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ACT English 5.5 Passage Drill 184 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill 5, Problem 5. Which choice expresses the underlined segment best?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by predators. Who says they don't give back?

00:19

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

00:22

webs with which to catch prey

00:25

And here are the potential answers...

00:31

Let's dive right into this one...

00:32

...hoping against hope there're no spider webs where we land.

00:36

Options (C) and (D) seem like obvious eliminations to us.

00:39

Each answer choice is super wordy. As writers, it's important to always use as few words as possible.

00:45

If we use too many unnecessary words, people lose the thread of what we're trying to say.

00:49

Of course, the shortest option isn't always the best either.

00:52

If we trim the wordage down too much, people won't understand what we're saying either.

00:56

Shorter isn't always better.

00:57

Take option (B) for example.

00:59

(B) might look the best because it's the shortest, and we are usually looking for the most concise

01:04

choice, but "prey catching" is an awkward phrasing.

01:07

If we tell somebody we're going "prey catching" for the day, it's pretty much guaranteed we'll

01:11

get an awkward look.

01:12

And possibly some unwanted attention from local law enforcement.

01:15

The best answer is (A). It's specific and no wordier than it needs to be.

01:19

OK, check you later. We've got some prey catching to do.

01:22

Whoops, did we say that out loud?

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