ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Rhetoric Videos 90 videos
Thoreau was all about simplicity; anything that took away from his vision was the enemy. Mechanical aids were one of them. Guess he had to train a...
Thoreau wants our lives to be simplified. He claims that we gain less from life when we over-complicate things.
How does Thoreau feel about commerce? He writes, "We don't ride upon the railroad; it rides upon us." He wants and end to the war fighting for the...
SAT Reading 1.2 Passage Comparison 233 Views
Share It!
Description:
SAT Reading: Passage Comparison Drill 1, Problem 2
- Foreign Language / Spanish Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Chinese Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Korean Subtitled
- Foreign Language / Arabic Subtitled
- Rhetoric / Analyzing word choice
- Product Type / SAT Reading
- Literary Nonfiction / Syntax, Diction, Voice, Tone, Imagery
- Reading Assessment / Connections/Comparisons in Two Passages
- Rhetoric / Analyzing word choice
Transcript
- 00:04
Shmoop. A little shmoop'll do ya...
- 00:10
It's pause and review time. You know the drill.
- 00:20
Compared to the rest of the passage, the tone of the parenthetical statement in line 4 is
- 00:24
best described as...what?
- 00:27
And here are the potential answers...
Full Transcript
- 00:31
In case it wasn't mind-blisteringly obvious, a parenthetical statement is a statement that's...
- 00:35
surrounded by parentheses.
- 00:37
Sounds terrifying.
- 00:38
Anyway, this question isn't asking us if the tone of this particular parenthetical statement
- 00:43
is different from the tone of the rest of the passage—it's telling us that it is.
- 00:48
Now it's up to us to figure out how. The "rage" in "outraged" reminds us
- 00:54
that the word describes somebody who's ridiculously angry. Like this guy...
- 01:00
Now that's outrage.
- 01:02
Knowing this definition, we can nix (A). It's not like the author is angry about Al Gore
- 01:06
being Al Gore. Oh, look, here's our negative friend, the
- 01:11
prefix "un."
- 01:15
Whenever this guy is in front of a word, he negates it.
- 01:18
Therefore we know that "uncertain" translates to "not certain." All this lets us know
- 01:23
that choice (B) is no bueno.
- 01:25
The author's passage probably shouldn't be on the SAT if he's uncertain of who Al
- 01:30
Gore is. The parenthetical statement isn't showing
- 01:34
support for Al Gore, his ex-wife, or anybody else. Choice (D) is a no-go.
- 01:40
If the parenthetical statement was being harsh, that would mean it was doing some Al Gore
- 01:45
bashing. We bet the prefix, "un" would love that.
- 01:49
But that's not what's going on here, so (E) is off the list.
- 01:52
All righty then, looks like we're down to our last choice, which luckily makes total
- 01:56
sense.
- 01:57
Despite the subject matter, Passage 1 stays fairly matter-of-fact.
- 02:00
The parenthetical statement, however, sounds like something we might hear on the streets...
- 02:05
or at least in normal conversation.
- 02:07
So (C) is tour correct answer.
- 02:09
Can someone put a muzzle on that guy?
Related Videos
How does Thoreau feel about commerce? He writes, "We don't ride upon the railroad; it rides upon us." He wants and end to the war fighting for the...
Thoreau was all about simplicity; anything that took away from his vision was the enemy. Mechanical aids were one of them. Guess he had to train a...
How was the Beanie Baby era parallel to the Tulip Bubble? Similar events, only the TulipMania almost bankrupted Holland. Bean Babies only bankrupte...
Contemplating one's life is key to fulfilled happiness. Thoreau's theme revolves around the simple life well lived. He clearly never tried virtual...