extrude,” is to force, press, or push something out, often through a hole.

00:50

So it’s the perfect word to describe the way in which spiders force sticky stuff out

00:54

of their spinnerets.

00:56

OK, our stomachs just turned a bit. Let’s move on.

01:00

The main beef between these answer choices is whether the word “that” or “which”

01:04

is right for the sentence.

01:07

It’s no surprise the answers disagree about this; misuse of these words is one the most

01:11

common grammatical mistakes out there.

01:14

Here’s the deal...

01:15

“That” is used to introduce restrictive clauses.

01:22

These are clauses that the sentence can’t do without. If removing a clause from a sentence

01:26

changes the sentence’s meaning or omits something vital, we know we’re dealing with

01:31

a restrictive clause.

01:34

The word “which,” on the other hand, is used to introduce nonrestrictive clauses.

01:39

These are clauses that can be removed from the sentence without changing the meaning.

01:44

They’re additional information, extra spice if you will.

01:49

In the sentence in question, the clause is totally restrictive.

01:52

If the writer cut it, we’d have no idea how these proteins are extruded through spiders’ spinnerets to make silk.

01:59

We hope this isn’t where our silk boxers came from.

02:01

If so, they’re going in the trash as soon as we get home.

02:06

Since the clause is restrictive, we know the word “which” is not required, and we can

02:11

cross out options (B) and (C).

02:13

This brings us to answers (A) and (D). Both correctly use “that” to introduce the

02:18

restrictive clause, so we’ll have to find another way to narrow down our options.

02:22

(D) uses the present progressive tense with “are extruding,” while (A) uses the simple

02:28

present with “are extruded.”

02:31

Out of the two, (A) is the best answer because the simple present can be used to talk about

02:36

things that happen in general.

02:38

(D)’s use of the present progressive makes it sound like the extruding is happening right now.

02:43

Sure, spiders all over the world are currently weaving their webs, but the author is referring

02:46

to the way in which they generally accomplish they’re web weaving.

02:50

Anyway, we try not to think about the fact that spiders everywhere are weaving as we speak.

02:54

What if they're working together to form one giant web to trap humankind?

02:59

Laugh now, but only time will tell.

Related Videos

ACT English 2.2 Punctuation
2070 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?

ACT English 3.1 Punctuation
1066 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?

ACT English 3.2 Punctuation
973 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?

ACT English 3.4 Punctuation
522 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?

ACT English 2.1 Punctuation
519 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?