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Playlist AP® English Language and Composition: Passage Drills 40 videos
AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill Drill 1, Problem 7. What is the principal rhetorical function of paragraphs one to three?
AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill 1, Problem 8. The quotation marks in the third paragraph chiefly serve to what?
In this AP Language and Composition drill question, read the provided passage and infer information based upon footnote two. AP Language and Com...
AP English Language and Composition 2.3 Passage Drill 236 Views
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Description:
AP English Language and Composition: Passage Drill 2, Problem 3. The subject of the passage can best be described as what?
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by bloodshed.
- 00:07
It's the creepy one right next to the woodshed. [ scream ]
- 00:12
All right, check out the following passage.
- 00:14
[ mumbles ]
Full Transcript
- 00:21
[ mumbling continues ]
- 00:30
You done? All right.
- 00:31
The subject of the passage can best be described as... what?
- 00:36
And here are the potential answers.
- 00:39
[ mumbles ]
- 00:41
Okay, well, here we go. So, what's this question asking?
- 00:44
Well, it wants to know about the subject of the entire passage.
- 00:48
Not one paragraph, not one line, the whole kit and caboodle.
- 00:51
Not really any shortcuts here. We kind of have to
- 00:53
read the whole thing from start to finish
- 00:55
and hopefully form some sense of what it's all about.
- 00:57
Let's start with A.
- 00:58
Is it about the precariousness of civil war?
- 01:02
Well, there's no doubt war can be described as precarious,
- 01:05
but it's pretty broad. This passage is referring specifically
- 01:08
to one king and one war
- 01:09
and doesn't seem to be making a commentary about war in general,
- 01:12
which would nix option B, too.
- 01:14
So it's gone. All right, what about C -
- 01:17
a revolt of secular followers against religious governments?
- 01:22
Huh. We didn't even get into the religion thing until
- 01:24
later in the passage, so it has to be more than that.
- 01:28
E - the origins of a historical lapse in diplomacy?
- 01:32
Well, it might be.
- 01:34
But the passage doesn't really place this event in
- 01:36
a historical perspective, so we can't be sure.
- 01:39
D is the best answer.
- 01:40
The difficulties facing the king at the start of the civil war.
- 01:44
Yeah, everything in the passage relates to that one:
- 01:47
botched negotiations, lazy and incompetent underlings,
- 01:50
a reputation as a dupe.
- 01:51
When you think about it,
- 01:52
it's kind of incredible the guy never ran for U.S. Congress.
- 01:57
[ applause ]
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