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AP English Literature and Composition 1.5 Passage Drill 7 209 Views
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AP English Literature and Composition 1.5 Passage Drill 7. In lines 34 through 37, what technique does the author use to describe the family's desperate situation?
Transcript
- 00:04
You can't handle the Shmoop!
- 00:08
This passage wants you to hit pause and read over it one more time. Hey, don't look at
- 00:13
us. It's the passage that's needy.
- 00:44
In lines 33 through 37, what technique does the author use to describe the family's desperate situation?
- 00:51
And here are the potential answers...
Full Transcript
- 00:55
We've got another "technique" question on our hands here...
- 00:58
...which means we're going to need to know the meaning of terms like "paradox," "personification,"
- 01:02
"hyperbole," "metaphor" and "understatement."
- 01:07
If we don't, we're going to be in more trouble than a traitor caught delivering government secrets to the enemy.
- 01:17
Let's check out the portion of the passage in question...
- 01:20
..."impressed with the necessity of making some provision for his family, was seriously
- 01:24
revolving in his mind a little commercial speculation of insuring his life next quarter-day,
- 01:29
and then falling from the top of the Monument by accident."
- 01:34
A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, but is still kinda true—that doesn't
- 01:42
apply here.
- 01:44
It's also not a personification of the Monument as a killer. It would be Mr. Nickleby doing
- 01:50
the killing, as he'd be throwing himself off the Monument.
- 01:55
You're not going to arrest Brutus' knife for the murder of Caesar, are you?
- 02:00
It's not a hyperbolic statement about the necessity of life insurance...
- 02:04
...life insurance is mentioned but it isn't the focus here.
- 02:07
It's the Nickleby's dire financial situation that's the star of the show.
- 02:11
And it's not a metaphor, because there's nothing here that stands for something else.
- 02:15
So it's got to be E, an understatement about committing suicide.
- 02:19
By comparing the casual consideration of committing suicide for insurance money to any other commercial speculation...
- 02:26
...the author is making an understatement about the gravity of such ponderings.
- 02:30
However, it's nothing compared to the gravity involved in throwing yourself off a monument.
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