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ACT Reading 1.4 Prose Fiction
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ACT Reading Prose Fiction Drill 1, Problem 4. How does the narrator feel about the prediction made at his birth that he would have the ability...

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SAT Reading 3.2 Sentence Completion 700 Views


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Description:

SAT Reading Sentence Completion Drill 3, Problem 2

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour...

00:05

Which word could fill in the blank so that the sentence below makes sense?

00:08

John's friends were surprised by how little his breakup with Lisa seemed to affect him:

00:13

Despite the tumultuous nature of their relationship, he appeared almost blank after the split.

00:23

And here are the potential answers...

00:33

Yeah, so we're dealing with a relatively overstuffed sentence here.

00:36

But only one context clue truly matters: the fact that the breakup didn't affect John as

00:41

much as his friends probably worried it would. Since this sentence indicates that John didn't

00:47

spend his days spewing tears and making scenes in public places....

00:52

...we can break-up with most of these answers without too many tears of our own.

00:56

(A) doesn't work at all. If John didn't care about the break-up, he definitely wouldn't

00:59

be intense about it. (B) doesn't work either, because John wouldn't

01:03

be anxious about something he didn't care about.

01:06

"Burdensome" makes zero sense in this context, because it means something that's

01:10

heavy or worrisome in some way. "Attentive" means to pay special extra attention

01:17

to something, so it definitely doesn't work either.

01:19

Looks like "nonchalant" wins the day.

01:21

It totally makes sense, because the word means to be casual and uncaring about something.

01:30

So the answer is (C).

01:31

As in, "Could he care any less?"

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