ShmoopTube

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Lookin' for shmoop in all the wrong places...

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Pause and review -- you know the drill.

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In the context of the passage, what does the word "compass" in line 15 mean?

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And here are the potential answers...

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This question is testing to make sure we have a little basic common sense.

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So... you might want to unplug your laptop or get out of the bathtub before continuing.

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Let's look at the line in question, as well as the couple lines surrounding it:

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He told me "that sometimes, though very rarely, a child happened to be born in a family, with

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a red circular spot in the forehead, directly over the left eyebrow, which was an infallible

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mark that it should never die." The spot, as he described it, "was about the compass

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of a silver threepence, but in the course of time grew larger, and changed its colour.

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The key thing to notice here is what directly follows this comparison to a "silver threepence."

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It says that the spot then "grew larger"... and there's a "but" there...

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...so whatever "compass" means here, it must have something to do with size.

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So, that's it. That eliminates A, B and D.

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It's tempting to go with "direction," since we're dealing with the word "compass..."

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...but that choice is nothing more than a trap covered with some twigs and branches.

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Let's not fall into it.

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Between C and E... we kinda get the impression

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that E is playing on the "threepence" thing to persuade us to pick it...

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...like, we're going to be so blinded by the word "three" that we're going to

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carelessly stumble into choosing the wrong answer.

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But we're too smart for such silly tricks. So C it is.

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Anybody want to give this guy a hand?

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